Just wanted to added a new point to the old line conditioner debate. I just got a Monster Power HTS3500 and I can firmly say that incrementaly it was a very good investment. My power situation before was shakey at best. When I moved into my apartment the power was ok, no hum or anything. Then we started to get these random outages and a hum from the speakers began to grow. It got to the point where the hum could be heard from outside the room, pretty bad, huh? After hookin up this good looking baby yesterday, I can say that the hum is just about gone and sound quality overall is well improved. My bass seems tighter and the highs clearer. Can I 100% say that this is totall objective? No. But I am pretty sure there is a noticable improvement well worth the $270.

My choice came down to The Monster HTS3500 and the Panamax 5100 which I am sure many of you all have pondered at some time or another. They both looked like great products with many happy people using them but for me it came down to the fact that the Monster had a trigger for both a 12 volt jack (which I dont have) and a 110v jack for the swithed plug on the back of my old receiver (which I know i will have for a while yet). Plus it comes with both kinds of trigger cables. I though this was a pretty good feature and ultimately tipped the scales for me.

The real point of my posting is to say that that for those of us who are looking to improve our systems but dont want to shell out the big bucks for a new receiver/pre-pro or higher end disc player etc. might want to look into a mid-priced line conditioner as that next incremental improvement. The advantages are increased peace of mind with all the protection you get (I can only imagine it will do a better job that the $5 Home Depot surge protector) and the sonic improvemnt you will hopelly hear.