Panamax 5300 or 5500? (1 Viewer)

[Simon Ngan]

I bought a Panamax 5300 yesterday and I haven't had a chance to hook it up yet. I'll need to fix the cable mess first. Anyway, I was wondering if the 5500 is worth the extra money?

Thanks,

Simon

 

[Chu Gai]

what're you trying to achieve or perhaps what is wrong with your ac power?

 

[Simon Ngan]

Here are the reasons I bought the Panamax 5300:

a) remote 12V trigger to automate on/off power amp
b) Surge protection
c) possibility of eliminating ground-loop from power amp

I got it hooked up last night and it did get rid of the ground loop problem I was having, noise floor is very low now, it's barely audiable when I glue my ear to my MartinLogan panel. I was using a cheater plug before for the power amp and while it worked, I was a bit worried.

As far as 12V trigger, I thought the Sony TAE-9000ES had the 12V output but IT DOESN'T!!! Doh!!! I've heard I could use a wall-wart to do the same thing and just plug it to the switched outlet of the pre/pro. I actually do have a wall-wart plugged into the switched outlet to turn on a 12V case fan to cool down the pre/pro. The wall-wart is one of those universal that has a voltage selector from 3V to 12V. It also has a polarity switch. I wonder if I can use the same wall-wart and just split the connection and plug it to the Panamax 12V Input? What is the polarity supposed to be set at? The inner connector to be the positive or negative? I suppose I'm not overloading the wall-wart by loading 2 things at once (case fan and feeding to Panamax)?

So, going back to the topic, once I get this 12V issue sorted out, I'm happy with the purchase. Best bang for the buck, I'm not sure. However, it does buy me peace of mind since even the speakers need power and I do want to protect my investment.

The thing that questioned me was the 5500, is it really worth to spend extra $800 for it? I like the little light that provides as well as the analog gauge for power usage. However, I don't know if the interior components are worth that much more.

Thanks,

Simon