Help with purchase of power conditioner

You should get one that has good separate digital filtering. It will make a big difference in the quality of your TV picture. At your price point, take a look at models by Audio Power, Tice, and Chang Lightspeed.

Also used now on Audiogon is a Vansevers Model 83 and Model 85 for a little over $300. I would start with the 85 as my first choice because it has more digital plugs than the 83. The 85 has two separate pairs (4), so for digital you can keep the TV and DVD on separately filtered plugs for better issolation and filtering. The Vansevers list for around $600 new and are a great value for the asking used prices.

I would personally skip the Monster conditioners which I am sure will get recommended. They work OK if your budget was only $150 or less, but are over-rated above that in my opinion.

Those switches (two of them) on the Vansevers Reference conditioners that "don't do anything" are transient impedance switches. They are for tweeking the transients of the high and mid treble. It is one of those things you won't notice right away, or maybe ever, if you don't know what they do, and you don't know what you are listening for. With most conditioners you get whatever the designer thinks is right, which usually ends up being an average of what will work pretty well with most systems. Mike Vansevers lets you tweek the highs to more closely fit your system and your personal taste. The change is not huge, but still noticeable. Same goes with his Pandora power cords. One more toy for us to play around with.

I have the feeling the Tice "TPT" is similar to Adcom's new patented "ILS" technology. "ILS" really is just surge protection. It stands for "If Lightning Strikes". Probably dreamed up by the marketing department to justify the big price increase over the old models.

No, not copywriting. I have spoken to Mike Vansevers myself about these switches. Mike has even personally modified one of his units for me. I have been using Vansevers for years; done extensive listening while playing with those switches, so I know what they do from long hours (years) of personal experience.

All you have done is look inside and saw some wire you can't explain. Since the Digital 12 does not have screws to open the case, it would indicate you must have pried it open (broke it) to look inside. You would then unable to put the case back together properly, so it must now be unusable.

Mike is an electrical engineer by training and former pro-audio engineer with over 30 years experience working with sound. For those interested in finding out more, you can read this extensive article in Soundstage.

http://www.soundstage.com/noisy15.htm

I like Tice also. I recommended them above.

I checked and "TPT" stands for "Tice Power Technology" Therefore it is just be some letters added for marketing purposes to make whatever they do to treat their power cords sound cool; the same as Adcom calling their surge protection setup "ILS Technology". Does not really matter as long as it works. Looks like George Tice burns/breaks-in the cable some, so it sounds better new out of the box. If so, it's perfectly fine and a good idea.

The following is cut and paste directly from Tice website:

The TPT treatment has already shown great potential for use in medical / laboratory imaging equipment, communications and general electronics.

Then he adds later:

At present TPT treated products are only available from Tice Audio.

Talk about marketing hype! He wants to imply his technique is a scientific marvel that could potentially save human lives; but he refuses to point to anyone who is actually using it other than him. At the very least he would have licensed the technology by now if there was demand for it from other industries. (After 12 years) Or he would mentioned companies he sells treated wires to. Instead we get vague statements that can't be verified.

Scotty: Beam me up.