Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater MONSTER HT3500 OR 3600??

What do you guys think about those Monster filters that go for 300-700 bucks?? They look cool too!

Franco, I agree that they look cool, but you said "too". What else do they do? Any correctly-engineered amps and other equipment are designed to handle RF, line spikes and other power line situations. Plug your equipment right into the wall and save your money for something that makes a difference.

I wouldn't buy one of those things (I have this thing against buying anything Monster, or anything without a large, large battery that costs more than $300), but I wouldn't "plug your equipment right into the wall." I'd use a decent ($15-$20) surge protector at least, and I'm planning on getting a line conditioner (same one as Saturn). I don't care how well the equipment is designed, lightning is still going to take it out without some kind of protection. Also, large power spikes can happen, and I'd rather not stress out my power supply. $20 or $200, it's still a lower cost than replacing my equipment.

Damn, those do look sweet. But I'd rather have Rotel separates or an old Marantz power amp, if we're going off of looks.

I've read multiple separate reports of the incidences in which people installed a Monster line filter in hope of reducing the AC-line interference they were getting and the filter actually exacerbated the situation.

I do agree kcarlile and sushi. K, you are right. I read somewhere on this board that a power surge fried their Pioneere Elite receiver and they even had some kind of cheap surge protector. As for Sushi, I did some research on these things and I read a post where someone had purchased a monster filter and ended up getting some kind of noise when they used it through video or something of that nature. The thing that is convincing about the filter is that when i went to Tweeter the guy showed me how the filter worked. He plug this gauge into the wall outlet ,the gauge had some kind of built in speaker thing . The gauge was from monster, i couldn't believe the sound of static coming out of the wall. He then pluged it into the filter and it was almost completely silent! Another thing is that I just redid my room for surround and needed to buy speaker wire. I went to circuit city and spent about $65.00 on monster wire 14 gauge shielded stuff! I had to think about it for 20 minutes before I spent my hard earned cash on wire! Well, I did buy it and I didn't here a damn difference! Then I did a search on speaker wire not too long ago in this forum and found that the home depot stuff is just as good for prolly half the price. Man I was pissed! Sorry for the novel had to let off steam!

Yeah, it bites to fall for the snake oil. I almost went out and got that stuff (I figured it was relatively cheap, in my less lucid, less Monster-hating moments), but I went for the old "$65 worth of cable is $65 I won't have to spend on media for my system."

Franco, you had reason to be upset about the Monster speaker wire; speaker wire isn't shielded. As for lightning strikes, a surge protector isn't going to help much. This might be God's way of saying that it's time to upgrade.

Up grade my speaker wire? I am still waiting for my new Denon AVR-1803 to come in, I can't wait!!

IMHO, a sign from God telling me to upgrade is a large deposit in my bank account from a Mr. Yeshuah ben Yaweh with a personal note telling me it's time to get Revels and some really nice separates with blue lights and gauges. Oh yeah, that and get a new freakin' house with decent wiring to put it all in.

A power surge that I allow to destroy my equipment (be it from lightning, and unstable power grid, or bad wiring) is something I would interpret as God saying "Buy power protection next time, dummy!"

I have a monster surge protector that I plug all my gear into, and I am happy with it. It got rid of my sub woofer hum problem that irrated the hell out of me. I don't know the model number off hand but it was only 100 bucks or so. It also comes with a garuntee saying that they (Monster) will pay me 'X' amount of money if it fails to protect my system. I'm not a Monster fan by any means, they make good "basic" cables but charge to much compared to other brands.

I have ordered one to test with, because I have problems when I turn the stereo up loud. My lights dim when bass hits. I know that my equipment is good, so I'm going to try a Monster HTS5000, and then put everything on an UPS to test also. I will let you know when everything shows up.

By the way, I found the HTS5000 for $395 at http://www.provantage.com/scripts/go.dll/-s//fp_80989

Axiom m80's, qs-8, vp-150
Rotel RSP1066
Rotel RMB1075

Ralderman, I cannot find that hts5000 anywhere on that provantage site. What did you look under to find that? Do they have the lower end ones as well, like thw hts3600?

But Ken, remember that you'll probably experience a direct lightning strike only once during your lifetime. After that, you'll have nothing to worry about.

So, Ken, you should pray it happens now before you really invest in some expensive equipment.

Right. I'll just have a little chitchat with the big guy upstairs about exactly when to destroy all of my property.

Peter, I guess my feeble attempt at dark humor was a bit too obscure, but after Ken experienced a direct lightning strike, he'd REALLY have nothing more to worry about.

Franco
Go to Http://www.provantage.com, and on the right hand side there is a Quickfind search. Type in Monster hts 5000, it will find a Home theater power center section. click on that and browse down about 5 items. I didn't find the 3500 or 3600 anywhere.

Rick

I understand that you can protect your equipment from large power spikes using appropriate surge protectors. But I can't see how any of these equipment could give protection from direct lightning strikes. Lightning could jump several feet while these protectors have a clearance of several mm's. Still the best lightning protection would be to unplug your electronics during thunder storms.

Oh, all right, I give up. Many of the higher end surge protectors, etc. claim to protect you from lightning. I suppose I shouldn't believe them. However, I still contend that it's a really, really bad idea just to plug things into the wall. An amplifier should amplify, not protect from power spikes.

Better safe than sorry, right?

Let's just for the moment assume that a surge protector doesn't give your home theater equipment any protection that isn't already built into it.

Let's then assume that you plug your equipment directly into the wall. Now, assume that a sizable surge comes along your lines and blows the fuse on your amp/receiver. If you're like most people, you don't have a spare fuse on hand and will have to trek down to your local Rat Shack to buy a replacement.

Isn't it worth having a surge protector just to save you from having to come face-to-face with a Radio Shack employee? I swear most of those guys are picked up directly after being fired or rejected from Circuit City or Good Guys.

This is what I use ... Rackmount LCR 2400

http://www.tripplite.com/products/conditioners/index.cfm

It is way cheaper than Monster products and offer a little more. I will not comment on how good this product for fear of flame. All I know is that nothing dims anymore when I turn on my equipment. If someone really juices up the circuit (like fiancee plugging in the vacuum) I do not get the very quick off/on/off/on thing happening to all the equipment plug into the living room. It either works fine and dandy or just trips the Switch box and turns off all the circuit.

If you have a dedicated curcuit for your HT I doubt you will even need it.

Saturn

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for/at. Whenever I turn on my receiver, all the house lights flicker. I don't even want to think about what happens to the receiver when the vacuum gets plugged in.

I have the tower version of this line conditioner and use it with the computer system I use for my business. I can't say for sure if it has prevented any damage, but it is definitely working hard. Its status lights indicate incoming voltage, and you can hear it click when it makes a correction. Both lights and sound indicate frequent activity. In fact, based on this observation, my electrician feels that I probably need a new service into my home (all internal wiring was replaced several years ago, and so was the drop from the street, so that leaves just the service as a possible culprit).

Surge protectors can't correct voltage variations like this (only massive surges), but my understanding is that over time they can be quite damaging. I don't think I'd go to this length for entertainment equipment which can be easily replaced, but it seems very appropriate for the computer. I consider it another form of data protection (though of course no substitute for careful system maintenance and frequent backups).

Oh, for the computer I'd definitely use a good quality UPS (APC Smart-UPS, for example), not a line conditioner. You get all the benefits of the line conditioner plus blackout protection. However, for home entertainment, I'd still rather spend $200 now than $1000-2000 to replace it all. BTW, what tower version is this? Does it have 12 outlets or 6?

Unfortunately, it only has six outlets. I could use more. I didn't go with a UPS because I'm not very worried about power interruption. It happens very rarely here, and I would never lose more than a few minutes of data. UPS prices have come down alot , though (and Mac OS X suppot has arrived), so I should probably reconsider.

Do you think a good UPS offers the same quality of voltage protection as a standalone line conditioner? I was led to believe UPS units did not excel in this area, another reason for the line conditioner. If the UPS would be as capable, I'd consider getting one for the most vital computer equipment and moving the line conditioner to the AV area as you suggest.