California Brownouts and equipment

rosstaman: you might want to review the thread titled "California electrical shortage audio," that began on 02/15/01. It should answer at least some of your questions. -kelly

Thanks Kelly!

Rosstaman: I live in LA (West Hollywood proper) and have not experienced any noticable damage to our equipment. Everything is surge protected (the computer is on a RS surge protecter and an APC line conditioner) and the main Hi-fi is running from a Monster HTS-200 line conditioner. We have only had a few periods of "zero power" that lasted a few minutes at around 6:00am. We did go through a two month period where we were not receiving enough current (per the alarm on the APC that chirped away merrily 24 hours a day) but this cleared up 3-4 weeks ago. I spoke with a dealer up in Canyon Country that lost a major digital piece due to a power surge following a brown out, but I assume that the unit was running unprotected. Low amperage is a slow death for components but I assume that the main risk is when the power comes back on. I don't recall what your setup is but the Monster 2000's are only $125.00 new on line. I can't recall off hand where I purchased it for this price but will be happy to look it up if you are interested. I am planning on picking up a second one anyway in the near future for an experiment that I am planning. The inexpensive surge protecters (designed for audio) that I have tried from RS sound awful on our main rig and the mini system as well, so I cannot recommend them. The Monster sounds great (especially on digital stuff).

Here's the place your looking for Dekay:

http://www.globe-mart.com/computer/surge/monstercable/index.htm

Global Mart has great prices and a 30 day return policy.

http://www.hififorless.com used to have even better prices but all sales were final. As such, that was no big deal if you knew that you really wanted that item. I checked their prices on Sunday night and they have gone up $80 on the hts-2000 ( from $119 to $199 ) and $120 on the hts-2500 ( from $169 to $289 ) since then !!! I would imagine that if you were to call them, you could probably get the old prices.

I have no idea what prompted this advertised price increase, but one might assume that Monster is cracking down on dealers selling below MSRP. Buy them "cheap" while you can !!! Sean
>

I assume this monster 2000 cleasn up the ac current? Similar to the mit product but for less?

jd

What if you don't have power plant or line conditioner or sophisticated surge protector, Your euipment are at risk?

Sean: Bummer, that was where I picked mine up (but it's only $75.00 and not the end of the world). I think that Craig at Vibrapods offers a slight discount and will check him out. Jdwek: The HTS-2000 cleans up the power, but does not regenerate or add power when the current drops. I still recommend it though for what it does do at its price point (smooth out the highs, reduce background noise and acts as a surge protector without mucking up the sound, IMO) and have used it with sucess on three different setups (both tube and SS). Of course if you have a clean power source perhaps just a "quality" surge protector would do the trick. I forgot to mention before that we did have a couple of fans fail, in our computer approx 6 months apart, but I feel that it may have been from the low amperage that we were experiencing. Since adding the APC to the computer the power supply seems to run cooler. NilthePill: I would think so. Though I do not understand why, power surges are commom when areas are being powered up again following a black out. I can even recall my father unplugging the "precious" television in the late 50's during power outages in the Midwest at the advice of our neighbor who was an electrician for Westinghouse, so this is not a new concept.

Sean & everybody: I just went to Global Mart and the price is still $124.95 plus $9.25 for UPS ground. I ordered another one to get it over with. I am going to try running two in tandem (the second one running off of the "digital" outlet of the first). I will plug the amp into the "amp" plug of the first unit and run the digital components (DAC and player) from the "digital" outlets on the second unit. If doubling up on the digital gear does not sound better, I still have a use for it on the mini system. If I weren't so cheap I would have ordered a couple for the televisions as well, but I am, so I didn't.

Get out of Cal.

Snook: We have had an offer to relocate to Italy, but I fear that I would go hoarse yelling "where's the beef".

david, i'd go to italy if i were ewe - who needs beef when there's italian cars? ;~)

doug s.

Thanks, everyone. And I appreciate that no one suggested a new wife.