Home Theater question

[xceebeex]

Originally Posted by GranMassaX

Spending several hundred dollars to extend the life, minimally, of something that will have to be replaced anyways is a bit odd, IMO of course.

How often do you plan on losing power to decrease the lamp 1000hours? At most, people lose power a couple times a year and the chances that the TV is on all of those times is slim. So maybe you lose power while the TV is on once a year.

We lose power quite often where we live, even though its only briefly. (I bet we lose it a few times a month, especially during the summer. Sometimes it was a couple times a DAY) Also, as mentioned, the line conditioners will help significantly imrpove the signal going into the TV thus improving the picture and sound quality.

[xceebeex]

Originally Posted by nysulli

as far as power conditioning, you don't need to drop 1300 on the monster cable unit posted by mike, they sell a very similar one at CC for like 200 bucks, even the cheaper power strip style ones work pretty well.

but i've used the higher end ones before, a $300 rotel unit, along with a handful of other things that i've gotten as loaners for a week here and there, guess what performed the best?

yep, a good old $50 isobar ultra6, so if you want to go on the cheap, grab one of those, worse case you've got a quality power strip, and mine have protected both my computer and my home theater through several power outages, i really think a ups is more then anyone needs for a home theater, just my opinion

i'd also just like to add that fortunitly i get pretty clean power at my apartment, and the front living room is on its own phase from the rest of the house for some odd reason (odd, but very very nice for clean power) so my results could be different then yours, i got just as much audable difference from the isobar as i did the other units, your power might not be as clean, and you might hear or see more of a difference

I have heard pretty good things about the Tripp Lite stuff too, but isn't that one you mentioned really more of a surge supressor rather than a line conditioner? I would think the filtering is weak at best.

[mikecentola]

I think you are exaggerating the effect of clean power on a TV also. You don't think that most modern equipment have power conditioners built into them? While they may not be perfect, I doubt you would see a difference between different units as sulli pointed out.

I've got my entire home theater (tv, receiver, xbox, ps2, dvd, cablebox) on one of these:



In fact, I think you bought it for me at compusa a long time ago. I've never had any issues at all.

If you want to spend the $200 on the UPS because you have a lot of blackouts/brownouts, then do it, but I wouldn't expect it to have a really noticeable effect on picture quality.

[nysulli]

Originally Posted by xceebeex

I have heard pretty good things about the Tripp Lite stuff too, but isn't that one you mentioned really more of a surge supressor rather than a line conditioner? I would think the filtering is weak at best.

google some of the DIY line conditioning devices, they are suprisingly very very simple, a more complicated circuit might get you slightly better results, but a very simple design could get you 90% of the effect without much of the cost

the other issue is how they seperate all the different outlets on the higher end stuff, which might help a bit, but an isobar has 3 or 4 seperate filtered banks, offering a claimed 50-100db worth of noise filtering, trust me, they do work

if you look at the DIY power stuff too, you'll notice a huge part of the cost are the plugs and outlets, some of the higher end stuff might be 400 bucks for the kit to build it, but the plugs make up a huge part of that cost

one other thing to look into that many people overlook, the actual outlet you're going to use at your house. a spec grade outlet will cost you 3 bucks at home depot, and is probably going to offer a better connection then whats in your wall now. If you really feel like splurging, go with a medical grade outlet that'll probably run you 15 bucks, or the cyro treated stuff, that you'll have to order online for about 50 bucks an outlet (not worth it imo)

[xceebeex]

Originally Posted by nysulli

one other thing to look into that many people overlook, the actual outlet you're going to use at your house. a spec grade outlet will cost you 3 bucks at home depot, and is probably going to offer a better connection then whats in your wall now. If you really feel like splurging, go with a medical grade outlet that'll probably run you 15 bucks, or the cyro treated stuff, that you'll have to order online for about 50 bucks an outlet (not worth it imo)

Yea, I actually plan on replacing the outlet as well because I am sure the one that is in there is a piece of trash. I guess I am not overly concerned about the line conditioning, I just figured it would be nice to have given the apparently crappy power grid I am on. From what I have seen everywhere, a UPS is a good idea to allow proper cool down of the lamp as it can seriously reduce the overall life of the lamp. Even if the UPS only says me the life of one total bulb throughout the entire time I own the TV it already pays for itself.

[nysulli]

to follow up on things, heres a few links for DIY power filters, note the first link is the breakdown of a $700 power filter/strip that is very highly regarded as possibly the best performing filter in its price range, its painfully simple, and the article shows you how to essentially recreate it for $100 bucks with mostly home depot grade stuff (yeah, they'll be some difference since it doesn't have the cryo outlets, but still)

http://www.10audio.com/diy_power_conditioner.htm

second link could allow you to source some of high grade outlets, as well as a guide to making high end power cords on the cheap, check out the hot box, i'm sure you could replicate something similar with a filter on the cheap
diy link first, parts store is the second link

http://www.venhaus1.com/diymains.html

http://www.vhaudio.com/products.html

[xceebeex]

Originally Posted by nysulli

to follow up on things, heres a few links for DIY power filters, note the first link is the breakdown of a $700 power filter/strip that is very highly regarded as possibly the best performing filter in its price range, its painfully simple, and the article shows you how to essentially recreate it for $100 bucks with mostly home depot grade stuff (yeah, they'll be some difference since it doesn't have the cryo outlets, but still)

http://www.10audio.com/diy_power_conditioner.htm

second link could allow you to source some of high grade outlets, as well as a guide to making high end power cords on the cheap, check out the hot box, i'm sure you could replicate something similar with a filter on the cheap
diy link first, parts store is the second link

http://www.venhaus1.com/diymains.html

http://www.vhaudio.com/products.html

Thanks for the links Sulli. I may try out that Hydra thing myself.

[mikecentola]

omg $800 power cables lol

[nysulli]

lol, thats only scratching the surface you can pay 15 grand for an rca cable if you really want to, and no, i'm not kidding, but its uninsulated wire under vacuum in a ptfe tube, tara lab's the zero or something like that

[xceebeex]

Ok, well I switched gears a bit, I have it narrowed down to these three units:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1158321454161

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....1&type=product

http://www.provantage.com/tripp-lite...d~7TRPL1K3.htm

I am leaning towards the Tripp Lite, but the Surge Protection for both the APC and Tripp Lite are MUCH lower than the Geek Squad unit (which I have no idea how reliable it is). Anyway, I am leaning towards the Tripp Lite and then possible a simple surge protector to add additional surge protection. What do you guys think?