PS Audio vs. Monster - cleaning up the power

You got a great setup. I sincerely suggest that you give PP600 a trial and forget about UO and Monster. Clean power is much more important to the front-end than to the power amp. You will be supprised how much more benefits that extra few hundred dollars buy you.

Sidssp. None. I can crank the gain up pretty high (we're talking 275 wpc) without hum. I'm just trying to get the power as clean as I can at a reasonable price. The dedicated lines definitely helped. They run off a 30 amp breaker from my main panel into a separate fuse box with 20 amp ceramic fuses. Everything is pretty good, but I'm thinking a Monster HTS 5000 will clean up both power and video. I'll give a used one a try and plug the amp into the wall until I can get a 20 amp Ultimate Outlet to put in the circuit.

Sounds like you should be ok. Do you experience any hum problem?

Sidssp. What my electrician ran was a 10 ga underground cable that has 2 hot leads, 2 commons and a single ground. This goes into a junction box from which there are two 3 wire lines to the powerports. Thus, there is a common ground (I guess this qualifies as a star as you describe it) back to my fuse box. I will plug the amp into one of the lines, the front end into the other.

Star grounding is a grounding technique that connects all the ground wires to a single point and than connects that point to the ground. The resulting topology looks like a star and hence the name star grounding.

Ground loop hum is caused by the relative voltage differences at the ground levels between different components. So if you plug you power amp into one outlet and plug your preamp to a different outlet, it is possible that the ground wires in the two outlets will have different resistances and therefore a voltage difference is developed between the two amps. When the outlets are new, the difference in resistance may be small and you may not notice much noise. But as time goes by, oxidation will develop on the contact points of the outlet, the bare wires, and the circuit breakers; and the noise will get worst.

If you plug both amps to the same outlet, the relative resistance is measured only between the two power cables of the two amps which is much less than going through the outlet, the wires in the wall, and the circuit breaker, and back.

I am not sure what you mean by "two 20 amp lines with a common ground back to the panel". But if I were you, I will plug the Juice Bar to one 20 amp line and than plug everything to the Juice Bar.

I hope this help.

Sidssp. What is star grounding? I have two dedicated 20 amp lines with a common ground back to the panel. I already have a Juice Bar and would buy used Monster. Just can't swing the $s for the PP600 right now. For now I'll plug the amp (Musical Fidelity M3 integrated) directly into the wall using a Virtual Dynamics cryoed Audition PC.

I will suggest you buy a used PS Audio PP-600, plug it in one of the outlet of the dedicated 20-amp line, and plug all your front-end audio equipment to the pp-600. I will than plug the power amp to the other outlet of the dedicated 20-amp line. This will give you a regulated power and isolation for the sensitive front-end and a star grounding connection of all your equipment. Star grounding is the key to eliminate ground-loop problem.

The PP-600 will cost you a few hundreds more but the cost/benefit ratio is much higher than UO+Monster. You don't even need the latest PP-600. A used one without powerport should run about $1500 on Audiogon.

If you prefer the monster route, I would take a look at buying a used MIT Z-Center. The monster power conditioners are based on the Z-Center. Z-Centers sold new for 1500, and can be picked up used for 5-600.

Try both...you have to decide when the sound is better. Do not plug your amps into the Monster though, they will compress the sound. I even blew my 2500 plugging amps into them.
Unless you have real dirty sounding power, use the UOs and the Juice bars, without all the circuitry these are likely to sound better even on your front end then the Monster.
Good luck!
Tom

I was blown away by the improvement to both audio and video by the addition of a Monster 5000 to my HT system. Perhaps other power conditioners are even better but the Monster meets my needs very nicely and the price on the 5000 is definitely right as it has recently been discontinued but tons of them are still available in dealers' inventories.

will