Hey, all.
I got a Monster Powerbar HTS1100 and have experienced results that I'd like to share. The unit has the completely new, re-engineered Level II v2.0 (the v2.0 being the important part) power filtering.
I use a DVD-A player (Panasonic DVD-A7) and a mid-fi (?) turntable (Dual CD 5000 w/NOS Grado cartridge) fed into a Stax SRS-3030 Classic System II (SR-303 cans and SRM-313 amp).
Our house was built in 1994 and is definitely one of those new-fangle-dangled "code straddler" houses, i.e. ones which look like gingerbread houses (thin walls, etc.), built with the cheapest, thinnest materials that just meet code regulations. If you're in an area that's being developed, you'll probably know what I mean (in fact, even in the upscale neighborhoods this type of building is going on, around here). Anyhow, I've always had this creeping suspicion that my power is **** and that it could use some serious filtering...
I tested wall power vs. HTS1100 on the record player first. Impressions:
Whoa! Horns had a more organic, palpable tone to them, vocals exploded with soul and spirit and the depth shot out to the walls (where it was previously rather close around my head). The words that popped into my head were "Emotion" and "Life" Basically, the sound "exploded into technicolor" (as one tube rolling thread put it), something that, incidentally, did not happen as was supposed to when I put a Sylvania Gold Brand into my EMP. Just the record player improvements are well worth it.
The difference was like going from the headphone out of the DVD-A player (powered but flat and lifeless with no real texture or any hint of a living, 3D anything) to my EarMax Pro (incredible texture, huge gains in the third dimension, rich, full timbres, etc.) To be perfectly clear, it wasn't as striking a change, but it was very much in the same vein; the gain was along the lines of 70% of the "headphone jack-to-EarMax Pro" leap, and that says a lot for the price ($750 for the EarMax, $147 for the power conditioner).
Removing my head from the clouds, if we talk in absolute terms about the above paragraph, I feel that if you consider the new, filtered sound to be 80/100 on the scale of reasonably absolute pleasure, the unfiltered sound was 40/100, half the pleasure afforded with the HTS1100. That's a big deal.
There was also a mechanical hum reduction from the player itself (it still has some with the Monster unit, but a lot less...probably about 30% of what it was before...I think the cartridge doesn't like the metal platter or motor or something, because the pitch and volume shift slightly when you move the tonearm over the platter). Anyhow, there was much more life and the soundstage bloomed.
One thing that wasn't so good about the unit was this: I have a RatShack 9V battery eliminator which I'd prefer to use with my Lil' Rat phono preamp. I was seriously hoping that the monster would get rid of this hum, but, alas, it did not. It works fine with a 9V batter (I guess I'll have to go Plainview...anybody got a used charger and Plainview 9V for me?)
With the DVD-A player, there were noticeable differences, though there were not as pronounced. Where the record player's overall pleasure 'n' organic life factor was doubled, the DVD-A unit was probably enhanced by 24%. This was still a solid noticeable gain, though: the soundstage fairly bloomed (on Stax cans that is a miracle, from what I understand, since soundstage is not their strong point by any measure) and the whole soundstage and the instruments placed in it took on a much more relaxed character. It gave the sound, like with the turntable, more dimensionality; it spread and relaxed. Sibilants became somewhat less brittle and more soothing, though there were still there. The overall strain of the music dropped in a fairly big way.
However, some tunes received more benefit than others, frankly.
For $147 plus shipping (from discountpanamax.com), I feel this was a good deal. Not only that, but I also get decent surge protection for my rig, important in Florida.
To be 100% certain, my gut feeling is that my house's power is particularly crappy, with a dishwasher, a/c, televisions, etc. running almost constantly in one combo or another and in what I feel is a substandard electical framework. Naturally, then, your mileage may vary, but when the going is bad, this thing does it's job.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Matt
I got a Monster Powerbar HTS1100 and have experienced results that I'd like to share. The unit has the completely new, re-engineered Level II v2.0 (the v2.0 being the important part) power filtering.
I use a DVD-A player (Panasonic DVD-A7) and a mid-fi (?) turntable (Dual CD 5000 w/NOS Grado cartridge) fed into a Stax SRS-3030 Classic System II (SR-303 cans and SRM-313 amp).
Our house was built in 1994 and is definitely one of those new-fangle-dangled "code straddler" houses, i.e. ones which look like gingerbread houses (thin walls, etc.), built with the cheapest, thinnest materials that just meet code regulations. If you're in an area that's being developed, you'll probably know what I mean (in fact, even in the upscale neighborhoods this type of building is going on, around here). Anyhow, I've always had this creeping suspicion that my power is **** and that it could use some serious filtering...
I tested wall power vs. HTS1100 on the record player first. Impressions:
Whoa! Horns had a more organic, palpable tone to them, vocals exploded with soul and spirit and the depth shot out to the walls (where it was previously rather close around my head). The words that popped into my head were "Emotion" and "Life" Basically, the sound "exploded into technicolor" (as one tube rolling thread put it), something that, incidentally, did not happen as was supposed to when I put a Sylvania Gold Brand into my EMP. Just the record player improvements are well worth it.
The difference was like going from the headphone out of the DVD-A player (powered but flat and lifeless with no real texture or any hint of a living, 3D anything) to my EarMax Pro (incredible texture, huge gains in the third dimension, rich, full timbres, etc.) To be perfectly clear, it wasn't as striking a change, but it was very much in the same vein; the gain was along the lines of 70% of the "headphone jack-to-EarMax Pro" leap, and that says a lot for the price ($750 for the EarMax, $147 for the power conditioner).
Removing my head from the clouds, if we talk in absolute terms about the above paragraph, I feel that if you consider the new, filtered sound to be 80/100 on the scale of reasonably absolute pleasure, the unfiltered sound was 40/100, half the pleasure afforded with the HTS1100. That's a big deal.
There was also a mechanical hum reduction from the player itself (it still has some with the Monster unit, but a lot less...probably about 30% of what it was before...I think the cartridge doesn't like the metal platter or motor or something, because the pitch and volume shift slightly when you move the tonearm over the platter). Anyhow, there was much more life and the soundstage bloomed.
One thing that wasn't so good about the unit was this: I have a RatShack 9V battery eliminator which I'd prefer to use with my Lil' Rat phono preamp. I was seriously hoping that the monster would get rid of this hum, but, alas, it did not. It works fine with a 9V batter (I guess I'll have to go Plainview...anybody got a used charger and Plainview 9V for me?)
With the DVD-A player, there were noticeable differences, though there were not as pronounced. Where the record player's overall pleasure 'n' organic life factor was doubled, the DVD-A unit was probably enhanced by 24%. This was still a solid noticeable gain, though: the soundstage fairly bloomed (on Stax cans that is a miracle, from what I understand, since soundstage is not their strong point by any measure) and the whole soundstage and the instruments placed in it took on a much more relaxed character. It gave the sound, like with the turntable, more dimensionality; it spread and relaxed. Sibilants became somewhat less brittle and more soothing, though there were still there. The overall strain of the music dropped in a fairly big way.
However, some tunes received more benefit than others, frankly.
For $147 plus shipping (from discountpanamax.com), I feel this was a good deal. Not only that, but I also get decent surge protection for my rig, important in Florida.
To be 100% certain, my gut feeling is that my house's power is particularly crappy, with a dishwasher, a/c, televisions, etc. running almost constantly in one combo or another and in what I feel is a substandard electical framework. Naturally, then, your mileage may vary, but when the going is bad, this thing does it's job.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Matt
My goodness, and I thought that you were an AT woody lover to the core! Blah! Oh well, how do they compare anyway, and why did you sell? And that power conditioner upgrade with the Stax really was better that the EMP and W100?!?
