
McIntosh powers up its MPC1500 conditioner
You know you're a completest when your power conditioner has to match the rest of your gear. If your tastes run along the lines of analog meters, blue backlighting and chrome-edged knobs, then McIntosh is waiting to lighten your wallet. The company has released its MPC1500 power conditioner that promises AC isolation, reduced noise and maximum power transfer (whatever that means) across its 12 outlets. For convenience, the operation of the outlets is configurable between always on, grouped, or individually switched. Nice, but this unit is no UPS (we're guessing there's a transformer and surge suppressor behind the Old English faceplate), which we'd expect for our $4,500. If you're thinking of dropping that kind of cash on power, we'd recommend a dedicated mains line and a UPS -- not as pretty, but your power will be clean.


















I'll take two!
Uhh, dedicated mains is no substitute for filtering the harmonic distortion and noise that comes from the rest of your gear on the same circuit (I blame DVR's primarily).
I expect maximum power transfer means 120volts.
Instead of the 80 that some areas get during a brownout :/
And people wonder why their stuff breaks.
That is so fvcking hot...
But why does the voltage scale start at 0? How about 90-150 or something useful, with 120 being at the top (like the temp gauge on most cars being at some sort of normal 'middle' position, and anything outside of that is something to pay attention to).
i don't know, but for $4.5k, i think i want my plugs right-side up.
Seems like a UPS with true Sine wave output wouldn't be that much cheaper. And a new dedicated mains (which sounds like overkill to me) seems like it could easily cost more than 4.5K (depending on your local laws) once the electrician gets involved.