Power Source Questions?

[Steve_L]

All, my first post here, I have been lurking and learning for a while. I hope to learn a lot here, I followed audio a lot when young and single, but family obligations and many other hobbies kept me from staying currrent. Now, I'm jumping back in a little at a time. I'm starting by upgrading my sound system. When the first of my two kids moves out, they'll get the Sony Trinitron and I'll go HDTV at that point. (prolly not too far away)

Yesterday I was up at BB buying my new Pioneer VSX 1014-K. I also bought a complete F-3, with KSW-3 Subwoofer. I went budget costconcious on the center and sorrounds and got the S-2s and the C-2. I have a 23 by 13 foot room and am hoping this set-up meets my initial needs.(I bought the Klipsch system after listening to a number of similarly priced systems like Polk, JBL, Sapphire, Paradigm Montior 7s and 11s, and a few others. I like the Klipsch.. always have...

In any event, the sales guy (just slightly older than sales-kid) started to sell me one of these "Stage 3 Monster Cable Power Systems", at $399. This wasn't in my budget, and I'm an old hippie with a knowledge base on this stuff from 1970 and we didn't talk too much about the need for this stuff back then. (I'll buy one if I really need one.)

So, he sells me this stuff based on the value proposition that:

A: It gives you cleaner power, and eliminates hiss, caused by things like furnaces, refrigerators and air conditioners kicking in.

B: Surge protection caused by the same type of other electrical devices kicking in, or actual power company surges that might hurt my valuable equipment.

I was and am still unsold. By the end of this discussion and decided to come back here and ask youse guyz whas-up with this stuff? I mean, I can see the value of just having a nice neat fancy power strip to manage all these ugly cables, and the surge protection sounds like it might be of some value, but $400 worth of value? Maybe not for me when I'm in the process of just building the initial HT in the first place.

As far as the power noise filtering is concerned, I am thinking that all the big capacitors and inductors in the receiver power supply are there to smooth out all that power stuff in the first place. Secondly, I'm not such a audiophile listener that a bit of transient noise is going to revolt me, if something does kick in and cause that symptom on occasion. (this assumes it really is solving a problem)

So, what gives? Is all of this power management stuff really important, or is it just to give audio-geeks more pretty red lights to look at and impress your drinking buddies? In other words, add margin for places like BB, after you get the great deal on the needed stuff like a 1014 and some F-3s.

Thanks for any and all input. I looked around for a similar thread before I posted this, but didn't find one. Sorry of this is redundant or belongs in a different section.

Steve LeBlanc

Ashby Ma.

aka an old hippie

http://home.comcast.net/~srl1215/index.htm

[TIbor]

Hi

Happy Turkey day too. So far it looks like you got a nice system in the works, I might have stayed in the same family line with speakers rather then changing product line. Ideally you want to stay in the same family(but you need to stay in your budget so it happens) , the timbre will probably be very close but, you will probably need to adjust those other speakers up for db on the intinial setup. Anyway I am a sucker for the bells and whistles of a product. No you dont need that fancy monster power center. Just dont buy a cheap 5 buck one either. I spent 200 bucks on mine it is a monster cable brand. But it really is a waste, just look for one in the 50-100 range that will be fine. The most imporant thing is the joules rating from what I understand. The higher the better. I dont hear any better sound with my monster bar!

Good luck

[jzoz01]

I bought mine not so much for the surge protection aspect, but mainly for the clean power. I have a 3600 from monster. Upgrading to that from my $200 powerbar was a huge improvement in picture and sound quality. The bass was much tighter and the brightness of the highs was toned down. Always a good investment, just make sure you run everything through it (including the sub) and get the one that fits the needs of your system.

[dougdrake]

This is another area of huge debate, like speaker wire and jumper cables. I guess since the receiver is converting everything to DC, I don't know how a power conditioner can have much effect, but I've never paid much attention to it.

If you're concerned mostly about surge protection, check out the Furman units at www.partsexpress.com. I think they'll give you good protection without emptying your wallet.

[myriadcorp]

A surge clean power center is a must for a nice HT system. You cant be hooking this stuff up to a PC surge strip. The monster power centers are pretty nice. Check Ebay.com for some Monster Power Centers. You can get a 2500 or up very cheap. I purchased a HTS 5100 which retails over $700 for $350 on ebay.

I just pulled a quick link from a search for monster power 5100 on ebay. Here is one to give you an idea of what you can find on there. Dont waste $700+ for the 5100 at the sort. Buy ebay and save.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=67780&item=5733925644&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Check out monster's site to see the other models they offer. Ebay lets you get this alot cheaper than at BB or other retail chain stores.

[dougdrake]

I wonder if Monster's replacement guarantee for connected equipment applies if you buy from an unauthorized dealer (which I am guessing is what the Ebay sellers are)?