 Monster
Power HTPS7000 Home-Theater Reference PowerSource with Dual Balanced Power
"What do you think?" my friend Jeff asked.
"It looks like a shoebox," I said, gazing at his
final A-school drafting project of the semester.
"Yeah!"
"Umm, what's it supposed to look like?"
"It's supposed to look like a shoebox! That's
why I gave it a mansard roof -- that's why I gave it those classic proportions."
"What does the bank think?"
"Who?"
"You know, the clients -- those nice folks who
would like to give you money in exchange for designing their new branch."
"Who cares?"
I sighed. "Jeff, remind me again why you went into
architecture."
"It's all about total control," he said --
another poor soul ruined by early exposure to The Fountainhead.
Sure, my buddy Jeff was crazy -- but as dreams go, there
are certainly worse ones. Everything seems to be getting more and more complicated. Life,
work, hobbies, you name it -- establishing any control over any of it is getting
pretty difficult. Wouldn't it be great to feel totally on top of something, anything,
for a change?
Indeed it does!
I can say that so emphatically because I have a Monster
Power HTPS7000 taming the electrical energy that feeds my home theater; the very same
electrical energy that -- if left to its own insidious devices -- would menace my system's
very health and degrade its sound and video quality. It would, but it can't --
thanks to my Monster Power Reference PowerSource[TM] with Dual Balanced Power. Bwah hah
hah hah haaaah!
Creative power
Actually, the HTPS7000 does simplify things a lot. In
addition to being a surge suppressor and power-line conditioner, it offers several
switching options that make powering up (and powering down) multicomponent systems quite a
bit easier. It also offers component-to-component isolation and even sports three
internally shielded 75-ohm coaxial surge suppressors (for, oh, radio or television
antenna, cable box, and satellite dish, for example), not to mention a phone-line
suppressor -- all designed to keep nasty spikes from frying your sensitive electronic
components. Oh yeah, it also comes with an insurance policy -- if your system is properly
connected to the HTPS7000, it is covered by a $750,000 limited connected-equipment
warranty.
The HTPS7000 is the work of Richard Marsh, who is well
known in audio circles as the inventor of the MultiCap internal bypass capacitor and the
designer of ultra-high-quality audio components. He has designed the HTPS7000 to employ
both Monster's Clean Stage Power 5 and balanced transformers, to provide
state-of-the-art isolation from AC line-borne noise and interference.
The Monster Home Theater Reference PowerSource 7000 looks
like a high-end component. It has the deluxe livery and industrial presence of, say, a
Krell or Conrad-Johnson amplifier. And it's certainly priced accordingly, at $1295. It's a
large unit -- at 17"W by 6"H by 15"D and weighing a hefty 37 pounds, it
masses about the same as a large power amplifier. Its black casework is dominated by a
brushed-aluminum section in the center of its faceplate, which contains a large oval LED
display that continuously monitors line voltage. Beneath the display are five LED
indicator lights: Grounded OK, Protection On, Clean Power On, Abnormal Voltage, and Wiring
Reversed. Obviously, you want the first three on, but not the last two.
To the right of the display are four large aluminum
buttons: On/Off, Menu, Set, and Dimmer. The first is obvious, the second allows you to
customize the unit for your system, the third allows you to set the programming
parameters, and the last one allows you to adjust the brightness of the LED display.
To the display's left are two rows of three LED indicator
lights -- each one signals that one of the unit's six two-receptacle outlets is powered
on.
The HTPS7000's rear panel is packed with receptacles, fuse
holders, and connectors. There are separate fuses covering the digital, audio, and video
circuits, as well as an overall 15A thermal circuit breaker. Most of the rear panel is
dominated by the 7000's six two-receptacle outlets. From left to right, the first four are
labeled: Audio Filter, Digital Filter 1, Digital Filter 2, Video Filter. That leaves two,
of course, and these are labeled High Power 1 and 2.
Next are two DC triggers and a socket for an appliance-type
power cable (more on this later). There are input and output connectors for the three
coaxial feeds, as well as two phone connectors. A heavy-duty hard-wired Monster Power 300
AC cable and a ground connection complete the rear-panel amenities.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath such power
Now let's delve deeper into some of these connections and
features, because many of them aren't your ordinary power-conditioner features at all.
First off, there are the coax surge protectors, which
shield your A/V system from antenna, satellite, and cable fluctuations and noise. Monster
insists (and quite rightly) that you check that all three inputs are properly grounded
before entering your house (as covered in the National Electrical Code). Always check that
these are grounded to a copper ground rod driven into the earth (or to a cold water pipe).
Installers are supposed to do this (and are required by law to do it), but
sometimes they don't -- figuring that if you find out otherwise, the experience won't
leave you in a position to complain, I reckon. And, in case that's not enough of a spur,
you'll be voiding your $750,000 replacement warranty if they're not properly grounded.
Normally, coaxial isolation filters create problems as bad
as the ones they're supposed to solve. Most of them cause an insertion loss of about 30dB
-- at that rate you’re better off with a few dB of noise. But Monster's filters cause
an infinitesimal amount of RF signal loss. The difference between my unfiltered DTV feed
and the signal that had passed through the 7000 wasn't a night-and-day contrast -- which,
given the performance of most coax filters, is a plus from the get-go -- but it was
an improvement.
And, if you have a DTV system like I do (or if your set-top
box has to be connected to the phone lines), you'll appreciate the isolation filter on the
PowerSource, too. Not, I hasten to add, because I noticed any improvement, but because
phone lines do get struck by lightning, and just knowing the filter is in place
(not to mention the warranty) made me feel better.
When the HTPS7000 is shipped, all six outlets are
programmed to be continuously on. But you can change all that. Each double outlet can be
programmed so that it is either always on (whether or not the HTPS7000 is powered up), or
set to turn on upon switching "on" the 7000, or to turn on after a programmed
delay. You could have your video outlet set to continuous operation, which means that your
VCR or TiVo can stay powered up for time shifting. Then you could have your
processor/preamp turn on when you switched on the 7000; 20 seconds later, the digital
filter outlet could sequence on, and, last, the High Power outlet would activate, powering
up your power amplifier. When you power down the 7000, the last outlet to activate will
turn off, followed at the preset intervals by the others.
 Now, remember that funky appliance-cord socket on the 7000's rear
panel? It's a remote switch. Let's say you have a remote-controlled preamp/processor with
switched convenience outlets -- you can use it to power up and power down your whole
system. First, connect the preamp/processor to the Digital Filter 1 outlet, and then
program it for continuous power. Then plug the other system components into the
appropriate outlets on the 7000 and program its power up/down sequence accordingly. Now
take the appliance cord, connect it to the HTPS7000, and plug it into the switched
convenience outlet on the preamp/processor.
Let's review, because that sounds complex -- but it's
really simple. The preamp/processor is plugged into an outlet of the 7000 that will always
have power. The 7000's remote trigger is plugged into the preamp/processor. Everything
else in the system is plugged into a delayed switch on the 7000 (or as you have programmed
each outlet). When you turn the preamp/processor on with the component's remote, the 7000
will sense the AC power in the convenience outlet and switch on its outlets in the
sequence you have programmed into it. You'll never have to leave your comfy chair again.
Nifty, eh?
Power corrupts, poetry cleanses
Of course, that's just the features; we haven't actually
gotten into the unit's raison d'être yet, its massive power filtration and
balanced-power operation.
Clean Power Stage 5 provides the connected components with
isolation and filtration. CPS5 utilizes five discrete isolation filters (and an extra two
on the digital inputs) to reject line-borne noises and to prevent components within the
system from contaminating one another.
Some power-line filters only treat the incoming AC, which
is important, of course. The nature of modern life means that AC power contains a
veritable stew of radio-frequency interference, power-cycling spikes, and other garbage
(noise). Clean all that up, however, and you can still have noisy power simply because the
components of your system are pumping noise back into your nice isolated power stream and
contaminating each other!
Monster's component-to-component filtering is designed to
combat this -- in fact, it's one of the properties of the HTPS7000 that the company seems
proudest of. The company stresses that it has designed each outlet's filtration
specifically for its labeled purpose. This doesn't mean you'll harm your CD player by
connecting it to the High Power outlet, simply that the Digital Filter outlet has an extra
two stages of digital filtration, which are designed to keep the player from dumping noise
back into the power line. Richard Marsh has gone to a lot of trouble to develop AC filters
tailored to video bandwidth or high-current operation, so you might as well let them do
what they were designed to do.
Balance of power
Then there's the whole matter of balanced AC power, which
is utilized by many of the better line "conditioners" on the market. To explain
that, we need to look at AC power for a second. As anyone who has ever had to change a
power receptacle knows, AC utilizes three wires. The "hot" wire carries 120
volts of alternating current (120VAC), the "neutral" line carries 0V, and the
"ground" (also 0V) is there for safety.
Now, that 120V-carrying line can actually cause hum in
nearby low-level audio-signal-carrying wires. In addition, ground is almost never at
precisely 0V, for a variety of reasons, and that mild current flow (aka "leaky
ground") creates noise. None of this matters when all we're doing with that AC power
is illuminating light bulbs or running refrigerators, for instance, but in the context of
a high-resolution audio/video system, it's a huge problem.
Balanced power solves that problem. In balanced AC
operation, a center-tapped isolation transformer "splits" the incoming power.
The hot wire no longer carries 120V and neutral no longer carries 0V -- instead, the two
lines each carry 60V and are of opposite polarity to one another. That means when one leg
carries +60V, the other carries -60V. Thus, the difference between the current-carrying
legs is still 120V, which allows any equipment connected to the transformer to continue
operating normally. Except for one thing -- since the two lines are 180 degrees out of
electrical phase with one another, any line-carried noise cancels itself out. This is
known as common-mode rejection (CMR) and it can reduce line-carried noise by as much as
16dB.
And remember how that 120V line could cause hum in an
audio-signal-carrying line? That doesn't happen with balanced AC because of -- you guessed
it! -- common-mode rejection. CMR also eliminates noise caused by ground leakage -- again
because it is equally present (and therefore self-canceling) in both legs of the circuit.
So why doesn't everyone use balanced AC? It's expensive.
True balanced AC, especially if we're talking about high-current AC (which is what power
amplifiers require), takes a lot of transformer iron and miles of wire. How do you
feel about having a power station in your listening room? Me neither -- too noisy, too
hot, and too damn expensive to run.
Monster Power's HTPS7000 represents an intelligent
compromise. It doesn't even attempt to balance the power going to its High Power 1 and 2
outlets. Those just employ the Clean Power Stage 5 filters. Also, as anybody who has
rooted around inside a television (and survived) can attest, video displays are major
current draws, too. So, the HTPS7000 doesn't balance the video outlets either -- although
it does employ a massive high-quality, high-current filter.
The unit is billed as Dual Balanced, however, and it
actually utilizes not one, but two 230W toroidal transformers to balance the AC for
the four digital and two audio (presumably analog) outlets. Each outlet set gets its own
separately derived balanced power, supplying yet another degree of isolation from internal
AC contamination.
Power to move the hearts of men
And the big question is: Does all of this work? A-yup!
I plugged the Integra DTR-8.2 A/V receiver into one of the
High Power outlets, with the Arcam DV88 DVD player in one of the Digital outlets and the
Philips DSR6000 DirecTV/TiVo unit in another, and the Plus HE-3100 DLP projector in a
Video socket (I did try to sneak it into a Digital outlet, but it popped three fuses like
so much bubble wrap, so I acquiesced).
The video difference wasn't even close to subtle -- the
color saturation and clarity of the HE-3100's image went from David Hamilton to Ansel
Adams! From my previous career as an audio salesman, I know that many, many people
distrust their ability to discern audible differences, but seeing is incontestably
believing.
I wasn't expecting much difference on the DV88, but darned
if blacks weren't blacker. There was less visible video noise. How could there be so much
less of something I hadn't been aware of seeing in the first place? Even if the 7000
didn't do a thing for the audio portion of the system, it deserves a permanent berth for
its video performance.
But guess what -- it was pretty darn effective for audio,
too. Not that I was aware of any actual AC noise before installing the HTPS7000 -- the
system was pretty quiet, I thought. But I couldn't help noticing that the Integra sounded
more open, and dynamic contrasts seemed more vivid after installing the Monster unit.
I have to confess to a failure of vision here. When it
comes to sonic differences, I tend to think like a two-channel kind of a guy. So, to test
the Monster's effectiveness on A/V sound, I pulled out a bunch of my favorite CDs, sat
down in the sweet spot between the right and left front speakers, and turned off the
surround-sound processor. And I heard the openness and the dynamic swings all right. I was
impressed.
But later that night I cranked-up the processor and watched
The Fellowship of the Ring, which has a phenomenal surround soundtrack, and my jaw
dropped onto my chest. Holy moly! I was hearing a lot more environmental sounds I'd missed
previously. I was enveloped by the living, breathing sounds of Middle Earth. Surrounded,
as it were -- completely.
I must have turned up the volume when I was listening to
CDs this afternoon, I thought and I hit the remote to check the setting. Nope, if
anything, I'd turned it down when the FedEx guy rang the bell. And only then did it hit
me: The Monster HTPS7000 had lowered the noise floor of the digital processor -- I was
hearing sounds that had been masked by extremely low-level noise previously.
Now, the stereo differences were subtle, but the
differences in surround material were massive and unexpected. The 7000 rocks!
Genius hath electric power
As balanced AC power conditioners go, the Monster HTPS7000
isn't the most expensive thing going, but at $1295, it's not exactly pocket change either.
Yet, it appears to live up to its price and its impressive mien with performance that
seems to go above and beyond anything else in its price range.
I know audiophiles who would add it to their systems simply
for its voltage-monitoring function -- and I have to admit I'm not above thinking that's
pretty cool. On a more practical level, I appreciated its coaxial input filters,
phone-line filters, and component-to-component isolation.
Some of its features were of limited importance to me, but
might be precisely what another consumer has been searching for. The programmable power up
and down sequence and remote triggers fall into this category, but I'm a cranky old-school
stereo nut who still finds convenience slightly suspect. (In my day, the only warmth we
had was when tubes went incandescent -- and we liked it!)
But there's no question that the Clean Power Stage 5
filtration was impressively effective, as were the discrete balanced-power stages for the
audio and digital outlets. I've heard units that did nothing audible in a system context,
and I've heard units that actually degraded system sound. There's no question the HTPS7000
offered improved performance on both the audio and video fronts.
I was even impressed by what the unit didn't do. In
a climate of ever-upwardly spiraling prices that laugh in the face of restraint, Monster
Power made a costs/benefits decision that was both rational and reasonable, and it put the
balanced AC on the crucial low-level and source components -- rather than building a power
line conditioner only a few people could afford.
Hmmm, great design, a reasonable price, and intelligent
restraint -- maybe some qualities are more important than total control.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Monster Power HTPS7000
Price: $1295 USD
Warranty: Lifetime ($750,000 connected-equipment surge-damage-protection insurance)
Monster Cable Products, Inc.
455 Valley Drive
Brisbane, CA 94005
Phone: (415) 840-2000
E-mail: tpryde@monstercable.com
Website: www.monstercable.com
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