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Power conditioner: Monster or Panamax? (1 Viewer)

Scott Holt

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Jan 23, 2002
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Monster is a manufacturer of many items where panamax concentrates on line conditioners and this line of products. I went with the panamax because of their specialization. I am not a big monster fan because of their mass marketing.
 

KeithH

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Ajay,

As I said in an earlier post, I have good homeowner's insurance, so I wouldn't approach Monster or Panamax if I had a power surge that killed my gear. The monetary coverage that these companies offer looks great on paper, but I am not surprised that they make it very difficult for the consumer to win a claim. I didn't pay attention to the fine print since I know I am covered with homeowner's insurance. Good points though.

Scott,

Your points fall in line with the anti-Monster bias I have when compared to Panamax. It could be that Monster makes a good power conditioner though.
 

John Garcia

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The last 2 AC outlets on the back of the Max 5300 are generally used for high current components, such as subwoofers or amplifiers. These outlets have ZERO in line inductance. There is an energy storing capacitor in parallel with this circuit that can augment the power available during high power events. This means that the unit can provide more power than is available at the wall during a burst of high current draw, another Panamax advantage. Many amplifier manufacturers suggest plugging their amps directly into the wall, but these features completely eliminate that need! These outlets are delayed-on.
 

Ken Smith

Stunt Coordinator
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May 20, 2001
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100
I used Panamax's protection policy and it wasn't all that bad. Mainly, you have to go to a repair center and have a qualified tech. give you a piece of paper stating that the component was damaged to an electrical surge. Panamax replaced my original 1500 with a new one and they gave me a check to buy a new satellite receiver. The worst part was driving to a satellite repair shop that was 20 miles away. I didn't have to get the Panamax unit looked at either, I just sent it in to them and they replaced it free of charge.
 

Scott H

Supporting Actor
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Mar 9, 2000
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693
John, I knew what you meant, my response may have been too vague...

My point is that even the lower models from Panamax feature the outlets for high-current components like amps that are delayed-on, but the "energy storing capacitor" is pointless for higher-end amps, and I gave an example of why. Good amps already store power in reserve. After all, the manufacturers, as you note, suggest plugging them directly into a wall outlet. My A250, as I mentioned, stores a rather remarkable amount of power thus can play so long after being powered off. So, why pay for a more expensive Panamax or Monster unit for an essentially useless feature? As I said, that's the job of the Amp, is it not?

That is why I think the Panamax 4300 or 5100 are better values.
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2002
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I agree I normally have an adversion to anything Monster, but remember the person who actually got hired by Monster Cable to design the whole Monster Power line is Richard Marsh who runs Marsh Sound Design. He also was the one behind MIT's entire power line products (Z-series), which were really top notch, it seemed like half the staff at The Absolute Sound used them.
I'm looking at buying one soon and might wait for the new reference 7000 from Monster or perhaps the 5500 from Panamax.
About PS Audio, everything you heard is false. Their products are amazing. If money grew on trees I'd have a P600 today. But since most of us live in the real world, Monster and Panamax are more realistic.
One last brand I would recommend, hesitantly, but worth a tryout is Richard Gray's Power Company. Their products are pretty interesting since they in essence don't have joule ratings and you can connect anything you want to them (they're really flyback transformers). They do have some level of surge protection though.
my 2 cents,
-Troy
 

KeithH

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Troy, thanks for sharing the good info. Much appreciated. I haven't decided how and when I will address a power conditioner. I will probably get one at some point, and I am still leaning to the Panamax MAX 5300.
 

Ted Lee

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hey keith -
i hope you'll post your results, regardless of which brand you get?
i like to hear what "real-world" users of this type of gear has to say and what their experiences are.
i know these things will definitely protect your gear...but i always wonder about the claims that it improves sound, etc.
i've never tried one myself, so i can't really make a comment either way. :D
 

KeithH

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Ted, I don't know when I will get around to picking up one of the power conditioners, but I will post my thoughts when I do.
 

Brian OK

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Aug 29, 2000
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Keith,
As you are in the market for a conditioner, take a look at the Jon Risch Power source Line/Surge unit from www.diycable.com
It only has 4 outlets, but, IMO, you will be hard pressed to find a
 

KeithH

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Brian, thanks for the info. The problem is that I would need far more than four outlets. As I recall, the Panamax MAX 5300 has 11 outlets. That's more like it. I'm not denying the quality of the Risch unit, as I have never tried it. However, I would be severely limited in what I could do with it.

By the way, I've been toying with the idea of picking up an Asylum Cable (Bob Crump power cord) from diycable.com for my SCD-777ES (using the stock cord now). For only $74 for a 4-foot cable, I thought it would be worth a try. It seems to be well thought of from what I have read on Audio Asylum. However, I thought that before I do that, I might be well served to buy a power conditioner. A salesman at my local high-end dealer tried to steer me in that direction. He tried to sell me on the Panamax MAX 5100 unit. After buying that, he said I should look into power cords (he wants me to buy an MIT power cord from him). The other concern I have is that I am using the cheater plug that came with the '777ES because I hear a hum through the speakers without it. The salesman I spoke of said that I might not need the cheater plug after buying the Panamax power conditioner, but what if I do? He said I could still use the Sony cheater plug. Does that make sense? I mean, I go out and buy a Panamax power condition for $350-500, then an aftermarket power cord for $74, and then use the cheater plug from Sony? Does that make sense?
 

Joe Casey

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Keith,

If the Panamax unit you're eyeing does its job correctly, you shouldn't have to use the cheater plug.
 

KeithH

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Joe, that's what I thought. However, the salesman said that if I were to buy the Panamax MAX 5100, I could still use the cheater plug if necessary. That bothered me. When I do get a power conditioner, I will keep this in mind in evaluating it.
 

Brian OK

Supporting Actor
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Aug 29, 2000
Messages
550
Keith,

I am curious as to why you need to use a cheater plug with you SACD. Is it not a grounded three prong plug ? Your current Belkin power strip surely accomodates a three prong plug.

Personally, I would find the source of your hum before I invest in a new conditioner. I looked at your equipment list and you are loaded with components. Do you have a dedicated circuit, or two, for your gear ?

I am not an electrician , but I would go to great efforts (unplugging your gear one at a time, and in variations if needed, to find the source of the hum. I suspect you already ruled out a ground loop issue. Something is causing your hum. If you can at all move to dedicated home-run circuits for your systems ... it just may be needed.

Shared circuits are usually the hidden culprit of many A/V problems.

Let me know why your nice SACD player needs a cheater.

BOK
 

KeithH

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Brian, my surge protectors do accommodate three-prong plugs. I do not have a dedicated circuit for the audio equipment. I have not tried to isolate the cause of the hum, but I have always observed it with the '777ES without the cheater plug. This is in two homes, by the way. I moved last year, and observed the hum in both homes. Sony supplied the cheater plug with the '777ES, and the manual says that a hum could be observed through the speakers without it. I could try unplugging various components to see if that does anything. If and when I get around to it, I'll post my results.
 

myke

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Mar 1, 2002
Messages
21
What is it, exactly, that makes these 'home theater' power conditioners so special? What does a $500 power conditioner get you that you don't get with a $50 isolation transformer?

I've got another question also. Once you're spending money in the $300-500 range, you could get a line-interactive true sinewave uninteruptable power supply (UPS), designed for use with computer/radio equipment (or for a bit more, one designed for hospital equipment) I'm certainly not talking about some $50 Staples special here, but something along the lines of an APC SmartUPS. This not only gets you surge protection, filtering, voltage regulation, etc, but in the event of extreme demand, such an UPS can even augment utility power with inverted battery power, so that the output voltage doesn't waver, even with a 2kW demand.

So, why isn't an UPS the better choice? I'm curious, because that's what I'm using right now (APC SmartUPS 1400). I hooked up my oscilloscope, and it performs as advertised. Even with the power amps and sub hitting hard peaks, the output voltage barely moves at all. It also significantly reduces noise on the line that's visible on the oscilloscope plugged directly into the wall outlet.

Any thoughts? Thanks.
 

Earl Simpson

Supporting Actor
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Jan 12, 2002
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803
It's good to see this thread come back to life. I'm wondering if el-cheapo surge protectors only limit volts(330). If so , the amp issue is a moot point!
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2002
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Myke,

I've used in the past a APC SmartUPS 700 (still have it) and it does work well as a UPS. It doesn't however do a good job filtering between the outlets. When I connected a "audio power conditoner (power massagers is really what they should be called) to the APC that seemed to yield the best results.

The APC or any industrial UPS will work well at helping with brownouts/blackouts and allowing a perfect sine wave (much like the flyback transformers Richard Gray's Power Co. makes to help with short demands) but in my opinion the interference that components dump back onto the electrical line seems to effect other components and the sound the most.

Since on the APC, I believe, all the outlets share the same resources, i.e. so they can potentially effect each other. Having a power conditoner like a Panamax, Monster, Tice, PS Audio, etc. helps by making each outlet or duplex isolated from EMI/RFI interference and cross-talk from other components like say a power amplifier. Plus for people who don't have UPS's like your APC, they get some surge protection as well.

There's another debate that we're missing here about the benefits of balanced power transformers like PS Audio and BPT. They really help improve the sound that you wouldn't get just from a UPS.

I wrote a review last month for SoundStage.com about BPT's BP-2 unit which I think if hooked up to a UPS would solve most people's problems at about half the cost of a comparable PS Audio product (that's not really the whole story but the cliff notes at least).

Does this make sense?

-Troy
 

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