Thoughts? What should I be looking for? I want something quality that will stand inline between a surge (as well as clean my power) and my equipment, including HD TV, Cable Box, Xbox 360, PS3, Amp. I thought I would ask what everyone around here uses/suggests. I've started doing some reading on AVSForum, reviews on NewEgg, Amazon, etc.
real power conditioning can only be done with a transformer and a good TVSS/MOV setup. unfortunately my experience is only for industrial power conditioning
right. Anything that claims to condition or remove noise that doesn't have a transformer isn't something that has actual capacity to do it. my brother in law just got this for his Arcam amp. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_299750...ENDORID299&ssi=0&searchdisplay=Panamax&tp=568
http://www.emerson.com/sites/Networ...s/Liebert_Series_610.aspx?8109C=United States kinds of things I deal with
Well I considered a whole house and also an application specific setup. Of course I have a budget, but I'd rather pay what I have to pay to get something that really will do its job. I've been looking at Belkin (bottom of the pricing), APC (not sure if I want battery backup as the power rarely goes out in my house), all the way up to Panamax. I read up on some of the Monster ones but was unimpressed, although they do look nice.
i have a panamax line conditioner that i love. its big, but it does its job. you can tell a little difference in picture noise especially if you run your cable thru it. unfortunately, when i had satellite i could never get the satellite signal to go thru it. i'd recommend panamax any day over a monster version tho. having sold them both in the past, i cant tell you how many people just returned their monster conditioners and bought plain old surge protectors
Well, yes and no. You have a great point. Currently it would protecting: My 31" Panasonic HDTV PS3 XBox 360 DRV Box Speakers/Amp In the next few months I will be purchasing a new tv, new amp and new speaker setup. I am also having U-Verse installed next weekend and will want to include that new equipment as well. Once that is taken care of, I would imagine I'd be looking to protect equipment valued in the neighborhood of a couple thousand.
I use a Monster product. I know they get a lot of grief about being a marketing company but I've been happy with the protection their device provides my stuff in electrical storms.
I've had my eye on Panamax for a long while...need to pull the trigger. Check out Emotiva for amps. http://emotiva.com/xpa5.shtm I have the XPA-5 and love it! I think I paid $699 with free shipping two Christmas' ago. Their UPA line is cheaper and still very nice.
I have both Belkin and Monster surge protectors (they both claim to condition as well), but I know in reality they are nothing more then a speed bump to a real surge. Anybody have any experience with a whole house surge protector/power conditioner?
jealous, been looking at picking up a UPA-5 or 7 for a long time. I use a behringer EP2500 for my sub amp. bkiller: can you quantify your results? it has probably never even took a hit. I have a big sign on my front lawn that says BEAR REPELLANT. haven't seen any bears, so it's working pretty damn well. only cost me $5,000 too!
for most people a good whole house surge protector is best value. For geeks who want line conditioning, usually i've found you have "the best" and then you have "everything else." The difference being that no matter what you pay, everything else is so close together in quality and results that theres no point. -1 on Monster also. My brother in law got the Arcam because a Monster failed to protect a Pioneer Elite. Hey Nicad, you think that XPA-5 can really drive 1500 on a standard house outlet?
just depends on the current draw. assuming 120V @ 15A you can pull 1800VA, then subtract out the 20% for the breaker trip so it has 1440VA available before the thermal protection on the breaker. they have the transformer size listed @ 1200VA, so yeah you should be able to drive that thing full bore on a dedicated 15A circuit. if it was me, I'd just run 240V to it and call it a day edit: just checked and the manual confirms my numbers
I run it on a standard outlet with other devices plugged into the circuit. It never trips the breaker and I play it really loud when the family is away. When I finish my basement I plan to give the amp a dedicated circuit.
Nicad, While I can't "verify" my results. I can say that we have a crap load of electrical storms at my house and nothing has ever burned up. Good enough for me so far. Besides, anything is better than just plugging into a wall outlet!
our whole house surge got hit and the lightning still took out one side of the house. i know some people whose house got hit with a whole house surge and it still fried every last appliance and tv in their house> not sure they are what they claim. then again could just be the contractor grade ones. then again in both of those cases everything that was damaged was replaced/paid for.
Not much you can do if its a direct strike. We took a direct hit to the shop and it blew the tail lights off our truck, fried the outlets, torched the router, blew up the router power adapter and shot the cap 20 feet from the outlet. It then proceeded to travel down 1000ft of cat5 cable and blow up the phone box, killed the DSL, etc. Tripped the main breaker of course.
whole house doesn't always cover phone lines and cable lines. that being said, Alex is right. Lighting directly using your house wiring is not something most devices can dissipate fast enough.