I know that just about everyone here cant stand monser but I'm thinking of buying a hts2500 power center. Can anyone recommend anything else comparable?

Panamax 5100 is a superior product IMHO. You could also use a MAX 4300

[Link: panamax.com]

Wouldn't recommend anything comparable to the Monster product! :-)

Why do you need or want a power center? Do you have a known power line issue at the location? I've never seen a power conditioner that bucks or boosts the line that exhibits lower noise than the AC line input. All the cases I have seen, the end result is better living with the small amount of surge or sag the customers have in their power service. (These observations were backed by looking at the power line with an oscilloscope for surge and sag, and using the FFT capability of the scope to perform noise analysis of the power both before and after the power center.)

If you do not have a know power line issue, I'd recommend a good surge suppression product with a minimal amount of filtering. I like the ISOBAR products for this purpose. They are well built electrically... I've seen them protect devices from surges, where unprotected devices failed catastrophically. I've also seen evidence where damage occured from a very close strike, where the company honored their warranty.

Check out www.furmansound.com Furman makes some great products that are non-sacrificing.

Panamax all the way. Anything from their M2 to the M5510. Great Products, great warranty, great with their warranty work (At least in my cases). Their products really work. Let Munster make cables.

Mike

Went to the Furman site, as I have never looked at their products.

They have a white paper on why you would use or need their products. They seem to focus on 2 areas.

The first, that their products are not sacrificed during an overvoltage event. I find this interesting, as they don't even test their products to the UL standards for surge protection. (At least that I could find on their web site.) Any product in this area will be unable to protect against all events. Mother Nature is truly impressive. A direct strike will result in power jumping several feet at many amps to find a ground. And no products even in this class can protect against such hits. There are products meant to protect equipment at power stations from direct hits, but this gear is in the 10's of thousands of dollars!

The second, is correction for over or under voltage on the line, sags to surges. Their products regulate the output to +/- 5%. My experience is that in a residential environment, that the line voltage is well within 5%. So if my service is within 5%, why would I choose a product that produces an output that could be worse in tolerance that what would be present without the device.

Their white paper had a pretty graph at the end that shows the percent increase in 120Hz to 1GHz noise on a power line from 1975 to present. It shows a 100% increase over the time period. I find this amusing! I can't believe the whole noise spectrum has increased by 100%. Further, I would argue that the very design of a power supply in a piece of electronics makes any noise above the FCC mandated line conducted emission spectrum up to 5MHz meaningless. So we can ignore frequencies above that, since any equipment sold to connect to the power line in a residential environment must meet Class B. Below 5MHz the attenuation levels are very high in even the least expensive power supply designs, and will not allow enough conducted emission for this to be an issue.

Do I think this gear is useful for customers operating from generators? Absolutely, and the equipment looks well designed for this task. Do I think any residential or light commercial setting for audio would benefit by this equipment over a well designed surge suppressor... only if you think not having to send in for a replacement surge suppressor is worth hundreds of dollars!

Furman has been used mainly for commercial applications (read Bands/concerts) for years with great success. I guarantee this takes lightning strikes and saves equipment (seen it first hand). We are using Furman on our $40k two channel system. We switched out a Monster unit for the Furman and can hear audible differences between the two (better sundstage and imaging).

I have been very impressed with the value and build quality of the Furman products and would recommend them without hesitation.

I used to install a lot of Monster Power centers. That is, until I saw first hand that the connected equipment will self destruct 20 seconds BEFORE the Monster hts 2500 will go up in smoke and disconnect power to the equipment.

It was an eye opening experience, to say the least! I have to say I was shocked.
Whats worse is the injustice I felt I had done to my customers!

Currently, we are selling the Panamax line. At least they were able to prove to me that they actually PROTECT the connected equipment. Any of them with the " protect-or-disconnect" technolgy will diconnect power BEFORE the connected equipment is harmed.

I will say the Monster looks nice.

We have used the furman in the past but are currently only using panamax and i have to say it works wonderfully! Stay away from the monster power STUFF if you have any desire to use your equipment after a power surge. Every year @ cedia i think of the monster booth as a carnival side show, COME ONE COME ALL SEE THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, JUST LEAVE YOUR SOUL @ THE DOOR

Was the better audio quality out of the Furman?

That would be my guess. :)

Thats what i thought too, but I just wanted to make sure.

Nuthin' wrong with that!

Yeah, sorry, I was a little vague. Was definetly better with the Furman.

try cd dvd and most of all vcr motors. generate NOISE.