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xsBusiness - Monster Home Theatre Reference HTS 3600 MKII PowerCenter with Clean Power Stage 3 v.2.1 Circuitry
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List Price: $499.95
Our Price: Too low to display
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Monster
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Electronics
Brand: Monster
EAN: 0050644421617
Feature: Monster Clean Power Stage 3 v.2.1 circuitry filter dramatically reduces electronic noise.
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Monster
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Manufacturer: Monster
Model: MP HTS3600 MKII
Publisher: Monster
Studio: Monster
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Features
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Monster Clean Power Stage 3 v.2.1 circuitry filter dramatically reduces electronic noise.
10 surge-protected, color-coded AC outlets.
T2 automatic disconnect/reconnect protection circuitry.
Tri-Mode power protection circuitry with audible alarm and auto disconnect.
6500 joule rating provides a high level of surge absorption.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Provides power and looks pretty
Comment: Well not sure how you rate this thing, but so far so good. I got a killer deal on this product and would have never paid what they normally want, but that is just me. It looks pretty nice next to all my other pieces and parts too.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent addition to my home theater system
Comment: I just bought the Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV and wanted to have a power center that would let this TV work at its best with any video source. For reference, my old TV set was a Sony 27" Wega with all components plugged in to a much more basic Monster Power strip (the Monster Cable PowerCenter Audio/Video Surge Protector (MPAV700RP) (MP AV700 RP)). I knew that while the old power strip would probably do a decent job, I wanted something that would really let my new plasma set shine. In addition, our town is somewhat subject to brown-outs and spikes and I wanted a power center that would really keep the power level as clean as it could be. I didn't have the money to spare on a true constant-voltage system like the Monster Cable MP AVS 2000 Home Theatre Automatic Voltage Stabilizer, which guarantees a constant 120 volts to all equipment, but at least I knew this unit would cut the power as soon as levels got to anything dangerous to the equipment.
It's worked very nicely, and I'm quite happy with the purchase. I can see from the voltage meter how much the power in the room fluctuates -- anywhere from ~115 to ~125 volts (with larger fluctuations when things like the clothes washer or dryer are running). But no matter how the power may change while I'm using my home theater gear, the picture remains nice and clean and the sound is also much improved.
I think I can say that the biggest, most obvious improvement is with standard-definition video. On our old set, we had watched some video I took of our trip to Walt Disney World earlier this year. It wasn't bad-looking, but it seemed grainy and slightly fuzzy-looking. The camcorder was plugged in to the regular wall outlet and the TV was on the old Monster power strip. Video and audio was fed directly from the camcorder to the TV through the patch cables supplied with the camcorder.
When I hooked up the same camcorder to the new plasma set, I plugged the camcorder into the dedicated "VCR" outlet on the Power Center. The video and audio connection was the same as before, but the picture quality was night and day. No visible grain or fuzziness, more visible detail in the picture, and the sound was cleaner as well. Even my wife, who is not a serious home theater hobbyist like I am, noticed the difference and commented how much better the picture looked than when we'd seen it just a few weeks earlier on the old set.
Now, some of this improvement may be due to the picture-scaling circuitry of the plasma TV. But a Sony Wega TV is no slouch in the video quality department, and CRT has always been the reigning king of video quality and the "gold standard" that every other TV set technology aims for in terms of black level, contrast, color fidelity, etc. Just to see if it really was only the plasma TV, I unplugged the camcorder from the Power Center and plugged it directly into a wall outlet.
The difference was immediately visible. Areas with "jaggies" had more prominent jags -- a long scene shot on the "main street" of Hollywood Studios showed noticeably more and more-prominent jaggies in the center line of the street when the camcorder was plugged in to the wall. One part of the video where there was text on an awning across the street was perfectly legible and had good edge detail when the camcorder was plugged in to the Power Center, but when plugged in to the wall the text became much more blurry and the pin-striping beneath it almost blurred into a single line.
I haven't done similar A/B tests with my other gear (standard-def DVD player, HD cable box with DVR). After directly witnessing the difference with just the camcorder, I don't really think I need to. I'm convinced that this device does what it advertises -- cleans up the video and audio signals of all components plugged in to it so that you get the best home theater experience possible.
With all these positives, I do have one minor complaint: Whenever the voltage dips below 120 (which happens several times in the span of a 2-hour movie), the Power Center makes an audible low-pitched buzzing noise. Presumably, these are the various line conditioning circuits going into overdrive to compensate for the lowered power. It never lasts more than a few seconds -- once the power goes back to 120 volts, it stops -- but it gets annoying real fast, especially if it kicks in when whatever I'm watching is at a quiet part. Still, I'm willing to put up with it if it's keeping my gear safe. Just keep this in mind if you're considering buying this. The buzzing is why I had to give this unit a 4-star rating instead of a perfect 5. The video improvements are great, and I'm assuming there are audio improvements coming with it (just based on earlier reviews of this device I've read, along with the feedback I got from others I know who own one of these). But that buzz really does get annoying after a while.
Here's what I have connected to this Power Center:
- Onkyo TX-DS595 A/V receiver on the "high current" outlet labeled "Amplifier"*
- Sony 5-disc DVD player in the "DVD" digital outlet
- Scientific Atlanta 8300HD Hi-Def cable box / PVR in the "Cable/Sat" digital outlet
- Panasonic TH-50PZ800U plasma TV in the "DVR" digital outlet**
*Since my A/V Receiver is "all in one" with a built-in amplifier, it was recommended to me by a friend (who is an even bigger home theater enthusiast than I am) that I use the "Amplifier" outlet rather than the "Receiver" outlet. This gives the receiver enough current draw that it can handle the peak-demand needs of any film without any problems. If I ever go the way of separate receiver and amplifier, then I'll use the separate jacks.
** The same friend recommended the use of a digital outlet rather than the one labeled "TV / Monitor" for the plasma TV because all HDTVs process digital signals and also do all of their video upscaling and de-interlacing through digital circuitry. And in fact, if you look at the box the Power Center ships in, you'll see in a product shot of the rear of the unit that one of the outlets is actually labeled "HDTV". Oddly, though, the four actual outlets on my unit are labeled "DVD", "Cable/Sat", "CD", and "DVR". The "DVR" outlet is the one labeled "HDTV" on the picture used on the box, which is why my plasma set is plugged into that outlet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best purchas in a long time.
Comment: I recently purchased a new Denon 2809 receiver for my home theater to replace a Marantz that did not do HDMI switching. When I hooked up my Samsung Blu-ray and Toshiba HD-DVD player the picture looked good, but when I connected my PS3, red lines appeared on my tv. I tried different HDMI cables, including Monster cables that were over one hundred dollars, but still saw red lines. My last resort was change from a cheap surge protector to this power center. After purchasing Monster Reference center the red lines disappeared and all video signals looked much better. Sound quality also improved. I am going to buy another one for my bedroom setup!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oh Brother - overrated
Comment: Brand new - out of the box, I installed the MONSTER HTS3600 MKII and connect a Sony KDL-52W3000 LCD TV; Sony BluRay BDPS350; Mitsubishi VCR & Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver to it. It should be noted that the MONSTER HTS3600 MKII was the only new addition and everything worked very well prior. Immediately, I noticed a darker picture with even darker corners. The picture had lost detail as well - of course it was hard to tale with a darker screen. So I began to tweak the TV, when I thought wait a minute why should I have to increase the backlight & brightness, etc. for this new unit. Well - back to the manual ...
The manual is worthless. It would appear to be more of an advertisement than a manual with more information about Noel Lee & the Designers than how to use the product. I tried to go online [...]) to get specific information, such as - are LCD TV's considered to be digital devices for filtering purposes? All I could find was more advertisement - who cares! For the most part I feel I have purchased a very expensive Surge Protector and Volt/Amp Meter. This product has convinced me of what I had previously suspected - Monster products are mostly "Hype" much like the Emperor's New Clothes!
(Ref: [.....]) ... "What a perfect fit!" No one wanted it to be noticed that he could see nothing, for then it would be said that he was unfit for his position or that he was stupid. None of the emperor's clothes had ever before received such praise.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great product
Comment: Only consern that I have is why this item comes with only 5 year warranty on all attached equipment?
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Editorial Reviews:
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When you consider the value of your new HDTV and your home-theater system, the price of the Monster Cable Home Theatre Reference PowerCenter HTS 3600 MK2 is well worth the assurance of protecting your components from electrical surges. It also helps your system perform better overall. Many so-called ?power conditioners? only protect against random power surges and/or voltage spikes. But, in fact, AC power line noise and noise generated by other components is an equally harmful and constant threat to performance. These disturbances can cause inferior picture quality marred with video streaking, lower resolution and video bandwidth. Many power conditioners' outlets often can't handle the peak transient current capacity that high power amplifiers demand. As a result, dynamic distortion and loss of peak power can occur, preventing your amplifiers from ever maximizing their performance. Unlike other surge protectors, the PowerCenters' ultra low-loss RF circuitry provides maximum protection with virtually no signal loss, especially important with the advent of HDTV. In addition, all PowerCenters display current draw and voltage. The PowerCenter features component-assigned color coding with matching power cord labels for easy identification, and is rackmountable, for easy integration into custom installed rackmount systems. 6500 joule rating provides a high level of surge absorption
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