Power Conditioners in store demo

tommyt21

I just got back from our local electronics store. They had a demo of a power conditioner vs a very cheap power strip(the same one im using:sad:) They had two identical Lg 47 lcd tvs being fed from identical panny bd 110 bluray player with the same shrek disk running. I looked and saw identical Hdmi cables. I also checked the menu settings and they appeared to both be on store demo mode with the same settings.

The picture on the one using the Power conditioner was exstremely better, sharper picture, deeper colors and better blacks. I left scratching my head alot of what i have read said that power conditioners are snake oil. Unless my electronics dealer is using some shady tricks it was very clear to me that by the end of today I will be ordering a Power conditioner:eek:. I'm thinking about the APC h15 or the Belkien PV 30

Has anyone else had an experince like this or do you think the store was doing something sneaky?

PS. I know they are way over priced and its not the conditioner I will most likley purchase but the the power conditioner in this demo was a Monster HDP 1800 the only items plugged in were the TV and bluray player.

BlueFox

tommyt21 wrote: »

The picture on the one using the Power conditioner was exstremely better, sharper picture, deeper colors and better blacks. I left scratching my head alot of what i have read said that power conditioners are snake oil.

Snake oil! Please, stop reading, and start doing. The only thing that is snake oil is the people who never try anything, but are happy to tell others some thing is snake oil. Especially if they read it on the Internet.

tonyb

BlueFox wrote: »

Snake oil! Please, stop reading, and start doing. .

Good advice.....and for what it's worth many here use power conditioners with some being slightly better than others but that goes for about everything you buy anyway.

thsmith

I use an APC H15 for AVR, TT motor, HDMI Switch and BRP.

I use a power regnerator for all the important stuff and Yes my 73" Mits RPCRT greatly benefits form clean power.

tommyt21

BlueFox wrote: »

Snake oil! Please, stop reading, and start doing. The only thing that is snake oil is the people who never try anything, but are happy to tell others some thing is snake oil. Especially if they read it on the Internet.

I guess that was my main point in person with a side by side demo I could clearly see that they work. I do know alot of the stuff is bs on the net, however I am still a noobie and I live where there is not that many knowledgable people on the subject to talk to. Like I said I will be doing the power conditioner today. I believe I have my mind set on the Belkin PF60 Amazon has it for $180 and I am a prime member so it works out nicely.

polkatese

thsmith wrote: »

I use a power regnerator for all the important stuff and Yes my 73" Mits RPCRT greatly benefits form clean power.

Yes! second that. My Panamax 5500 is NOT snake oil gimmick.

I thought we proved this point many years ago?

tommyt21

polkatese wrote: »

Yes! second that. My Panamax 5500 is NOT snake oil gimmick.

I thought we proved this point many years ago?

I'm still new to this home theater stuff. When you google search there is alot of doubters on many forums. Seeing it with my own two eyes made me a clear believer. I am ordering one this afternoon.

polkatese

Good deal Tommy. check out www.panamax.com or www.psaudio.com (higher-end)

http://www.panamax.com/Products/A-V-Components/M7500-PRO.php

http://www.psaudio.com/products/power/

Personally, I would avoid Monster. But that's just me.

decal

tommyt21 wrote: »

I'm still new to this home theater stuff. When you google search there is alot of doubters on many forums. Seeing it with my own two eyes made me a clear believer. I am ordering one this afternoon.

That's all that really matters, isn't it?

tommyt21

polkatese wrote: »

Good deal Tommy. check out www.panamax.com or www.psaudio.com (higher-end)

http://www.panamax.com/Products/A-V-Components/M7500-PRO.php

http://www.psaudio.com/products/power/
Personally, I would avoid Monster. But that's just me.

Thanks for the links the Panamax looks really nice but i think it may be out of my price range.

pdxfj

I can say with 100% certainty that full, clean power does make a difference.

Just recently I upgraded the electrical service to my house. I was on the original 1946, 60 amp fused service along with the very nice cloth wrapped wire.

Upgrading to a modern 200 amp service helped, but the biggest improvement is replacing the low quality, war time (WWII) copper wire with new Romex. The old wire cuts like butter, where the new Romex is much harder. 90%of the original wire is 12awg.

First new 20A circuit I ran was for half the living room (2 outlets). I hooked all of my A/V equipment into that circuit. The difference was night and day. Picture quality on my Plasma more than doubled and my entire sound system came alive like I had never heard it before. My sub started hitting twice as hard and I had to turn it down.

I'll add a power conditioner at some point, and I still have the other half of the living room to re-wire. As I'm pulling the old wire out I strip away the jacket to see the condition of the copper wire. Every piece I see has evidence of over heating.. think of the original wire acting as in-wall heaters.. Amazing the house never burned down..

zeppage2

Wait for Buy.com to have a sale on the Belkin PF60 for around US$125.
Here is the little brother:

http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-pureav-pf30-home-theater-power-console/207514354.html

tommyt21

zeppage2 wrote: »

Wait for Buy.com to have a sale on the Belkin PF60 for around US$125.
Here is the little brother:

http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-pureav-pf30-home-theater-power-console/207514354.html

How often do they go on sale? Is the little brother just as good? I only have to plug in these items tv,xbox, Piosc-35, Bluray player, cable box.

Thanks

Drenis

I too thought my mind was playing with me when I introduced my Furman conditioner into my rig. I picked out the difference in my TV. So did my other half. Everything benefits from clean power it seems. Best investment I made.

zeppage2

It seems like they go on sale every couple of months or so. It was on sale 2-13.

I have never used the PF30...

tommyt21

Should I get the belkin pf30 its almost half the price of the pf60?

WilliamM2

I have both Monster and Panamax power conditioners, I've tried them both on my TV and never noticed any difference in the picture at all. Maybe I have cleaner power than average, but I doubt it. Maybe it would be more noticable on an old analog set, they weerre prone to interference.

I still like the switching control that both units have, and the fact that it sequences my amps on and off with a single button on the remote. My older amps don't have triggers, and it's the main reason I bought them.

tommyt21

WilliamM2 wrote: »

I have both Monster and Panamax power conditioners, I've tried them both on my TV and never noticed any difference in the picture at all. Maybe I have cleaner power than average, but I doubt it. Maybe it would be more noticable on an old analog set, they weerre prone to interference.

I still like the switching control that both units have, and the fact that it sequences my amps on and off with a single button on the remote. My older amps don't have triggers, and it's the main reason I bought them.

This was a side by side comparison and the diffrence was HUGE! The bad picture TV was plugged into a very cheap powerstrip that looked like it had been through hell and back.

gdb

It very well could have been the hell and back power strip itself that made the picture worse. Did they have anything plugged directly into the wall recepticle ? Monster used to have a tricky demo for their speaker cables too. This is NOT to say that conditioners are snake oil.......just maybe Monster's demo might be........that is all.

nwohlford

tommyt21 wrote: »

This was a side by side comparison and the diffrence was HUGE! The bad picture TV was plugged into a very cheap powerstrip that looked like it had been through hell and back.

Did he switch which TV and blu-ray was plugged into which strip? If the good picture followed the TV hooked up to the power conditioner, it would definitely be pretty convincing.

WilliamM2

tommyt21 wrote: »

This was a side by side comparison and the diffrence was HUGE! The bad picture TV was plugged into a very cheap powerstrip that looked like it had been through hell and back.

I would expect the difference to be subtle, if at all. Who did the demonstration? If it was Monster, I'd suspect the noise was on the disc (intentionally), not the power line. They have been known to rig demos before.

tommyt21

nwohlford wrote: »

Did he switch which TV and blu-ray was plugged into which strip? If the good picture followed the TV hooked up to the power conditioner, it would definitely be pretty convincing.

He did not it was a wall demonstration that looks like its been on display for awhile

tommyt21

Nothing but the power strip and Power conditioner where pluged into the outlets

tommyt21

I also live next to some high power electrical lines there is a terminal station that I can see from my balcony, not sure if that makes an iota of difference in what im trying to acomplish with the Power conditioner.

Systems

You may be shocked by what just replacing the stock power cable with a good aftermarket one will do for your video.
I would recommend alittle silver in the mix, preferably a silver IEC plug.

I made one for my LCD with silver plated Belden copper wire in a VH Style config. (simple Schurter IEC and Marinco male) and I was taken aback at the added depth of color and 3D realism.
Not to mention the added sound quality.

Would not hurt to replace the .99 cent receptacle that most people use also.
Nothing crazy, just a good hospital grade receptacle will show some improvement.

YMMV

tommyt21

pepster wrote: »

You may be shocked by what just replacing the stock power cable with a good aftermarket one will do for your video.
I would recommend alittle silver in the mix, preferably a silver IEC plug.

I made one for my LCD with silver plated Belden copper wire in a VH Style config. (simple Schurter IEC and Marinco male) and I was taken aback at the added depth of color and 3D realism.
Not to mention the added sound quality.

Would not hurt to replace the .99 cent receptacle that most people use also.
Nothing crazy, just a good hospital grade receptacle will show some improvement.

YMMV

I have a friend thats a electrician never thought about the receptacle... What should i replace it with?

Systems

Just something that is better than most of the .99 cent Wal-Mart jobs that are installed in most receptacle boxes.
I like the Pass & Seymour hospital grades.
Hubbell spec grades are decent as well.

I use a Furutech copper receptacle, and it does an excellent job on video (pricey though).
If you could find a Pass & Seymour MRI they are excellent for video.
Designed for MRI machines they are very, very well engineered (and non magnetic, even the screws are non magnetic).

tommyt21

pepster wrote: »

Just something that is better than most of the .99 cent Wal-Mart jobs that are installed in most receptacle boxes.
I like the Pass & Seymour hospital grades.
Hubbell spec grades are decent as well.

I use a Furutech copper receptacle, and it does an excellent job on video (pricey though).



If you could find a Pass & Seymour MRI they are excellent for video.
Designed for MRI machines they are very, very well engineered (and non magnetic, even the screws are non magnetic).

I'll definetly look into it

Thank you

Systems

Here is the Pass & Seymour MRI version, $16/shipped.
I actually bought 1 from this person, great to deal with.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DUPLEX-RECEPTACLE-HOSPITAL-GRADE-15A-125V-/270397242320?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ef4ee7bd0

Hospital grade for cheap P&S hospital grade.
This is a very good deal on a very good receptacle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hospital-Grade-Receptacle-20A-Pass-Seymour-8300-HW-/220900800919?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336eb6b997

I have no affiliation with either of the above.

tommyt21

:cheesygrin:I just ordered the Belkin PF30 if I dont like it I can send it back and try another. Thanks for all the great Input from all the polkies:cheesygrin:

inspiredsports

BlueFox wrote: »

Snake oil! Please, stop reading, and start doing. The only thing that is snake oil is the people who never try anything, but are happy to tell others some thing is snake oil. Especially if they read it on the Internet.

I read the use of the term "snake oil" with the same surprise. I have power conditioners that yield improvements on every TV, every computer and every stereo rig in my home (11 total).

My best rig has a much, much more expensive unit, but in my humble opinion, dollar spent for performance gained the APC H15 or H20 provide the best bang for the buck.