Monst5000 power thingy AFTER Adcom ACE:

Elizabeth, First of all, it's good to see that you have such good taste in amps. I am a BIG fan of Nelson's "budget" models and find them to absolutely slay much more expensive competition. This includes some of his more recent designs also. As to the Monster / Adcom power line filters, my experience is with the ACE 515 and the HTS-2000. While i never attempted "piggy-backing" them in series the way that you did, i was able to form opinions of them as individual units. I was initially using the Monster and ran across a good deal on the Adcom, so i popped her into the system. Right off the bat, things sounded more musical. A little bit "richer", more texture and a bigger soundstage. BUT... i was now hearing "clicks" from light switches in other rooms being turned off or on whereas i had NEVER had anything like that happen with the Monster hooked up. Putting the Monster 2000 back into the system seemed to "choke" some of the music out of the system. It seemed like dynamics were somewhat squashed, there was a less involving sound, etc.. BUT it was quieter. When all was said and done, i don't have either of those in the system anymore. I've since gone to some power cords that seem to work better with less drawbacks than either of the two products mentioned. I should probably try replacing the stock cord on the Monster with one of my new ones just to see what would happen. For the record, i only ran source components and my preamp from the power line filters with the amps plugged directly into the wall. I knew someone would bring that up, so i figured i'd "cut to the chase".

Elizabeth: I also live in an apartment and use the Monster HTS2000. I have a very dirty power source and the conditoning is the less of two evils. Whatever sounds best in your system is the way to go. If you end up tweaking the Monster, please let us know how it goes. I am lookong into another type of inexpensive line conditioner ($300.00 or less) at this time that is mentioned in "The best upgrade I ever made" thread. David

run your power amp/s directly into the wall, unless ewe can afford something like a ps-audio ps300/600/1200 (or two) for your amps. any conditioner that i can afford will be too current-limiting for my pair of electrocompaniet amps for my monitors, & the bridged pair of adcom (1st edition) 555's for my subs.

Yes Elizabeth I believe you are correct. (Mike) Vansevers makes a "Jr" conditioner with one AC outlet for issolating one component. Mike is now also saying they can be used between the wall plug and a budget conditioner exactly as you are doing, and this will improve the performance of the system. See Vansevers.com I personally do not care for the Adcom ACE-515. When I tried one out in various configurations and systems, the noise floor was worse with the Adcom than no conditioner at all. Good conditioners less than $350 list are made by Audio Power and Chang. The Monster I have connected to my TV works fine. The picture and colors are sharper with it.

Liz, My tests with Monsters are that HTS2000 does indeed slightly improve sound, as Robt Harley from AS claims, but higher up units actually degrade the sound for audio only systems. My test was with HTS3500 with stage 3 filtering and was worse sounding than HTS2000, fine detail was removed to my hearing, softer more opaque sound that was less dynamic. I personally would not connect two cheap line conditioners together in series, would almost certainly result in degraded sound.

I agree with Megasam. Two cheap conditioners is probably worse. The Vansevers "Jr" is $250 to $300 for a one outlet unit, so this is the same quality as expensive multi-outlet unit. Vansevers also makes a power amp conditioner call "The Unlimiter". I have not tried on, but as the name implies, it is designed to clean the AC, but not limit power or dynamics. He has lots of testimonials on his web site from recording studios and professional musicians, so I would assume they work. I have a Vanevers reference conditioner on my system and the noise floor reduction is a lot. The model has switches on the back to help tweek the current for your system.

Oh, I do want the try the PS Audio some day.

anyone have any experience w/the vansevers unlimiter? i've heard of this, but not heard any user coments. i'd be interested in protecting my amps w/o degrading their sound-quality - they *do* sound good plugged straight into the wall... also, what's the retail price? i guess i will have to check out the testimonials on the www...

thanks, doug

those damn ps audio 300/600/1200 sure do get rave reviews...can't wait to buy one someday!!!