Power

[Taz]

Looking to upgrade my power supply. Thinking about PS Audio, Richard Gray or Shunyata. Would like to keep it below $1500. I do not have any dealers in my area looking for some ideas and thoughts. This is my first venture into power gear.

 

[Jeff Zaret]

Taz,
THis is always a good idea and yes it may be a bit of a hinderance if there is no one close by. I would ask myself a few questions. Do I want a surge protector or something to cleanup the power and make it stable. Sometimes these answers are the same and sometimes they do vary. Also, expense is an issue here too. For me and I am just one of many different variations, I needed something to keeps spikes from ocurring more than I needed to keep the power stable. My deciding factor was one Saturday morning I was cleaning and listening to music on my Sequel II's - pre-CLSiiZ's purchase and I was doing laundry at the sametime. To my horror, I got to here the washing machine change cycles through the Sequel II's!
I went out that afternoon and bought a couple of Monster Cable power bars, Monster Home Theater Power Center HTS850 and Monster Home Theater Power Center HTS1000. In my setup I could not get everything plugged into one unit, which is ideal but not feasible in my case.

I hope this gives you some idea how to approach this.

Good Luck

Jeff

 

[Taz]

I am looking for both surge and filtering I guess. I have no real problems just trying to get everything I can out of the system.

 

[risabet]

I'm really liking. . .

The Panamax 5100 that all of my audio is run through. Blacker backgrounds and better bass, much better in fact. I'm considering another for the video components. The best $220.00 I ever spent.

 

[Taz]

I was looking at spending a lot more then that would it make a differance

 

[risabet]

You can certainly. . .

spend more but whether or not you'll benefit from the expense is hard to say. I know in my system that the Panamax is as good or better than the Monster units at 3 times the price. The PS Audio units are really good I hear, but I've not listened to them.

 

[LaserMark4]

New AV Power Device

I've been back and forth in making a purchase for my HT as well, looking at the Panamax 5500, Triplite, Monster, Richard Gray, etc. Still shopping and haven't pulled the trigger yet.

One that I just came across is a fairly new product made by Belkin and has been getting a lot of good press. They describe it as:

With 13 programmable outlets and Phase 6 PureFilter Circuitry, the PF60 has six isolated filters to provide clean and clear power to all of your valuable components. The LCD status display allows users to monitor input voltage and output current on each individual bank of outlets. It isolates audio, video and digital components, and prevents noise created by one connected component from contaminating the entire system. Built-in Advanced Overvoltage Protection automatically disconnects power from your equipment when the input voltage reaches a dangerous level, and restores power automatically when the voltage returns to a safe level. To deal with threats from sources other than your AC lines, all PureAV Power Consoles come with coaxial cable, pay-per view/phone, and broadband Ethernet line protection. ​

I've seen mostly positive reviews from both user and professional reviewers. Here's a basic product profile of the unit from LA Audio File: LA Audiofile

Although listed retail price is $749., I've seen them as low as $275 from certified online dealers. Not sure why they allow such a beat up price, but looks like it might be a good deal all around.

 

[mondoribo]

ground loop hum protection?

Do the lower priced Panamax units like the 5100 above filter out ground loop hum? I have this problem on both my 2-channel system and home theater setup. The ground loop hum is definitely coming via the satellite hookup. I can defeat the problem on my 2-channel system but on my HT I see lines in the TV picture when the source is the DirectTivo (but not the HD sat receiver or DVD source). I have grounded the Sat system to the house ground but it did not eliminate the hum.
I am using similar Panamax surge filters on both systems. They are lower end (listed for about $200. in 2003), I don't have the model #s handy.
If the 5100 worked it would be a nice solution.

 

[risabet]

No, I had. . . .

to buy a video ground loop isolator, Jensen model VRD-1FF, that solved the problem. Cost was $52.00 and worth it. The problem with video is the potential difference between the video ground and the rest of the system. The only way I have found to eliminate it is with an isolator.

 

[mondoribo]

I don't think the cable tv isolators work w/ Sat signals though. The sat cable has to pass a low voltage that is used to select different LNBs on the dish. Also has a 22 KHz tone to pass.
I'd probably swap satellite for cable in a heartbeat but I MUST have the NFL package which is only available via satellite.

 

[zaphod]

Do the lower priced Panamax units like the 5100 above filter out ground loop hum? I have this problem on both my 2-channel system and home theater setup. The ground loop hum is definitely coming via the satellite hookup.

hi,

i had similar problems, a ground loop out of my scripts. about 95% of it came from the cable system. what i did was build an isolation transformer from a pair of 75->300
Ohm transformer hooked to a 300->75 Ohm transformer. this gives me an 75 -> 75 Ohm isolation transformer. i built two of these. it takes 45 seconds and 6 bucks in parts. you can also buy these from parts express and so on prebuilt.

i took the incoming cable signal and split it into two feeds with the appropriate splitter. i attached an isolation transformer to each of the two splitter outputs. one goes to the recording machine (VCR) and one to the tv.

this isolates not only the cable line from the rest of the system, but and for your problem i think this is really important the one cable device is separated from the other.

the other 5% of hum in the script surrounds was removed with line level isolation transformers.

cheers

 

[Taz]

For ground loop I highly recommended HumX by ebtech. I had a horrible problem that I could not solve. I plug one of these in and silence!! Plus it goes on the outlet not in the signal path. Great product!

 

[risabet]

How many?

For ground loop I highly recommended HumX by ebtech. I had a horrible problem that I could not solve. I plug one of these in and silence!! Plus it goes on the outlet not in the signal path. Great product!

Do you use one HumX per component or do you use one for the power conditioner cord?

 

[Taz]

I have it on the component. I am sure it would work in the outlet but send them and email I am sure they would let you know. I also put one on my TV and I could swear it cleaned up some noise hard to A/B but I would say it did.

 

[Taz]

Do you use one HumX per component or do you use one for the power conditioner cord?

I have it on the component. I am sure it would work in the outlet but send them and email I am sure they would let you know. I also put one on my TV and I could swear it cleaned up some noise hard to A/B but I would say it did.

 

[mondoribo]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have seen these online. I think I will buy a pair and use one on the HT power conditioner and the other on the 2 Ch. conditioner. In principle (famous last words) it should work on my problem, because my ground loop is not between components on the same power conditioner, but due to a difference in potential between components on the conditioner and the satellite dish/multiswitch grounded to the house mains, but located on a different circuit in another part of the house, i.e. if I unplug the cable from the satellite, the hum disappears. But maybe I'll call HumX anyway, as you suggest, just to make sure.

 

[Taz]

If you unplug your dish and it stops that was my problem I used the humx right on the dish box and it stopped.

 

[mondoribo]

Unplugging the dish box(es) doesn't stop it, but I didn't try unplugging the multiswitch, which is where all the cables run from originally. I will try that before I order anything. Good idea.

 

[jjqiv]

One easy hum busting test can be to lift the ground from your power cables. You can test by using those cheap little cheater plugs that can be found at any hardware store. If that works, just snap the ground pins from you cables.

 

[Taz]

Be careful with cheeter plugs. Do it as a test but grounds are put on for a reason. I tried a cheater plug on my dish box and went to put on the coax and got zapped.