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Should I skip my power conditioner?

I have a Monster Powerbar 1100 power conditioner/surge protector. The main reason I bought it is to protect my equipment from any lightning strikes/electrical spikes and for convenience for all of my plugs (I have it mounted to the underside of my stand). I'm no Monster fan or hater but for about $125 shipped, it seemed like a lot of useful features plus surge protection. I've been doing some reading that it may actually be better soundwise to not use one though, especially with the amp (Arcam AVR300 in my case). I'm looking for any opinions on the subject of if I should continue to use it, or use it for everything but the receiver. If I don't use it, will just a good surge protector yield any negative results? The details of my system is in my system link.

Thanks for any input,

Scott
asahitoro
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,693 posts
 
I do not know what or where you heard that the Powerbar would compromise the performance of your receiver but you are the one who can best determine that by simply auditioning it. Try it with or without the Powerbar.

Of course, if you have one component off the protection device, it becomes the route through which noise or power surge can attack the rest.

Finally, the Powerbar is a pretty simple and benign MOV-based protector. If you want better surge protection, you want to install one at the power entry point right next to the main house ground.

Kal
bigtee
803 posts
 
Some of the manufactures have indicated to me that MOV based power protectors and others limit dynamics in their amps. Wether this is audible, you'll have to decide.
Ayre Acoustics specifically says use no power conditioners or other devices. Jim White at Aesthetix agreed. He told me to try a PS Audio power plant if I wanted line conditioning. He found fault with almost all others and said it compromised performance.
Kind of scary without some sort of protection though.
robm321
932 posts
 
I can't comment on that particular surge protection, but a while ago I bought the Monster HTS2000. It affected the sound in a negative way. Since then, I bought a Chang Lightspeed and it affected the sound in a positive way for a very reasonable price.

Rob
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