# Quick help needed! Power center died this morning



## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

My Monster Power Center 3600 mkII died a sudden death this morning. Since spending $$$ on that unit I have retired and cannot afford a comparable replacement.

I am considering just a good surge protector such as this Belkin from Home Depot - http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

What is your opinion/recommendation?

We have frequent lighting here in North Texas.

EQUIPMENT
Sony HDTV
Denon AVR
Pansonic Blu-Ray Player
DirecTV HR24
DirecTV AM21N 
Toshiba HD-DVD Player
Powered Subwoofer


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Oh the firestorm that this question creates.... :bigsmile:

IMO, if all you are looking for is surge protection, you would be fine with the Belkin. It is when you get into power conditioning (that is the correct term I think :R) that you start to get pretty costly.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

A surge protector like the one in your link is better then none at all. But keep an eye on this belkin because every few day's they drop the price down as low as $119 shipped and that is what I bought it for. http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-pure...onsole-belkin-pureav-pf60-home/207514357.html


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I personally like the Trip-Lite products much better than Belkin and can be found for very reasonable prices on line.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Tony, If you don't mind me asking, Why is the tripp-lite better than the Belkin? I have the Belkin and it works great and even removed some noise I had in my system. Is it just that they use better internal parts?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The Balkins are all plastic and very much residential in nature. Trip-Lite housings are all metal and use Hospital grade plugins. I suspect the internal components are also better.
I have 6 different models of them at home one of them is at least 15 years old and still works as good as new.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

That's good to know. I will definitley look into them the next time I am in the market. I will say this though my PF60 seems to be built very well. Thanks.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

This is the most recent ones I bought here
Amazon is the best price I found on it.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Nice, But I think the Belkin that I have with the display on the front that tells you what the voltage and amps are looks better in my system rack. :bigsmile:


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

LOL so true hey, I wish my Onkyo would allow me to have the blue light on the volume knob on at all dimmer settings because I like it on but then the display is too bright.

You would like this one then from Trip-Lite


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## Jasonpctech (Apr 20, 2010)

So Trip-light look to be the best replacement. The question I have is it worth fixing? What exactly is wrong with it? Odds are a capacitor or two perhaps $20 in parts or $60 fixed by a pro have you looked at that yet It may actually be better than stock after a fix. IMHO. 
Jason


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## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

Jasonpctech said:


> So Trip-light look to be the best replacement. The question I have is it worth fixing? What exactly is wrong with it? Odds are a capacitor or two perhaps $20 in parts or $60 fixed by a pro have you looked at that yet It may actually be better than stock after a fix. IMHO.
> Jason


The unit is dead, no power going through, nothing. I am unable to drive now so getting it to a qualified repair shop would be a problem. Besides that I would be concerned about the functionality after the repair. Monster doesn't even repair them any more.

Thanks


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## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks to everyone for your advice and comments.

After considering all options I have a Panamax M4300-PM 9 Outlet Rack Mountable Power Conditioner/Surge Protector*on order.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Nice - let us know how it works out for you!


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## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

ALMFamily said:


> Nice - let us know how it works out for you!


Thanks, I will.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

louisp said:


> My Monster Power Center 3600 mkII died a sudden death this morning. Since spending $$$ on that unit I have retired and cannot afford a comparable replacement.
> 
> I am considering just a good surge protector such as this Belkin from Home Depot - http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051
> 
> ...


Might I suggest giving MONSTER tech support a call... These companies have been known to setup a replacement under certain conditions.. Even if they dont offer to replace it, the cost of repair may = the cost of the inexpensive surge... It cant hurt to call lddude:


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

Oh that was so 42 seconds ago


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## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

RTS100x5 said:


> Might I suggest giving MONSTER tech support a call... These companies have been known to setup a replacement under certain conditions.. Even if they dont offer to replace it, the cost of repair may = the cost of the inexpensive surge... It cant hurt to call lddude:


Monster would have given me a discount on the new $699 model if I could sent them a copy of my receipt. My receipt was long lost.

Posted on each forum where I sought help.:clap:

Well here I am, a new owner of a Panamax M4300-PM. Honestly, I cannot begin to join in your technical discussions due to my lack of knowledge so I'll speak from a plain Joe's point of view

All I can say is that during the years we used a Monster HT3600 MKII this device protected our AV equipment during many, many voltage spikes, surges, lighting strike and power outages. With the HT3600's demise I researched the devices on the market along with opinions from three forums. After feeling my head was about to explode I came to the conclusion that about 50% of those who offered advice preferred not to use power centers. Many surprised me by supporting UPS's with the minority liking power centers.

I was ready to go the high quality surge surpressor route until my wife reminded me how well the power center performed and (now don't throw rocks at me) to some degree improved both the audio and video. There is no way I can support my position other than tell you visitors to our home were and still are astounded by the our systems performance.

The new Panamax M4300-PM is installed, coax, telephone line included. I was surprised by the strict warranty conditions but that will be presented in a new thread. Please accept my sincere appreciation.

Louis


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

I definitely share your enthusiasm for power conditioning.... though many would argue the "sonic advantages", it just is common sense to me that dirty voltage will cause an audible distortion. I think its the most underrated piece of HI FI gear on the market....not to mention the obvious protection it offers... Sad to say many an audio enthusiast think its unnecessary until they get zapped :hsd:


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## louisp (Apr 4, 2011)

Thank you.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

RTS100x5 said:


> I definitely share your enthusiasm for power conditioning.... though many would argue the "sonic advantages", it just is common sense to me that dirty voltage will cause an audible distortion. I think its the most underrated piece of HI FI gear on the market....not to mention the obvious protection it offers... Sad to say many an audio enthusiast think its unnecessary until they get zapped :hsd:


I would wholeheartedly agree that it is common sense and a reasonable assumption that noisy power can be a problem. As with many common sense notions, however, there is more to the story. Most noise on a.c. lines is actually quite well filtered by power supplies, particularly on units that use switching supplies (that actually can produce artifacts that are far more significant that have to be filtered internally). With audio equipment with conventional supplies, the potential for line noise to survive power supplyu filtering is somewhat more likely. In most cases, however, the majority of noise comes from grounding problems, rather than actual noise that is filtered by most power conditioners. I spent a great deal of time looking for noise occuring in the signal level processing or in outputs that could be correclated to line noise. My bench had a filter that I could easily see the effects of with my scope on the a.c. line. We had test equipment and other devices that often produced noise in the bench a.c. lines. I was never able to find any of the noise on the a.c. line in any equipment after the power supply, however.

That said, there are cases where severe noise does get past a power supply. Whether it is due to ground problems or other reasons, if you find an improvement with a power conditioner, there is certainly nothing wrong with using one. In my experience, however, most of the benefits can be had with an inexpensive surge suppressor and good system design and grounding, rather than having to invest in expensive filtering.


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