What is the general consensus here (if there is one) about buying dedicated power conditioners for the HT setup? I've got a decent surge protector now but am wondering with the added investment in equipment (total value probably around ~10k) if something more robust is necessary.

I've read lots of opinions that power conditioners are a waste of money, and others stating that they are the holy grail of sonic and visual purity... A viewpoint from Axiom owners would be great. For those of you who swear by them, recommendations are appreciated. This would be for use with a DirecTV HD-DVR, PS3, Denon3808, Wii, and maybe a few other things in the future. The projector is on a distant separate outlet so it wouldn't be going through the conditioner.

Probably not necessary. I use a (relatively cheap) computer UPS in my system, just to protect my TiVo. I wouldn't worry about the conditioning side of things.

And I certainly would not pay for dedicated AV power conditioning, such as BrickWall. That stuff's a total rip; an 11 on the Monster Cable scale.

I use the Belkin PureAV PF60 as do several other board members.
I seriously doubt if it has any impact on audio or video, but it is a very convenient and nice looking device to use when you have many components to hook up.

I'm not really sure what benefit I'd get with conditioned power either. I tend to just want my stuff plugged into something that'll protect it from a random surge. Usually the guys trying to tell you about conditioned power also really like the B.S. $10,000 speaker cables.

The bulk of my equipment is plugged in to an $80 APC surge protector.

My ep500 is on a seperate outlet plugged into a $9 surge protector.

You will find both sides of the issue discussed on this forum as well. I have a dedicated 20amp breaker just for my HT stuff. I also use a Tripplite HTPowerbar10 which has great surge protection and isolated banks for no cross talk.

Like Homedad, I use a Belkin setup. I never would have paid full price for it, but for the hugely discounted price I paid it was worth it to me for component protection, convenience of switching on the whole system when the receiver is powered up, and yes, the looks. I further added a UPS unit to protect my DVRs from missing recordings during blackouts and for giving my DLP time to run it's fan for the two minutes it would do during a normal shutdown.

I never made any assumptions about improving sound or picture quality, and it's my thought that they're not helpful in that regard unless someone is having some serious ground loop or "kids using the blow dryer" A/C noise....

How much did you get yours discounted for? Aren't the pictured ones like 500 or 600 bucks?

If I remember correctly, the power conditioning unit (on the bottom) was $129 and the UPS unit on top was $115 or so....

I got them from eCost.com.... The prices seem to fluctuate quite a bit on these units....

What pictures are you referring to? I don't see any when I read through the thread.

I meant Mark's picture of the PURE AV stuff.

Never mind, they're back now.

Mark, how does the auto-switching work to turn everything on at once? If it works the way I'm imagining it, I don't think it would actually turn on my components just because power was suddenly available to them. For example... my CD player won't turn on just because there is now power to it, though it definitely will turn off if power is cut.

I was thinking most people would use a remote macro to bring things up and shut them down as opposed to having the conditioner do it all, but this is all new to me, so please explain how you use it.

Thanks!

The auto switching works well if you have a device such as an amplifier that has no remote, that way when you turn your receiver on the amp will come on also.
Keep in mind you need a switched outlet on the receiver also, I believe most do have them.

Thanks HomeDad. For things like cable boxes, etc. then, this auto-switching is probably less useful, since they need to have a power-on command sent to them separately?

i have the belkin pf60 too, although not hooked up yet. my HT is still under construction. i picked mine up from buy.com for $215 shipped, which is way less then MSRP. just an fyi. later.