Reading this forum is dangerous, as I didn't know until last night that I NEEDED something more than a standard surge protector for my gear. Now, the question is which one.

With a budget of around $200, the Panamax 5100 and the Monster Power HTS2500 are in the hunt. Specs look about equal except for weight--the Panamax weights 18 lbs., the MP weights 8 lbs.(!). The MP HTS3500 is a definite step up (it adds an analog meter), but costs about $55 more.

Opinions?

If you do not experience interferrence like buzzes, CB radios etc coming through your system, you may not NEED a filter at all. They only clean up garbage on the power line. A surge protector is all you need to protect against lightning etc from turning your system into ashes.

Also you migh check with your power company and see if they offer lighting and/or surge protection, mine does and is about $10 extra a month.

I bought a Panamax, the dealer I went to sold both brands but said Panamax was better to work with in warranty situations (in reference to the insurance policy that comes with them). That's what sold me, but I don't think there's much differnce in quality.

Most 'surge suppressors' act like a crowbar circuit in that they absorb as much of the surge as they can and in so doing draw current, which should make the breaker trip. It's pretty rare that they are REALLY able to block an actual nearby lightning strike (I have first hand experience) but some of them have large 'insurance' policies where any equipment up to XXX dollars that is destroyed will be replaced.

One type device that might actually do the job is a 'full time' or 'on-line' UPS, where the UPS constantly charges a battery and the equipment is always fed from a dedicated inverter, but those babies are pretty spendy. This is NOT the UPS you find for $59 at CompUSA. They are supposed to produce 'data grade power', whatever that is. At least you'd really be isolated from line noise. If you really wanted to get crazy there are systems large enough for a whole house application.

That 'data grade power' is most likely a square wave, which is what a good deal of the inexpensive inverters create, as this is easy to do electronically. Some better ones generate a wave that is sort of like a sine wave that the normal AC service is, but it still has steps in the waveform. Somewhat harder to do electronically. If you really want to get into power re-generation, you would need an inverter that generates an actual _sine_ wave, just like your power company does. THAT is hard and expensive to do - did I mention expensive? Really, if you are concerned, find someone with an ocilloscope and distorntion analyzer, and/or a power event monitor and have them monitor your power for a day.

Chances are that your AC has the usual approximately 3% harmonic distortion, and not a lot of noise on top of it. _Generally_ the heavier a power filter is, the bigger and therefore heavier the inductors are, and that indicates filtering ability to a relatively lower frequency: down into the audio band. But the downside to this is that big inductors have resistance that can limit the amount of current available from the filter circuit.

I've probably given you way too much information that you'll never need, but I guess I'm just in a typing mood today

Over lunch, I went to an audio store and the sales guy demonstrated a Monster Power 2600. He plugged a meter + speaker of some sort into an electrical outlet--the white noise was audible (154 "units"). He plugged in a cell phone battery charger below the meter and the meter went up about 10 units. Then, he plugged the meter and the charger into the MP2600--absolute quiet (4 "units"). Not sure how this demo could be rigged to sell the product, but it was impressive. Further, the demo mirrored the product reviews I've read--lots of testimonials of better TV reception, clear sound, etc.

Thanks, you guys, for all the education, on this topic and others.

The UPSs I've used were PWM sine approximations, but I'm not sure how high the carrier frequency was or what the noise etc. on the waveform was. It was much better than the line, and good enough to work for the application (industrial controller systems) so good enough was good enough...

Definitely Panamax over Monster...i think Monster Power is way too overrated. i have the 4300 and it's way better than i expected. It's not only heavier, it's also well built. Come on! Do you really need an analog meter? I don't know if a UPS is what you need...but if i we're to choose between the Panamax 5100 and the Monster 2500 (there are new 2600's) i would go with the Panamax.