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.