Convenience, Organization, Outlets, appearance

Doesn't do much for improving sound, has other minor problems (see review)

Basically a $350 powerstrip that saves me from programming more macros into my universal remote. Was it worth it? I probably would have been just as happy with the HTS3500 with the smaller meter, no plugs on the front and one less stage of "filtering", so I would have to say "not really". Is it a cool product- sure. In fact, I bought an HTS2500 to go with my 5000, and at half the price, the only thing it is missing is the meter and a little of the flexibility. I also had a problem with it's so-called "filtering" on both my telephone and my terrestrial antenna. When I had a telephone hooked into the jacks, not only did my caller id not function, but I could clearly hear an AM radio station on my phone line. I never had these problems before I "filtered" my phone, and they went away when I unhooked it from the HTS5000. Also, with my terrestrial antenna, I suffered from ghosting when the path went through my monster power center. When I unhooked it, it was fine. Also, do not believe that this unit will get rid of ground loops. That is something you must track down yourself or use isolators. Now, on to the positives- It is an extremely convenient piece, allowing you to hook up 10(actually 12) components into one power strip. I also like the sequenced turn on, so your power amps are the last things on and the first things off so that you don't get "thumps". The remote feature is nice, so that when I turn on my receiver, the switched outlet on my receiver activates the power center and turns on all the other units. I also have my VCR plugged into the same outlet, so that it too was always on and I was not constantly having to reset the clock. It would have been nice if each outlet was programmable rather than in pairs, but no big deal. Last but not least, this unit looks good. With the blue backlit meter, it almost looks like a small power amplifier, and the LED's look sharp in the dark. Not a reason to buy it, but certainly a selling point. It is a great product for convenience sake, a good product for looks, and a fair product for filtering, and in fact poor for anything other than AC power. I would have to say that the HTS 3500 and HTS 2500 are much better values than the so-called "top-of-the-line", but I don't regret getting it, and I do use it every day.

Similar Products Used:

APC Smart-Ups 6000

Build, video improvement, versitility, soundstage improvement and surge protection.

The voltmeter has a tendency to buzz when the back lighting is on.

Well, I finally purchased a line conditioner after much research. For the money I think you can't beat the HTS 5000 MKII. It is very well built, and the wealth of features is amazing for the price. I have a very high end two channel set-up and a modest HT set up. All of my gear is hooked up to the 5000. The most obvious improvement came from the video conditioners. I saw a very real improvement in picture clarity and contrast. The video was also much sharper. As for the two channel gear, I did hear an overall reduction in back ground noise, and the soundstage did in fact "open" up a bit; however, the improvement was more subtle than in the video.

There has been some comments on this board concerning a buzzing from the voltage meter. I to have experienced this. At first I thought it was a defect, and had the unit replaced by Monster (great customer service). The new unit also exhibited this slight buzzing. I have dtermined that it comes from the lighting for the voltage meter. The buzzing can be eliminated by simply switching all of your gear to the always on, i.e.unswitched position, on the unit. The voltage meter still works, but the light does not come on. Other than this slight issue, I highly recommend the unit.


TWO CHANNEL SYSTEM

MC-300 Amp
MC-15 PreAmp
Magnum-Dynalab MD-90 Tuner
Rega Jupiter CD Player
Thiel 3.6 Speakers
Transparent Super-XL interconnects&speaker wire

HT SET UP

Onkyo 575x AV Receiver
AR speaker system w/sub
Monster cables
Dish Network DSS
Panasonic DVD player w/ progressive scan

Similar Products Used:

Tice, Panamax and Chang

Easy to set up, huge improvement in both sound and picture quality.

None that I can find.

All I can say is that this unit did much more than expected. After hooking this into our system, both my wife and I were amazed at the difference. All the fuzziness on our 60 inch rear projector TV was gone, it makes the picture far more three dimensional. The satelite signal improved by 4%. The sound field is much broader.
I was skeptical after reading several of the reviews but figured the insurance and the surge protection would alone be worth it. All I can say is my wife was blown away. That should be enough to sum it up. Set up was easy, the delayed turn on for a future amp is great and it always leaves the ultimate tv on so we wont miss any recordings. We cant say enough, highly reccomend.

Similar Products Used:

power strip

about the same as a power bar, surge supression

price, interference with Dolby Digital decoding, LOUD!, inaccurate voltage readout

Having bought a new system I thought that a power condition sounded like a good idea since we do experience some line fluctuation. I also wanted some decent surge protection. Out of the box this unit looks great but
a) buzzed so loud you could hear it across the room
b) interfered with the Dolby Digital decoding in my Anthem AV 20. Problem immediately went away when I removed the unit
c) line voltage inaccurate as checked by two separate digital voltometers.

Bottom line. Poor investment for the money. I went with Hubbell receptacle surge protection. Spend the dough on another aspect of your system.
PS I e-mailed Monster about the problem and they did not respond to my questions at all.

Similar Products Used:

Hubbell surge supressed receptacle

Have not done enough critical listening to other products to compare

power indicator WAY OFF.

I took my system apart to sell my carver amp, and while waiting for the guy's check I decided to hook up the carver to my mains just to see what I could see…

Well in doing the re wiring I ran my cable straight to my tv (it previously ran thru my line conditioner) and plugged my tv straight into the wall power (it previously got power thru my line conditioner which has an outlet dedicated to tvs) I didn’t even think about my tv stuff, I just wanted to hear my carver. Well as expected, the carver didn’t sound as good as my marantz MA500s (all power ran thru the HTS 5000), but I then went into my setup menu on my preamp to change a setting, and while in the setup I noticed “waves” going up my screen. I never noticed that happening before. Then while listening/watching the Simpons I kept hearing a low, but distinct hum. I thought what the f--k?? Yes I actually said “What the F--K?” So I then put my preamp into cd mode and the hum went away, but it’s definitely there thru the cable. I guess I never thought much of my line conditioner because I have always ran my system thru one, but now that its gone, WOW what a MAJOR difference!!!! Well worth the $600 for me. Maybe a cheaper one would do, maybe there are better ones for the money, but the HTS5000 worked for me. I will be doing some critical listening to Transparent's Line of Power Conditioners, and to PS Audio's Power Plants...intersting that I'm looking to spend more in line conditioning, but I have been shown how poor my electricity is.

Only 4 stars cause nothings perfect, except Alana Davis' cd "Blame It On Me"...great reference disk!!!

My Equip: Lexicon DC-1, Marantz MA500s, Anthem AMP2 (mains), Paradigm Ref Studio 100, and Parad Ref CC, Marantz DV-18, Transparent interconnects, Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker wire, Sony Trintron tv

Similar Products Used:

Rotel Line Conditioner, other Monster HTS products, and lots of self education on the importances/effects of power

improved turn table via record hum due to 1930 wiring in my house

over price - over promoted - over rated

I bought this unit because I could not get credit at my High End store (Digital ear in Tustin), but the Good Guys in Long Beach want my business. I was ranning out of wall plugs with my older Monster Cable multi outlet, and as I walked into the Good Guys I saw this unit on sale. I thought "I got rid of all my Monster Cable for Harmonic Tech wires and I am little sort on cash right now. I can buy the Good Guys best product of this type and charge it over 3 months." Humm... this sounded good at the time but I now have mixed feelings. As per instructions one should turn on there Pre-Amp and then the Amp, but when I did this my Aragon 8008BB Dual Mono 400 watt 4 ohm Amp turned off my Audio Research LS16 tubed Pre-Amp. I turn in the unit for exchange but I asked "Are you sure this is a good machine, maybe its only for low to mid end Audio products?" The second machine has worked O.K., my Aragon 8008BB Amp seems too power hungry for this Monster Cable product. I have notice very litte improvement, mostly improved my turntable via record hum. After reading the intro in the manuel, I got sick with the over rating with these strange looking 3 guys that the manuel was prasing. Monster Cable has lost touch with the real Audio High End world. I agree with Mark from Las Vegas, but will give this unit a 3 because the 2nd machine worked. Only buy this machine if you have only a low to mid range Audio system.

Excellent filtering, build, switching, and connections

Retail price, HTS-2000 is possibly a better bang for the buck.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about this unit sucking the life out of some systems, or minimal improvement.

From what I've experienced, this unit seems to clean up the video a bit, but does nothing for the sound.

...and that's EXACTLY what I expected it to do...

Surprised? The power in my house is pretty clean already...what did y'all expect this to do? clean your CD's or something? It simply regulates the power so that you get minimal interference, no surges or spikes, and a proper ground with a few bells and whistle thrown in. It's simply NOT going to do much if anything to improve sound because all it does is manage power...something your components should already have built in and should already do on a smaller scale (at least mine do). Unless you buy crap components, don't expect this thing to suddenly improve sound quality.

As far as power load, I had NO problems whatsoever test powering my DefTech 3000TL and 3000CLR speakers. Also I hooked up my Lexicon pre-amp and Parasound 2500 amp at the same time and cranked it up to reference level. If this single unit can handle all of those hooked up to it, you guys must be smoking crack if your are telling me this unit can't handle your setups...that's almost 4000 watts of just amplifiers I pushed through this thing! You guys are nuts.

Third, switching is great. 12 volt triggers in AND out. Also, a seperate power trigger in. Every port can be switched on, off, or set on a delay. Delays can be long or short. Basically everything you could possibly ask for in power switching.

Finally, video improved slightly. I notice NO interference at all due to other electronics now (didn't have much to begin with). Removed most of the ghosting problems with my local stations as well. If you pay attention you can see details improve and better, more solid colors.

Anyway, very happy with this. Since I live in Utah, got Ultimate Electronics to price match this with globe-mart for the amazingly low price of $369.00 with no shipping charges thanks to recommendations on this board...THANKS EVERYONE! :)

Anyway, It's a fine unit...on the pricier side of things, but I can't understand what all the complaints are about this thing ruining sound. Guess I'm lucky as I'm having no problems.

A couple of observations I must make as a Monster dealer,

How it is possible for this thing to "filter your midrange" is impossible for me to fathom. It just supplies power folks. Nothing else. Nada. Either your piece of equipment gets 120 volts or not. There is no setting on this power conditioner that you can switch from "supply midrange voltage" to "please, do not supply midrange voltage and make my sound real crappy". Whether you feed your preamp 110 volts or 120 volts should make ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE! If you can hear a difference you need to complain about the power supply in your preamp! I'm unable to comprehend how someone can bend the back connector panel on this unit in and out. It's a freakin' solid sheet of metal. It doesn't bend...period. What were you trying to plug into the back of this? A ball-pean hammer? If yours bends, then it's obviously defective and replace it. I've opened two of these up so far and never seen any questionable workmanship. All the pins were straight and the soldering job was excellent.

Look folks, the Monster 2000 at $200 is probably enough for most people and is rated higher than a $4000 unit by a very high-end magazine. Monster simply used that same technology here and provided some dip-switches for delay, extra filtering, and an oh-so-suave rack-mount look. Other than that it's the SAME UNIT you would spend $200 for (including video filtering). Same basic filtering. Same basic functionality. It's great if you have the money, but I would recommend you try the 2000 first...you'll save money and be just as happy.

Beautiful to look at,glow in the dark votage meter,improved a/v

None

I basically got the 5000 and sold the 3500 only because the meter display was so much cooler looking. Other than that, the 5000 has an extra stage of filtering. There is a difference from pluging your system straight into an outlet rather than running it first into a conditioner. Video and audio runs cleaner. To some it may be just all in your head but to me I saw proof that this thing works when I plugged my tv straight into an outlet and got these nasty wavy lines. Than I used the Monster,no wavy lines! This is a must for your system if you are serious about letting your investment be surge protected and performance improved.

Similar Products Used:

HTS 3500

great video improvement

degraded my sound

I was looking for a surge protector that would not hurt my system performance, and improve it if possible. I started with the top of the line hts 5000. It hurt my b&k avr 202 receiver performance terribly. The stereo image was degraded and many subtleties were lost. But, it really helped my video performance. Detail was improved, and contrast went up several notches.

So, I switched to the hts 2500 after a great review of the 2000 by the Absolute Sound. It improved video like the hts 5000, but best of all, did not interfere with the sound of the receiver. It may have actually improved it a bit.

Some people have had good luck with the 5000, but I'm glad I ended up with the 2500.

If you are serious about line conditioning, have a seperate line installed from your circuit breaker box to the outlet you use for your equipment. Get 10 gauge wire. It will really improve sound quality in addition to any power conditioning. I bought the acclaimed wattagate outlet from hcmaudio.com for about half the retail price ($130 vs. $240). If that costs too much, get a hubble hospital grade outlet for $20-$30. Don't use the 50 cent outlets for your equipment.

I've also played with power cords and recommend them. They really do work. Try either the Synergistic Research Master AC coupler (rave review from the Absolute Sound), or sonichorizon.com hurricane or skyline power cords from hcmaudio.com. The latter is a small production operation, but they are much more flexible than the synergistic research and twice as long - and they sound as good or better.

Similar Products Used:

hts 2500 (like it much better - and half the price)