Customer Reviews

APC AV H15 Home Theater 1500VA Power Filter and Power Conditioner

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Generally speaking, these "power conditioners" seem to offer something that most people don't really need. The lower-end offerings from the better-known purveyors of overblown surge protectors (Monster Power, Panamax, etc.) don't seem to do much other than offer a nice-looking industrial grade surge protector with various stages of "filtering". This filtering may or may not have any noticeable effect, but you probably would be surprised by the claims made on these products' behalf by consumer reviews. It's up to you to decide whether these benefits are real or the product of cognitive dissonance. MY feelings and experience are to follow.

Other than giving you the peace of mind that you'll probably be protected from all but the most outrageous power surges, I don't see the sense in most of these units that are on the low side of the $500-or-so mark. When you get into the higher price brackets, you start to see one or more of the following features: AC regeneration, battery backup and voltage regulation. AC regenerators take whatever AC wall power comes into the unit, converts it to DC power, and then reconverts it back to "clean" AC power. These units are fabulously heavy and fabulously expensive as well. They are great if you have truly atrocious power in your home (brownouts, voltage spikes, irregular current, etc.), and they look quite impressive on your equipment shelf, but are overkill for all but the most desperate of situations.

Battery backup units work pretty much the same as battery backup units for computers (in addition to the "filtering" and such). If the power fritzes out you'll have a backup for all your equipment's settings, at least those settings that are in non-volatile memory. If this is important to you, go for it.

Last on my list-of-3 is voltage regulation. This is the thing that I was looking for in my web travels, as I had an annoying (but minor) flicker on my screen that was mostly noticeable when watching paused programming from disc-based media. It was also noticeable when watching "letterboxed" movies that weren't paused, as the black bars (and other dark areas in movies) at the top and bottom of the screen would be of an inconsistent black... Wavering from black to dark gray. I wasn't sure what the problem was at first, figuring maybe it was my DVD player. Then I plugged in another DVD player and had the same result, though this result was not repeated when watching paused programming from the VCR or the digital cable DVR box. After moving cables around to see if it was simply a bad input, I found I had the same result regardless of where the units were plugged in (component video and DVI inputs).

Being the expert I am (har har har), I finally concluded that it was not likely that three different DVD players (an HD-DVD player on the DVI input was the third) were all producing faulty signals and there was a problem with my wall voltage (or maybe the TV, but I digress). I wanted a "power conditioner" that included voltage regulation, and didn't cost a thousand dollars.

The sub-$500 units from Monster, for instance, seem to SUGGEST that they include this feature, but if you read their product sheets more closely you'll find that they don't.

Eventually I stumbled upon this APC unit. All the features I wanted and a list price of $400. At first I didn't pay it much mind because, frankly, I wasn't wowed by the appearance of the unit. There is also the "snob factor", of which there is little with something made by APC in the home theater arena. They're known for making fine equipment meant for computer use, but I'd not known that they made anything for home theater use.

My mind was put to ease when I found that the H15 is the basis for a Rotel-branded power conditioner. For those who don't know, Rotel is a well known manufacturer of very high quality audio gear, and their bottom-end power conditioner is basically an APC H15 with a cosmetic makeover (and a higher price tag, one that won't be discounted much). If it's good enough for Rotel, it's good enough for ME. By the way, Rotel's "better" power conditioner is also based on an APC chassis, but it is significantly more expensive.

Eventually I decided that I couldn't afford to be a stickler for styling and I needed to spend the money wisely on the magic inside the box over the eye candy.

So... DID I spend my money wisely?

That's open to debate, but what isn't open to debate is that the aforementioned screen flicker is gone.

There are all manner of wild claims for power conditioners of every price level. According to the manufacturers and the reviewers (pro and consumer), these things will improve your system's soundstage, clear up your video, "clean" your power, protect your expensive gear from damaging power spikes/dips and possibly do your dishes as well. The most likely benefit of a power conditioner is the surge protection part, I thought, but I guess I have to admit that it did fix my video problem. I actually WANTED this unit to not fix the problem, because then I could return it and not have to spend hundreds of dollars. :-) I haven't found any improvement in my sound system, and the picture hasn't been "cleared up" exactly, so all those claims seem to me to be a bit outrageous. It apparently does fix power anomalies, but it won't do anything much more than that.

If you're as easily entertained as I am, you will be fascinated by the unit's display, which can be configured to show the in/out voltage, the frequency on the line, or the draw of all your attached components in amps. The "hey this is COOL" factor goes away after a couple of days, but I do find myself occasionally looking at the display to see how far off the wall voltage is from 120 at any given time.

Last night was the first time the voltage regulation circuit kicked in. Boy, now THAT was an event! I have a space heater in the same room as my home theater (but not on the same outlet), and when I turned the heat up to high for the first time this winter, the H15 clicked and went into "line boost" mode. I was slightly surprised to see that the wall voltage had dipped to 111V and noticed that the lights on the Xmas tree dimmed a little, but there was no apparent change to the sight or sound of the movie I was watching at the time (the line boost had jacked the H15's output voltage to 121). To be fair, I don't remember any visible or audible change when the same heater was plugged in last winter, but at least I now know that the voltage regulation circuit works as advertised.

Another benefit of this unit, or indeed any of its kind, is that it will clean up the backside of your entertainment system. If you're like me you have a lot of cords running to various power strips and such, and now having everything plugged into one place reduced the clutter. Although not mentioned on the manufacturer's site, APC also includes a sticker sheet that you can use to tag your power cords so you can keep them straight (though the inputs on the back of the unit are all labeled, so once they're plugged in you don't need a sticker to tell what's what). Other things found in the box are a few cables and detachable "rack ears" for use in rack systems.

Now a word about pricing. List is $400, but if you look around you'll find it for up to a hundred dollars less (which is what I paid, not from Amazon or associated retailers). That makes it a little more palatable, but it's still a pretty hefty price for what for most will be nothing more than a surge protector. However, if you compare it to what you'll get from Monster, Empower, Panamax (et. al) for the same "street price", you'll find that they simply can't match the APC in bang-for-the-buck. They do look nicer, though... And if you want all the benefits of the electronics of this unit but can't stand the look of it, go get the Rotel unit that is functionally identical but much more handsome. Just ask yourself if the difference between $300 and $500 is really worth it.

Or, if you want to spend LESS money, the APC H10 is available for a street price of only $200. You have to live with less power handling capability (probably less than the max of your wall outlet) and a less informative display, but if neither of those matter to you, you can get into a voltage-regulated power conditioner for two hundred bucks.

BTW, even though this review is included under the model that is silver, you can get black for the same price if you're diligent in your search.

So far it's done exactly what I bought it for, and hopefully I won't have to find out how well it works as a surge protector. The H15 is very well made and has a high quality feel to it, but it just isn't much to look at. Looks are obviously subjective, but in my mind, Monster and others make a nicer LOOKING power center. Five stars for functionality and value, minus one star for aesthetics.

I love the look and quality of this product. I never knew how much the power fluctuated untill I had this installed. I always see it doing the line trim or fixing a voltage sag and I personally believe this extends the life of your equipment. I have not had any major surges where it tripped the breaker on the back yet but it works well otherwise.

The only negative thing I can think about is that you hear an audible clicking sound when it trims or boosts the voltage.. which can get annoying if it does it alot.

I have two high end audio video systems so I ordered two of these..one for each. They replaced 15 year old Adcom ACE 515 line enhancers. These APC components are far more sophisticated and capable than the Adcom units.

They not only protect your expensive gear from power surges and spikes,and do that very well, they have the capability of monitoring the incoming voltage and making adjustments to it so that only 120 vac is output into your components. That is something far beyond the capability of the typical surge suppressor.

The AV H15 looks good among high end audio components as well. It's a substantial 23 pounds with a nicely finished faceplate and an adjustable backlit blue lcd readout for setup and monitoring of your power and the functioning of the APC. It comes with a rack mount kit if that is how you have your setup.

It's cheap insurance to protect your gear and it looks good doing it's job.

I bought this on a special refurb sale for one-thirty-five. This is a solid unit that works as advertised (although your video improvements might be more subjective). I popped the cover, and was hard-pressed to determine if the unit was reburbed, or really just a closeout sale advertised as something different.

Our entertainment center has too many devices with parasitic power draw - TV, receiver, auto-sensing subwoofer, cable box, etc. I needed a good surge suppressors like the old Tripp Lite Isobars I've had in the past, but didn't want to spend oodles of money on some of those monster-like power conditioners. This provides great surge protection, automatic voltage protection, and filtering. The sequential outlet powering is a great feature, too, especially if one has outboard audio amplifiers.

The display is a good education on the amount of power your devices consume and the quality of supply. I'm not a huge fan of the blue LEDs, but that's picking nits a bit since the illumination levels can be set somewhat. The removable power cord is long and very substantial, and has a right angle bend to it so furniture can be pushed closer to the wall. A nice touch. Rack-mount ears were provided in the box along with a velcro wrap, and nice labels for your power cords. In a crowded rack of gear, the labels make it easier to see what it was you unplugged and where it goes back.

My one gripe is the coax protection - for my Comcast connection, the coax protection filtered enough of the signal to prevent my HD converter box from working properly. Your mileage may vary.

I'll find out soon enough if my average power bill drops a little now. I press one button, and all my gear powers up, in sequence. And powers down similarly.

Update Jan 2010: A year later and I feel just as pleased. And, we've noticed that our power bill has dropped ~$10 a month now that we can power everything completely down for the vast majority of the day. It's pretty much paid for itself (at least at the price I paid) already.

This a good alternative to the higher priced brands such as Panamax.

I figured with APC's tremendious amount of experience in producing surge protection the company would make a decent product. When the product arrived I removed the cover and took a detailed picture of the interior components and sent it to a power supply engineer friend who worked for NASA and asked for his opinion. He advised that the components were impressive for a consumer product and would more that do the job. I wasn't thrilled with the silver color but otherwise it's doing the job - enough to protect from surges, filter noise, and stabilize current, but not get ripped off with an over-priced unnecessary home theater gizmo.

APC is a respected manufacturer and this is a superb power conditioner.

APC appears to be dumping this model if it has the silver face plate. The same unit in black is currently offered at about $350.00 everywhere.

Tiger Direct, at their web site only, is offering this item at $149.97 as of July 2, 2009.

This is a stunning deal and I took advantage of it.

I bought this on Amazon, which was being sold by TigerDirect. When I removed the unit from its beat up box I could hear a rattling noise like a loose screw. I looked to see if there were any of those "void warranty if removed" stickers on the case, but there were none so I opened the top cover and out fell a small metal screw. I could see where it came out of so I screwed it back in place and put the cover back on. Got it all hooked up and plugged in. I went through the menu status information and when it got to the serial number and firmware version the serial number was blank! I'm not sure if they just forgot to input it at the factory, or if this was a returned unit that got wiped! At least it had a serial number on a sticker in the back of the unit. All in all it seems to be working fine and doing its job. I would have returned it if it had those "do not remove" security stickers on the case, and if I paid more than one Ben Franklin for it, but I just didn't feel like going through the hassel of returning it. Only time will tell if this thing holds up.

Here's some bulletpoints on why I think this is a good unit:

-I do know that it works well and provides much information on what is going on in terms of power usage, voltage level, and current draw while your home theater is turned on. Geek alert for some people, but I'm a geek anyway.

-It has cool blue lights! They can be turned off if they annoy you, too.

-Nice big, solid master power switch to turn everything on/off. This is *great*, as it means I can turn off my home theater while I am not home during the day and prevent my DVD player/Receiver/TV from using phantom power and raising my utility bill. After adding the H15 and exercising discipline to turn off my system during the day/at night, I reduced my energy bill by around 10 bucks a month. The unit will actually pay for itself, eventually. :)

-Lots of sockets for plugging in components!

-Surge protection for phone, cable.

-Ground point to fix ground loop hum if that ever occurs. While I don't currently have that problem, if it does happen I know I have a method to fix it.

-Beefy power cord and design. Designed to handle max amount of current from the wall socket that NEC/UL allow. For more info on this, check out this interview with the APC engineers: [...]

-It is built like a tank. The guys at UPS commented on how heavy it was when I went to pick it up.

The engineers at APC clearly thought long+hard about this at design time. In short, if you have power issues of any kinda, this thing provides the tools to help you deal with them, and is ridiculously convenient. No, it isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for.

I purchased this item for $99 through Amazon. That price along with the surge protection capabilities and power filtering made for a deal I couldn't refuse. I also own the J15 (the battery backup solution) and on account of my great experience with that, it was a no-brainer. If you're not concerned about needing battery backup, this is a top-notch solution to protect all of your home entertainment center gear from power surges and poor quality electricity.

My power company doesn't have a good record when it comes to voltage spikes and fluctuations. Recently there was a tremendous spike that took out my amplfier and almost took out my Qualia 003 HDTV Projector. I bought two of these and found out the voltage fluctuates from 115VAC to 126VAC. The unit converts the dirty AC to DC and then back to clean 123VAC. It will trip its own circuit breaker if a spike occurs saving your expensive equipment. This is a cheap and reliable insurance policy. It's heavy and in my book heavy is a good thing.