surge protectors / line conditioners

[VJ]

Hello,

I have two surge protectors in use: one for my AV-system, and one for my PC-gear. Both are MGE Pulsar CL8, about 5 years old now. They have 2 indicator lights: on/off (lights up when sockets get power) and proteced (lights up when connected gear is protected). Recently, both lights went out, but the sockets still provide power , one of them stopped passing through my tv-cable (which is how I found it).
Consequently, I don't think the gear is protected anymore, and am looking out for replacements...

For my AV-gear, I was considering a device like the Belkin PureAV power consoles, or the Monster Cable HTS2600. Main reason is that my brother has experienced problems that were solved by installing a filter (his projector failed to auto-detect source when subwoofer drew power).

I don't expect picture or sound quality to change (as some people comment), just to get more a piece of mind (wrt lighting/spikes/...) and while at it also prevent power related issues (like the one my brother had).

What is the general opinion here on such devices ?
(the Monster has a very high Joules rating)
What should I look out for, which brands are good/bad ?

Thanks!

Jörg

[Claymonkey]

http://www.dansdata.com/sbs9.htm good overview of the concepts.

I avoid monster generally. They are pricey for no good reason other than name.

http://www.dansdata.com/danletters199.htm - third letter
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/11/25/ cause it's still funny/true

I tend to have luck with anything from belkin or APC.. but both tend to be expensive as well. Tripplite is oddly cheap but solid however.

If anyone knows the power equivalent of http://www.monoprice.com (amazing for cables) I'd love to hear about it.

[VJ]

Forgot to mention Isotek, but I fear they may be very expensive...

That monster-price issue is why I brought it up. For cables that is most definately true, but on these power things they seem to equal Belkin (for similar specs)...

[VJ]

From the Dansdata letters, they don't seem that positive on Monster... Understandibly, they lost credibility with a lot of their claims...

[Mehen]

This APC power conditioner looks interesting:

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=307

[Fat Tone]

An alternative way to go could be a UPS. I'm using a 2000VA device to protect my entire home-office and it has so-far worked extremely well. We went through a phase where Wifey ironing would trip the mains supply on a weekly basis and the UPS saved my bacon every time. It was only about £90 at the time.

[VJ]

Mehen: APC link reverts to the main site for my region...

Fat Tone: My PC is on a UPS, so that one is in the clear.

However, putting hifi equipment on a UPS may be an issue: amplifier and subwoofer can draw a lot of power...

Belkin does have a very nice UPS aimed at hifi use, but it is US only (and expensive). The top range Belkin PureAV available here is the PF50, and it only has one high-current socket. Combine that with the fact that they recommend using it for subwoofer or amplifier, and there is a problem when you have both... The PF60 solves that, but it is not available here (yet?)

Of course, most UPSes have sockets that are not battery powered, so I could put most of the gear on those, and use the battery powered sockets for htpc and later projector...

But the Joule rating of most UPSes is much lower than that of dedicated surge protectors: 320 for simple APC UPS, over 2000 for simpl APC surge protectors... Also, many come with fans, which I'd like to avoid for this usage...

[Mehen]

APC
H Type AV Power Conditioners
(1000VA - 1500VA)



Home / Home Office > Audio-Video Solutions > Products

[VJ]

Not available here, and we have 230V/50Hz... I checked the US site, and APC has quite a range of such devices; same goes for Belkin. Both even have UPS/surge protector combos, which would be ideal for a setup with a htpc...

Here, only some Belkin devices are available (pf30, pf40, pf50) and some Monster Power (hts2600, hts5100). Isotek can also be found, but is expensive.