[spud357c]

I'm in the market for a new surge protector/power cleaner for my Toshiba DLP and have been comparing Monster, Belkin, Tripp-Lite etc. paying particular attention to their noise filtering capabilities with respect to "dirty power".
All of the other manufacturers clearly state in Db's the filtering ability of their surge protectors for filtering EMI/RFI interference/noise while all Monster does is talk about their "great" noise filtering but don't give spec's in terms of Db's and repeated e-mails to their customer support department requesting this information remain unanswered.
Can't understand their failure to provide this simple information unless their products don't stack up to the competition.

 

[Mole]

I would use that as a sign to drop them from my list.

 

[57]

Mon$ter is a marketing company. They use technical doublspeak to lure unsuspecting people to spend huge amounts of money for something that could be bought for significantly less elsewhere.

They utilize their retailers to good effect and both retailer and Mon$ter have huge profits from this.

Their products are usually "good", just not "worth it" (unless you can buy their stuff for 1/2 price or less - even then, supporting another product would be a better alternative than "feeding" the Mon$ter.)

See also:

Bo$e
Terk

 

[Zoo]

I agree with 57 on this one. Look into other reputable manufacturers for your needs. I find that their product quality has slipped in the last decade.


Zoo

 

[spud357c]

Monster has already been dropped from my list - any company that doesn't respond to customer inquiries is one to AVOID !!!
I'm looking between a Belkin and an APC - anyone have any thoughts on them ?

 

[RRH]

I am Using an APC 1000VA on my home theater, and a 500va
on my pc, never had a issue with either and I am sure they have saved my
bacon a couple of times now Just 2 days ago actually. Guy hit a hydro pole just down the street shorted out the transformer on the street.
Its a no brainer really $130 for battery backup and piece of mind
or $400 for a new Lamp. I recommend this route for anyone using a HP Lamp system of any kind.

 

[bgclarke]

Both Belkin and APC make very good quality products.

APCs background is in UPS units, so I would imagine they would make great surge protectors with EMI/RFI filters.

 

[johnp'in'bc]

I hope you haven't totally dismissed considering 'Tripp-Lite' products -- especially their 'Isobar' Surge Suppressors. These units have good spec's, and a quality of construction that IMHO, for the price, can't be beat. I've employed Isobars in most of my stereo and tv setups over the years (and still do), and most recently, in my home-theatre setup. I also use one, along with one of their 'Line Conditioners' in my pc setup. I have never had any power-related problems -- so from my personal expereince, they work.
www.tripplite.com/worldwide/home.cfm?CountryID=21&Voltage=1

p.s. an APC UPS "saved the day" for my pc setup as well -- several times when I lived in Nfld.

 

[ctown6412]

I personally would not discount Monster as a very viable option! I say this for serveral reasons
1. I have tried apc es500 and APC 1000VA which are great batterback up alternative, but they simply do not filter emi resonably as they are designed for computer applications and NOT home theater. I found video artifacts pretty bad and i would even go so far as to say that in my situation the es500 actually introduced electrical noise into my sound system.

2. I am a current Monster powercenter 3500 user and can say 100% that IT DID SIGNIFICANLY IMPROVED MY VIDEO QUALITY. I run a 100" projection system so video artifacts are a big issue for me. I think having the voltage conditioner along with 3 stage power filtering does help a great amount. Out of curiosity i took my 3500 apart and found that monster does indeed have separate power paths for the differnent applications with different components for each path.

3.depending on what you really want/need. If you want just surge suppression, just get a powerbar. but if you want to get into "clean power" Monster units can be found for fantastic prices ebay. I bought my 3500 used and ended up paying just $250can after shipping,duties,taxes etc. It retails at the "big electonics stores' for almost $700. (if you are unsure, just go to bestbuy or fs and buy one, try it out and if you like it or not return it then buy one online!

Just an opinion, but thought I would share hands on experience that I have.

Forgot to mention that out of most every power conditioner the monster referecne series have the least amount of insertion signal loss when using the rf filtering too

 

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

Monster does is talk about their "great" noise filtering but don't give spec's in terms of Db's and repeated e-mails to their customer support department requesting this information remain unanswered.

Kind of gives you the impression that they cannot backup their technical doublespeak and ridiculous claims. You can do just as well for less with Tripp Lite Isobar products. You can do better with Tripp Lite hospital grade power conditioning isolation transformers.

And how about those $40 Monster cable TV splitters? Maybe someone should ask Rogers how they get just as good results with $3.50 versions.

 

[sleemo]

I bought an APC Line-R 1200VA Automatic Voltage Regulator for my HT.

 

[DanTou]

Anyone cares to tell me what the difference is between computer and consumer electronics thes days???

Because, once opened, they look pretty similar to me.

To me, if a UPS is good enough for a computer, it is also good enough for consumer electronics. And, you usually get a warranty (insurance).

UPS proctects from power failure, spikes and brown-outs. This is much better than nothing. It protects from the big problems: fan not cooling down the TV, missed recordings, damaging surges, power drops, ...

I'm no engineer but, if I'm right, all AC current has to go throught an AC-DC converter because all electronics runs on DC power. All the Mon$ter talk about sinewave, voltage, and other, is taken care by the AC/DC conversion. It's like charging a battery and then powering the electonics with the battery: the DC power is perfect even if the AC is not. There is no sinewave on DC power: it's like a battery, it's always there. If it wasn't perfect, the TV would reboot, shut off or something. There are digital parts in a TV like in a computer: if a computer has a single error in an instruction, you know it, same with the TV.

As a last note about Mon$ter, they make anyone believe you need one inch thick cables to run your equipment... The cables in my computer are pretty thin, and my computer works fine. If they can lie about cables, they can lie about the rest (which is more complicated than a cable). If Mon$ter made TVs, they'd be huge!

 

[57]

DanTou, be aware that there are differences in the power output (sine wave) on various UPS and it's not only Mon$ter. This is for when the UPS is operating on battery power. Apparently some units offer "cleaner" power (on battery) than others.

The "home theater" units, offered by several suppliers all have sine-wave power and also cost a lot more than the cheaper, computer units.

BTW, I use the "cheaper" ones, but that's just me. I figure by supplying a UPS at all, I've done more than 99% of the population.

 

[DanTou]

Oops... My bad. I wrote without thinking.

Anyway, bad power (brownout, spike, power failure, ...) enters the UPS which in turn gets proper AC out (sinwave or not).

The TV's AC/DC converter converts the AC power to DC. All the electronic sees, is the DC power which has no wave. If the voltage or something else varies, it's not the fault of the UPS: it's the fault of the TV'S AC/DC converter.

The only thing in a TV that could be damaged by the "square wave" coming out of the UPS, is the power supply (AD/DC converter). The AC/DC converter is exacly the same thing as the one in a computer, and if it breaks, it is probably easy and cheap to fix.

So nobody should pay hundreds of dollar for mon$ter equipment to protect something worth $50 to $100 to repair. In any cases, anybody ever had that problem?

By the way, if the AC/DC converter in a multi-thousand dollar TV is worse than the $50 converter in a PC because it can't handle the UPS (and the computer can), there is something really wrong here.

Like I said before, I'm no engineer, but I don't think I'm dumb either. Or maybe I am!

 

[Lord Xcalibur]

Experience with "cheaper" UPS?

57, have you had any issues when using the "cheaper" UPS?

One user on another thread reported that they hear a hum on their TV... but I have zero need to actually leave the TV powered on via UPS. My only intention is for emergency backup.

My real question would be: how do you hook your system up?

I intended to plug in my Sony KFE42A10 and Shaw PVR into a cheaper APC UPS device instead of the surge protector that they are currently hooked into. Considering that my current surge protector is the "basic" monster model with zero line conditioning or fancy stuff and the TV looks great, I don't see how using the UPS device as a surge protector with a potential disaster prevention measure would be an issue. Going along with what DanTou said, I don't see how a square sine wave would compromise the ability for a TV to receive basic power for the fan to run.

Thoughts?

 

[57]

I have 3 UPS in the house.

The first one I bought many years ago was an APC Back-UPS 350. It was fine for the computer I had at the time.

Grand and Toy had the APC Back-UPS 500 on sale for about $100 a few years back and I bought one which was sufficient for the computer at the time and I moved the 350 to my "Stereo" equipment.

When I bought my Mac G5, I needed more UPS Wattage, so I bought an APC XS 1000 for $150. The 500 went to the Stereo/STB and the 350 went to the TV.

I have not had any issues.

 

[lionmonty]

check out the panamax, or if the price fits for you check out the chang or the ps audio