Let me start off with a story. Last week I went to visions to get a a/v receiver, an Onkyo TXSR806 and a new T.V stand. After bying the receiver and finding the stand I liked the sales person offered to sell me a Monster Home Theater PowerCenter HTS 1000 MKIII for 200$ CND. I know when I say monster most people will cringe a bit and so do I. But I bought it.... Yes I did, I told the guy for 150$ even no Tax I would. He said sure, so that day I walked out with my receiver, T.V stand and my new shiny monster power protection.

Oh my friends the story is not over yet. So that day I set up my T.V stand and unpack my reciver and get all the wires set up for when I order my Epic 60 - 500 ( Was getting the Epic Grand Master - 500 but them M60's looked to good, also ordering at end of month wife making me still wait) anyway I get it all ready but I did not plug in the monster yet b/c I did not have speakers so I did not need to plug in the receiver. Well a few days later I could not wait and unpacked some old speakers I had in the basement. Now I thought was the best time to test out the monster. Now trying to get the thing out of the plastic is hard, no I'm not a stick boy but man it took me 5 minutes to cut it open and get the thing out.

So I unplug my old Tripplite and put the monster in its place. I plug it in all is good the thing turns on it reads out 120. Did I forget to say its shiny, I like shiny things. First I plug in my HTPC all looks good then I plug in my receiver that is when I get finly see the greatness that is monster. It shuts off, just click off. the stupid thing does not work, first I think its the outlet so I plug it in the other side of the room, nothing won't even power up. So I get mad and plug in my old tripplite and everything works fine.

I have never bought monster before and I will not make the same mistake again.

Anyway what I would like to know is what kind of power protection do you use in your system. I was thinking of ordering an Berkin pureAV Power Console PF31 for 188$ CND. Has anyone used this before? I only want to spend under 200$ CND.

Thanks again for you help.

Several of us have everything running through either a Belkin PureAV PF60, a Belkin PureAV™ Home Theater Battery Backup with AVR Technology, or both. You can disregard those prices you see on the Belkin website. These products can usually be found, online, for around 1/3 (the PF60) to 1/2 (the battery backup) those prices

Hey man, nice shot!

Hi Rage96,

To bring a note of sobriety to this thread (I, too, can get drunk on shiny things--the Belkin devices are very pretty!), I'd point out that all consumer electronic products (AV receivers, amplifiers, DVD players, TVs, etc) have their own power supplies that do all the necessary filtering and "conditioning" of AC from the wall outlet. In normal urban areas, no outboard devices are needed.

If you do live in the boonies where you get frequent power outages or surges from local lightning strikes, then there is a case to be made for using one, but otherwise, these devices are quite unnecessary, yet another profit center, like exotic speaker cables, for the big box stores and their suppliers to increase their profit.

Regards,

Alan

The power conditioners, cables, extended warranties and any other accessories those salesman try to push on you after purchasing your t.v or other av equipment have the largest profit margins and those are the items they make their sales commision on. How about a $40 Monster screen cleaner for your LCD.

Talking about storms, it just got very dark and we are about to get hit with a very bad rain/thunder/lightning storm. Very common where I live. I do not even use a power condition. My equipment is on a surge protector though but I doubt that would do anything with a bad lightning strike. I just unplug the devices from the outlet if possible during really bad storms.

Thanks everyone for your input, the power where I live (Regina, Sask) is good but my house is from 1926 and it still has its cloth lined power wires in the basement. I think I will get the PF31 I can only find the 60 for around 250$ CND

R96, the phrasing of your question seems to suggest that this is something we should be buying routinely. On the contrary, as Alan points out, the power supply sections of competently designed AV equipment condition the AC from the wall socket into clean DC for the amplification section to use. No additional "conditioning" is needed, despite the BS-laden claims of some sellers to the contrary.

As to protection from surges, again the power supply sections handle moderately high surges routinely. There may be some occasion on which a surge protector(say about $20)might be of benefit on surges which couldn't be handled routinely but yet weren't so powerful(e.g., a near-direct lightning strike)as to make any protection useless. I use nothing of this sort either and as I've told my good friend Jack(Ajax)to his delight, if a lightning strike destroyed my equipment I'd view it as simply being God's way of telling me that it's time to upgrade.

Although most of the logic here i would agree with, this particular point i do not.
We had a quick brown out last week and 3 capacitors on my video card blew. That video card is sitting behind a stand alone power supply of quality and behind a Tripplite surge protector (not a UPS).
Now i'm out $250 to replace the card because the deductible on house insurance would logically require i lose at least $1000 in equipment before making any claim is of any gain to me.
Deductibles vary but ours happens to be $500.

Sometimes a little protection is worth the effort and cost. In my case, it didn't help much of anything last week, though i have blown out a surge protector in the past from a brown out and the computer was perfectly fine.
I think i'll be switching to a UPS for the home computer in the least in the near future.

I agree. My apartment complex in the heart of and urban area had brownouts weekly and blackouts bi-weekly. And that’s not counting the weather related power outages during the monsoon season. I can’t say that my Tripplite actually saved any of my equipment but in 5 years there the only thing I ever lost was the Buttkicker amp which was promptly replaced under warranty. Though it may have been a false sense of security it did give me some.

Plus when the complex changed cable providers and I developed a ground loop hum routing the satellite’s coax through the jack on the Tripplite got rid of the hum.

What can I say? I'm a hell of a photographer!!!!!

For the uninitiated, that gorgeous photo above was taken by Mark, who is a terrific professional photographer. Below, you will witness my photographic skills when snapping the same subject. I was using this photo until Mark had to post his photo and embarrass the hell outa me. I'm so humiliated!!!



(Just to avoid any misunderstanding, the above is all in jest! I admire and respect Mark's skills and am very fond of him personally)

Credit not needed, Jack... just giving you a hard time.

I live in a rural area and have lots of power problems so a UPS is just about a must have. I am using the Belkin unit on my
TV but have not been too pleased with it. It does what it is supposed to but it runs a little warm and has a low transformer hum coming from it. I don't think the batteries are replaceable either. I think the next one I get will be from APC which I have used on my computers for years. Unfortunately APC tends to be rather expensive.

What APC UPS have you had the greatest success with? I want to get one for my computer because it's a pain in the butt when I'm bedridden and the power goes out, thenceforth shutting my computer off and I end up staring at the ceiling.

If I understand correctly, some UPS's don't "kick in" fast enough when the power goes out, to keep a computer constantly running.

Odd thing is, I believe my previous computer would turn back on after the power went out (not positive though), but my new one doesn't.

I would recommend the Smart-UPS line. They're more expensive, but they're quite reliable, as long as you get the right size.

Thanks Ken, I'll check them out.

Edit-Wow, expensive is right!

Ewwww.

They're for your COMPUTER!