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Anonymous | anyone have any experience with these? im looking at picking one up, monsters site has "user reviews" that seem fake and made up, basically saying there the best thing since sliced bread. anyone have some 1st hand experience with these? the 3500 is $399, a expensive surge supressor!! im more intrested in its audio/video benifits, the powerbar 1100 is only $199, worth it to spend the extra money on the $399 powercenter 3500? |
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New member Username: SerickPost Number: 8 Registered: 12-2003 | Here is some info on Surge suppressors that I copied from AVSForum. Based upon this entry, I will probably opt for a series mode surge suppressor. It is interesting reading... Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV) surge suppressors MOV's are used in products sold by Monster, APC, Walmart, Radio Shack and nearly every other surge suppressor and UPS on the market. MOV's have three features you need to know about : 1. They all have a finite clamping speed, some of the surge gets through before the rest is shunted to ground. Your "protected" equipment takes a constant series of mini-spikes. Nothing you'll notice, nothing to invoke the $5MM equipment replacement warranty, but not good for delicate circuits either. 2. MOV's work by shunting excess voltage to ground, which contaminates the ground of all circuits that share the same ground. Electrical grunge and screwed up voltage for the whole system. 3. MOV's are all designed to fail. They are a consumable. Every spike they shunt, whether large or small, degrades them. That's what "joules ratings" are for, they indicate how many joules the MOV can shunt before failing. Once an MOV fails, and they all will, they provide no more protection. Zero. If your unit doesn't have some kind of warning indicator (most don't, unfortunately) you'll find out when the next spike comes through and fries your equipment. UPDATE: a few lucky users will find out immediately when their MOV takes its final hit, since they've been known to ignite. That's right, a fire in your HT rack! To be honest, this is fairly rare... feel better? Not interested in MOV-based "protection"? Keep reading. Series Mode (SM) surge suppressors These were originally designed for the Dept. of Defense, which wasn't happy with the limitations of MOV-based protectors. They are far more reliable and robust than MOV's: 1. SM suppressors have virtually instantaneous reaction speed, nothing gets through above the threshold. 2. Excess voltage is never shunted to ground where it can contaminate the system. When a spike comes in the SM device just opens the circuit. No circuit, no surge. 3. A SM suppressor will probably not wear out in your lifetime. They are not designed-to-fail consumables. SM surge suppressors have no joules ratings because, realistically speaking, they have no capacity limits. There is no practical way to measure the total joules these devices can handle. It would be like trying to measure the amount of water you can pour into a bottomless cup. For more details about SM surge suppressors: http://www.digitaltechonline.com/surgeprotect.asp AFAIK, they are available from just four commercial sources. Compared with the value of your equipment they're not very expensive. I have one on the dedicated circuit that runs my entire HT setup. Cost me about $250 plus an electrician to wire it in. If you prefer a unit that you can just plug into the wall, or even a whole-house unit, they make those too. Sources for SM surge suppressors: ZeroSurge (the inventor of the technology) BrickWall (good value and a sponsor of this forum) Surgex (wall-based units like mine) Adcom (audio components with SM protection) NOTE: your coax lines (cable/sat/antenna) are also pathways for electrical surges. No matter how well-protected your AC lines are, a nearby lightning strike could reach any equipment connected, directly or indirectly, to these other paths. The Adcom units linked above already include coax protection of a kind similar to the units described below. If you chose a ZeroSurge, Brickwall or Surgex you should get one of the following... AVSForum member jkhome found a $5 coax surge suppressor. Like an MOV, this device apparently takes a limited number of hits before dying but, here's the key, when it does reach its limit it stops passing signal. This is the opposite of what MOV's do, and is much safer for your equipment. Product details are at: Surgender coax surge suppressor Video321 adds that, "Radio Shack has an add-on coax surge protector for $10. The model # is 15-1110. The surge life is 5x that of the Surgender and also lists a frequency range of 5 to 2050MHz." Either of these seems like a good investment if you choose a SM line protector other than an Adcom. Disclaimer: I don't have trouble changing light bulbs, but I am not an electrician or electrically qualified in any way. The above is based on a lot of careful research when looking for my own surge protection devices. __________________ SURGE PROTECTION BASICS "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien, Book I, Chapter 3 |
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Anonymous | im also want the "line conditioning" that they do though. if it was to go out in 5-10 years, monster supposadly gaurentee's there stuff forever, as long as its not because of abuse. i just purchased a new system, which consists of a yamaha 5650, 2 jbl ND310II's and there surround package "SCS160SI". im using a higher end Toshiba dvd player hooked up through a top line monster optical cable (200 series, $60 for 1m) these towers have 2 10's, a mid and tweeter, the yamaha reciever uses "discrete amplification" and is supposed to be a pretty clean amp (.06%thd) but the bass doesn't sound as clean and full as it should, nore does the treble. they sounded MUCH better in the store running of a CD (ive tried a few cd's). I plan on upgrading my speaker wire, someone told me about diy cat5 speaker wire, but it was also highly recommended that i get a powercenter because my power is so dirty, its ruining my picture and sound. i like alot of mid/low bass, and loud, which is why i got these speakers over the klipsch (the 2 10's sounded awesome in the store, much fuller than klipsch), but i just can't turn it up to what i know its capable of. any suggestions? |
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Fab 5 Unregistered guest | I do like the monster brand, but i've been told and also think alike that even the cheaper Acoustic Research brand is just as good or better. It has to do with the "Joles" <s>? rating. The higher the number, the better. A/R is about half price with more Joles. |