Mapleshade power strip?

[benny]

I am seriously considering purchasing a power strip from Mapleshade Audio. Does anyone have any feedback about using these? The only other strip I considered was the PS Audio Juice Bar. Of course, Mapleshade's lit will tell you that their product "smokes" the Juicebar but I was hoping for a little more objective opinion. It will be plugged into a PS Audio ac recepticle.

[David Meek]

Ben, I have mixed emotions about Mapleshade. Their recordings are generally of very good quality and their racks and tweaks show a high level of build quality. BUT (you knew that was coming, right?) as to whether or not they all work, that is open to debate. I haven't heard anything good or bad about their powerstrips. If it were me though, I'd go with something other than a MOV-based unit. Something series-based like a Brickwall product.

[SpOoNmAn]

Agreed with David, mostly because of the MOV internals.

I have 8 Brickwalls in my theatre and they rock. :T

I do like Mapleshade though, they have a good rep.

[benny]

Well, I checked out the Brick Wall units online and they seem to be a good choice. I need to clarify my question though because sonics are my top priority with protection second. Will the Brick Wall clean up the sound as well as the Mapleshade? I would purchase a Richard Grey unit (that sonic effect is what I'm looking for) but I'll never spend $800 on a 4 recepticle unit. Thanks for the good advice ya'll!

[whoaru99]

Guys, don't know all the details about these different power strips, but I used a well-known, name brand power strip that had surge suppression and noise filtering built in. This unit was rated for 15 amps.

I had used it for a number of years to protect and filter the incoming AC for my source gear and power amps and for those years had always though my amps were good, but "typical" mid-fi gear that just fell flat once you got the volume cranked up. Well, one day I moved some stuff around and plugged my main amp directly into the wall outlet and it was just about like getting a new, more powerful amplifier. The bass seemed to hit quite a bit harder and the sound did not get so flat when the volume went up.

The only explaination that makes any sense is that the inductive noise filtering in the power strip was limiting current to the amps. Now, I have the source gear plugged into this power strip and my amps directly into the wall outlets, a BIG improvement for my setup.

The moral of the story, IMHO, be sure what you are getting has proper current carrying capability for the gear you want to plug in. Even though mine was rated at 15 amps, it certainly did not seem to be able to pass that much current.