What could be better than a home entertainment accessory that makes all of your video look better and your existing fine music system sound clearer? Only one that saves me $25 per month in power costs.
I live in Texas in a small town, where the incoming power is not particularly clean or reliable, and I began to suspect it was both threatening my equipment and interfering with its optimal operation. On a clear day with nothing particularly going on, I was regularly getting surges or sags which would turn some household appliances off, so being worried about my investment, I bought one of these.
SETUP: It's "sturdy", so having two people is not required, but an advantage. The main things (which most of us have already done) is identifying which power cords go to which equipment.
It is very easy to set up, and using bright LEDs gives you good indication that everything is fine with the way your outlet is wired. The power cable going into the wall outlet is huge, and is the same one Moster Power sells for a couple of hundred bucks. The display is simple and gives you a contiuous input voltage reading. I found nominal 120 is more likely to be 113 to 115 at my house. Construction is absolutely rock solid. It can be programmed to turn off various circuits with a selectable delay, so I have all my peripherals turn off, followed two seconds later by my A/V receiver. Phone lines and satellite or cable connectors all run through it, so your valuable A/V equipment will be insullated as well as possible from the outside world. Total setup time is about 20-30 minutes. You can set any circuit (such as a satellite TV receiver) to "always on".
LISTENING and WATCHING: Now, I love video, but I am first and foremost a stereophile. After getting everything connected through it, I and my wife sat down to listen to some LPs and to some SACDs. After all, what good is protection if it makes your music sound worse? We were amazed at the way the stereo image opened up on good jazz or orchestral recordings, and we were able to distinguish instruments that had been obscure before. As for video, we immediately noticed better fine detail in DVDs (lines on faces, grass, etc), and better defined and graduated shades of black.
DOWNSIDE:The only downside is that the system will trigger by "dirtyness" that I would not ordinarily have noticed. Then you have to go over and turn it on again. If you are watching satellite TV, you have to wait for the satellite receiver to come "back up", but otherwise this is a minor inconvenience which is protecting your valuable investment anyway.
IN SUMMARY, this is a very reasonably priced piece of equipment, which provides good protection for a system, saves you money by actually turning off your plasma TV, receivers, DVD players, etc., and also makes video better but stereo sound especially. I highly recommend it.
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Monster Cable Home Theatre Reference PowerSource HTPS 7000Product Description: The fact is, analog audio equipment is sensitive to a different type of noise than video, just as video is sensitive to a different type of noise than digital, and so on. In the past, manufacturers have used filters to combat the problem of noise introduced via power sources. Unfortunately, the filters were not optimized to attenuate at the different frequencies that are unique to digital, analog audio, and video realms. Products that managed to deliver truly cleaner AC power were thousands of dollars in price, out of reach for most people. Enter Head Monster Noel Lee. An uncompromising audiophile, Lee joined forces with Richard Marsh, the world's foremost expert on AC power, to develop affordable solutions to AC power problems. The result? Monster Clean Power.
I bought these on a whim because my job requires air travel a few times a year and I've always been curious about the technology (and because the roar of the airplane cabin really bothers me).This is my first pair of NC headphones and I had no idea what to expect.I thought maybe total silence.I thought wrong.Without any music playing I could easily hear the TV, bathroom fan, etc.The NC300B's did eliminate much of the lower frequency noise, but I was mildly disappointed.I added my MP3 player to the mix and was happy to find that I could listen to music at reasonable levels and my kids voices were effectively muted.Later on I used them while reading and noticed that they did manage to cancel out traffic noise completely (no music required).Then I did a side-by-side comparison with an old pair of standard Sony headphones that I've had for 20 years while I pressure washed my driveway.There is really no comparison.I couldn't hear the music at all with the Sony's, the music came through loud and clear with the NC300B's.I'm still curious as to how these stack up against the top of the line Bose.I'm guessing not very well, but I would expect that given that I paid 1/6 of Bose's asking price for my NC300B's.Also, I'm not an audiophile, so the muddy sound at louder levels on some songs doesn't bother me.I like them at the sub $70 price and would recommend them to my cost conscious friends.
