Introduction Transparent Audio’s cables are the making of an audiophile dream. While I have been a customer for many years now, there is one area of Transparent’s product line that I have not yet bought into: AC power. I believe in power and power cables, but I have never been able to bring myself to justify spending gobs of money on what I can only view as thicker shrink-wrapping. I get asked about power a lot, and many products come my way that promise the moon but never deliver even Earth orbit. So when Josh Clark, Transparent’s chief product designer, called me in regard to their power products, I was a bit apprehensive, but still willing to give it a shot. Unlike other power products and companies, Josh simply asked that I play around with it and see what I think. ...

Introduction Power is an elusive beast for the audio and video enthusiast. If you live in the United States, each and every AV component you have ever bought was designed to run on 120-volt 60 Hz power. Sure, they can function when your AC power doesn’t exactly meet this specification, but at a cost, and that cost can be quite pricey in top-performing systems. Many of us who are looking to the last areas of improvement in our home theater systems have run dedicated power lines to our rooms with hopes of limiting noise on the incoming AC, thus affecting our sound and allowing our components to get all the power they need. However, I live in Florida and, quite frankly, our power outright sucks. We frequently get spikes, over and under voltages, brownouts, and let’s not forget the noise seen, ...

Introduction Power improvement products are not easy for average consumers to get their minds around. There are many different philosophies on how to do it right, with few agreeing on what’s best. Questions on power correction come my way quite often, with most people wondering if they even need better AC and, if so, how much they need to spend to fix the problem. To exacerbate the issue, bad power is not always something that you hear and can determine needs improving, but rather an area that, once you correct it, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to fix. The Transparent PowerIsolator 8 is a reference-level power-conditioning device that provides eight hospital-grade outlets for your precious AV gear. It is available only in a black-brushed finish and retails for $2,995. The Transparent PowerIsolator 8 is a much sleeker-looking product than ...

Introduction Energy is a hot topic these days. From record oil prices to hybrid cars, it seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. What sometimes is forgotten is how antiquated and archaic the American power grid is. From corrupt companies like Enron ripping off California consumers to the frequent “brown-outs” that plague grids all over the nation, our AC power really isn’t that consistent when you get down to it. Some critics say it doesn’t affect your home theater system. They are crazy. Voltage dips, brown-outs and other AC maladies can cook top performing home theater gear in the worst cases. In better but fully unacceptable circumstances, bad AC power simply robs you of the measured performance you paid for in your TV, electronics and beyond. Enter Monster Cable, which has been making cables and power correction systems for more than ...

Introduction The subject of power correction products has come a long way in a very short time. Just a few years back, consumers didn’t want to hear about AC-related issues, as these were perceived as snake oil, just another way for an already overly esoteric industry to bilk us out of more dough with fears of otherwise reduced performance. However, a select core of enthusiasts recognized that the performance of audio systems was improved in the late evening as the demand on local power decreased. It was discovered that the power products from a select few manufacturers could indeed provide this late evening nirvana at any time during the day. More recently, this product class has hit the mainstream, as consumers soon realized that these products would also improve video quality. With the massive increase in popularity of home theaters over the last few years, everyone from movie enthusiasts to gaming nuts is in the ...