Power conditioning is one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated aspects of home theater. A vast majority of people—even home theater enthusiasts—just buy a surge suppressing power strip or an uninterrupted power supply. Most of us have not invested in true power conditioning, largely due to the price of the products on the market.
Acoustic Research may likely change all of that with a new line of power solutions available later this year at affordable prices. Two new power conditioners for the home theater will have 8 or 10 outlets, 2 USB charging ports, dual coax in and out, and network in and out. And two for the home office will have 6 or 8 outlets with 2 USB charging ports, network in and out, and phone in and out. The home office conditioner also powers down a few of the outlets automatically to save energy when you shut down your computer. Prices for these conditioners will range from $59.99 to $79.99.
The more exciting product is the [take a deep breath] PW1000 Power Conditioning Surge Protector with Speedpass. It’s a long name for a very cool device that combines higher-end power conditioning with pass-through device connectivity for your home theater system. It’s designed to sit on your component stack, and in addition to the standard conditioned outlets in the rear, it also includes a 5-port network switch and a bunch of connections under a front panel. These include two more conditioned outlets, a network connection, two USB charging ports, a pass-through USB connector, and a number of a/v pass-throughs.
The pass-through connectors are designed to provide easy access to plug nearly any audio and video device into your entertainment system. And they have quite a lot covered here: component video, composite video, RCA stereo audio, mini-plug audio, coax digital audio, and HDMI.
All of this will come for the surprisingly low price of $249.99. We spoke with Acoustic Research on the CES floor, where they walked us through this new device. Check out our gallery, below, and watch the walkthrough on our YouTube channel.
All of these devices are expected to be available this spring.
Source: Acoustic Research – Press Release
