Belkin PF60 "Power Console", temp system, etc. (long)

I recently decided to re-set up my system after not listening to it for a long time (and I had sold my McIntosh C220 preamp for financial reasons). My previous (Monster) Power Center (floor 'fancy plug strip') had bit the dust due to cat damage (arrgghhh ...) so that was gone. I needed something 'rack placeable' to not have things on the floor ... so looked at Monster, Furman, Panamax, and was about to spend $380 on a Panamax unit when I saw this unit, likely discontinued, on Amazon for $193. I wasn't going to pay retail to get a warranty etc. on the other systems and decided to go for this unit. It actually does seem to have a 'lifetime' warranty on parts and the '$500k' connected equipment 'guarantee' but of course it would be worse than pulling teeth to get an honoring of that ...

I just wanted something I could put in my rack, provided switching/delay for power, provided some peace of mind on 'protection' and filtering, etc., and was hoping it didn't degrade sonics. From the description and photos I could find it seemed VERY similar to the Monster HTS 5100 unit ($699.99 MSRP, ~$400 street price), even to the individual 'bank programming' for always/switched/delayed 'on', and I liked the simpler look (and more detailed display).

I received it the other day and installed it (and the rest of the system) yesterday. It seems to be a new unit and is the 'latest' version, so I'm happy. The inside looks very similar in many respects (pix to follow) to the HTS 5100, but of course possibly uses less expensive parts etc.. Doesn't really matter to me ...

Kind of funny, in setting up my system the last thing I did was connect the speaker cables to the amps - when I turned things on, the sound was pretty 'stuck' to the speakers and didn't have center fill. Hmmmm ... oops, I swapped polarity on one amp connection. The 'incorrect' one was harder to get to, so I swapped the other one. Now they matched but were in 'opposite' polarity than original/proper (and opposite to the sub).

Things sounded better but pretty 'flat' spatially ... I thought maybe it was the Belkin unit needing 'breakin' or (perish the thought) it just squashed the soundstage inherently. I couldn't put up with that of course. I wondered if 'inverted polarity' really was that important but then realized I was running things thru the KRK ERGO, which has phase as well as frequency adjustment capability (up to 500Hz). I didn't think to try 'bypassing' the ERGO and listening again, but I did swap cabling to achieve 'correct' polarity all around, and (whew!) the great soundstaging and spaciousness returned. I think it sounds as good or maybe even a skoch 'cleaner' than with the C220.

So for the time being, I have a one-input 'preamp' (the ERGO) that has a manual volume control (oh the horror!), and has A/D/A steps (at 24/96 resolution) with digital frequency/phase 'room correction' up to 500Hz, and the system sounds pretty dang good! I'm also running my SB Touch into one of the digital inputs on the Cambridge 850C CD player, so have 'two' sources for now. Even with the cascading D/A (850C) -> A/D/A (ERGO) it sounds dang good.

Eventually I want to get a Parasound P 7 preamp ... seems to have everything I would want/need, and all (plus MORE) of the remote-control capabilities of the C220. Plus, I can put together a surround system with it if I want. It only 'lacks' a mono switch, which I used to use to fine-tweak the balance from my listening seat with the C220. Oh well ... guess I can live without that.

Take care everyone, and happy listening.

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...073741840.100000792824434&type=1&l=1288b03509

OK ... here's a link to an 'Album' on Facebook? Don't know if it'll work or not ... OK, just posting the link seems to work.

 

Sounds interesting and a decent buy for what you got. I have a Monster HTS 3600 that I bought about 9 years ago and it's still in use. I have the Mac Preamp and Decware Taboo plugged into the high current receptacles and other equipment plugged into their corresponding outlet designations on the back of it. Overall, its almost 10 years old and I have never had any issues with it. I also get peace of mind knowing that it provides surge protection, but to be honest there are probably better products out there that I would like to try.

The reason I haven't upgraded it though is because power tweaks being quite expensive have had the least amount of positive results in my system compared to other things. The few power products that I have demoed have been subtle to almost nil, which are pretty poor results considering the costs of these things. Overall I actually believe the power in my area is pretty clean and consistent, perhaps if it wasn't I would have gotten better results.

I think that if I did try something at this point I would want just really good receptacles, build quality and surge protection, but reasonably priced. I have seen some products from a company called SINE (which I believe are made in Hong Kong) and they look promising, beautifully made alloy pieces, everything they build is cryo treated and not overly hyped pricing compared to a lot of other companies out there, but then again they may take advantage of cheap labor within the region that gives them an advantage to US built stuff.

Also another product I'm looking forward to is ZenWave Audio. They are taking a SurgeX non-MOV surge protector, power conditioner and sequencer and tweaking it with better receptacles, power inlets for power cables, new caps and other stuff. The SurgeX has the best power protection that I've heard of and the "on sequencing" is pretty cool as well. I don't know when it will be officially released, but it will be one to watch out for and knowing ZenWave you will get good value for what you get.

 

The Monster HTS 3600 ("MK II") was one I was looking at (on sale at Amazon for $200, but uses "Stage 3 v.2.1 Circuitry" which is an 'older' version (probably not a big deal at all tho)), then saw the 5100 (uses 'Stage 4' circuitry, and I liked the versatility of the 'programmable' outlet pairs).

Then I saw the Belkin unit (basically = to the 5100 (I'm conjecturing) but with 12 outlets on the back instead of 10) for ~$200 so that was it! Seems well made (in China), knock on wood, hopefully the thing will just last forever.

The SurgeX looks cool too but I think I'm too cheap/poor to get one! I bet the SEQ is >>$200 ... yep, I'll say.

 

Used SurgeX SEQ's show up on the bay for around $200 all the time and I believe that ZenWave Audio is picking up used ones and reconditioning them to be audiophile grade surge suppressors. But since you've got a good unit I doubt you'll need to be looking very soon - the 12 outlets on the Belkin unit make it a good bet as well. All my Monster outlets are being used and an additional cheapo surge protector is also needed with my setup. The SurgeX SEQ has 14 receptacles BTW, which would cover me completely and then some.

I was actually looking at the Parasound P7 before this cool dude I know sold me a Mac C220 preamp at an unbelievable price.