Thanks to all who have posted. My friend Matt is skeptical of all this so what we are going to do is get his new system set up and use a surge suppressor he has on hand. I have a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet that I will bring to his house and then we can compare. I think it is clear that if power conditioning helps and it always seems to draw a controversial response, the place in his system where it might help is with his plasma screen. If he can notice a difference, then maybe it will be worth it to pony up a few hundred more dollars.
Does power conditioning really matter?
I have a friend who is setting up a budget system with a nice hi def plasma (Pioneer PDP-5020FD) and an entry level receiver (either Denon AVR 1909 or Onkyo TX-SR606) who is wondering whether the Monster conditioner for $300 that the salesperson is pushing is really necessary over a plain surge suppressor. Will this make a difference in his system?