I was at Fry's last week and saw that Belkin has entered the arena with several models that are priced comparably to Monster's. I have no idea whether these transformerless power conditioners do any good - for every person who swears by them there seems to be another who says they impair the dynamics and shrink the soundstage. The audio mags say they are great, but isn't that what the advertisers are paying them to say?I noticed their mid level model PF-40 is impressively large and heavy, has separate filter sections for hi current amps, analog, video, and digital components, plus a nice looking blue LED display that indicates voltage and current. At a suggested msrp of $549 it's obscenely overpriced just like the comparable Monster units. But while Monster seems to do a very effective job of holding retailers to the msrp, Belkin obviously doesn't. The internet asking prices for this unit vary from the $549 suggested price down to just a bit over $200 ($227 with shipping). Given its nice look plus the fact that every lamp bulb in the house is energy saving flourescent and the overhead bulbs are incandescants controlled by a dimmer, I decided at $227 it might be worth it - if nothing else it might protect my components from Houston's famous thunderstorms.
It arrived today, and of course I opened it to see what's inside. There's quite a bit of circuitry including three transformers, a couple of transistors, plus many MOV's, etc that probably have something to do with the suge protection, status meter, delay-on for the amp receptacles, etc. For each of the four receptacle sections there's an EMI/RFI filter. For the hi power it consists of two 1uF poly caps, for the analog and video sections it includes a couple of caps plus a toroid inductor (CLC), and for the digital section it's a CLCLC filter. The receptacles are unimpressive no-name types (obviously not hospital grade) with the ends of the solid core AC cables pushed in (not screwed down) like the cheap receptacles in a new house. As I said, for $549 this would be overpriced, but for $225 it seems to be a good buy compared to the available alternatives.
I would let everyone know how (if) it effects the sound, but it's my November birthday present from my wife, so I have to put it back in the box and pretend I haven't seen it before she gets home from work. I tookd a picture of the inside which is linked below. Specs are on the Belkin web site at
http://catalog.belkin.com/PureAV.process?Section_Id=202493
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