Received the unit and the first surprise is it is VERY LARGE – Width 435mm / Depth 329 mm / Height 153 mm
Finished in black with a grey/silvery front and a blue LCD panel the unit weighs in at 7.1kg.
At first I wasn’t very happy with the front panel colour, it wasn’t really silver and had a more matt finish than any of my other AV components, however after a couple of days I seem to have got used to it. I would have liked it to have been a “proper” silver though
Initial worries about socket configuration were unwarranted as the unit does indeed have UK 13amp sockets
The sockets on the rear are broken down into 4 types: -
4 Digital Filters – Bank 1 and 2
2 Video Filters – Bank 3
2 Audio Filters – Bank 4
1 HiCurrent™ Audio Filter – Bank 5
With an extra
Digital Filter behind a removable cover on the front.
Also on the rear are sockets for: -
Pay-Per-View/Phone-Line Input/Output (1 input/ 2 output) – Protects Pay-Per-View, Phone or DSL lines from power surges; built-in splitter which turns one line into two.
Broadband Ethernet Input/Output – Protects broadband Ethernet from power surges.
Cable TV, Antenna, and Satellite-Line Input/Output – Protects coaxial-cable lines from electrical disturbances.
Besides the sockets on the rear there are: -
Programmable Bank Switches - Switches to allow the programming of each “Bank” of sockets; either Always-On, Switched On with no delay or Switched On after a delay (the delay being specified by a Delay Switch; either 5 seconds, 10 seconds or 15 seconds).
Trigger Out - 3.5mm jack cable socket that allows for remote operation of peripheral devices equipped with a low-voltage trigger. The trigger can be set to switched or delayed; switch is immediate when the unit is switched on and delay is delayed in the same manner as above (and uses the same Delay Switch setting).
Remote AC/DC Trigger – allows for the remote turn on/off of switched sockets on this unit. Both an AC and DC Remote Socket are present and cables for both are included.
It was nice to see (
nearly - see below) all cables required where supplied: -
Remote AC Control Cable
Remote DC Control Cable (3.5mm jack cable)
1.8m RJ45 Ethernet Patch Cable
1.8m BT Phone Cable
1.8m PureAV F-Type Coaxial Cable
1.8m PureAV Coaxial Aerial Cable
The units power cable is a 3 metre SD1000 HiCurrent™ power cable; I have never seen such a
thick power cable
. For me 3 metres was way too long, but for others it could be necessary.
The user manual suggests: -
Digital Components to be connected to the Digital Filters; Digital Cable/Satellite, HDTV/Digital Display, Digital Video Recorder, Personal Video Recorder, TiVo®, DVD Player, CD Player, DAT Player etc.
Video Components to be connected to Video Filters; TV/Monitor, VCR, Analogue Cable TV, Projector etc.
Audio Components to be connected to the Audio Filters; Tape Player, Receiver (Preamp), Turntables etc.
High-Current components to be connected to the HiCurrent™ Audio Filter; Amplifiers, Powered Sub-Woofers, Electrostatic Speakers etc.
And this is where I hit my first problem.
I am completely new to the wonders of AV and have purchased a Pioneer PDP 506 XDE, Denon AVR 4306, Sky HD and LG DVD Recorder in the last few months to add to my existing Kef speakers and Paradigm powered Sub Woofer.
I had decided that the Sky HD, LG DVD and Pioneer (both Panel and Media Box) should be connected to the Digital Filters but I was unsure if the Denon or Sub Woofer should be connected to the HiCurrent™ Filter. It seemed that the Sub Woofer should have been but the Denon is also an Amplifier so I wasn’t sure.
So I decided to e-mail Belkin Technical Support to ask for advice. Within 3 days I had received an answer and they suggested: -
Digital Filters – Sky HD, LG DVD, Pioneer Media Box.
Video Filters – Pioneer Panel.
Audio Filters – Denon.
HiCurrent™ Filter – Sub Woofer.
So I followed this advice.
I have also connected my Ethernet connection to the Denon through the Ethernet socket using the supplied RJ45 Ethernet Patch Cable and my TV Antenna connection to the Pioneer through the Antenna socket using the supplied PureAV Coaxial Aerial Cable.
And then I hit my second problem.
I have Sky HD and this has two F-type coaxial-cable feeds but Belkin have only supplied one PureAV F-Type Coaxial Patch Cable and the unit only has one F-Type socket for Satellite TV. It does however have another F-Type socket for Cable TV. So I have ordered a 1 meter CT63 - SKY + (PLUS) Extension Cable from cornish.auctions on eBay for £5.50 including delivery.
I intend to connect my Sky HD box using both the Satellite and Cable TV F-Type Sockets on the unit. I don’t know if this will work but I can’t see why not.
My impressions of the unit.
As already mentioned I am not completely happy with the finish of the unit but I have no complaints on the build quality. The unit is very heavy and seems very sturdy. I had a small problem with attaching the first 13 amp lead into the first Digital Filter socket; it seemed a little tight but the others were fine. I think the sockets on the rear could have been a little higher. If you have a 13 amp plug with an extended plastic shroud where the cable enters the plug it is difficult to use the bottom sockets as the shroud will not allow the cable to bend away from the unit before hitting the shelf. This wasn’t a real problem for me as I just used the higher sockets for the two plugs that had this problem. I think even if I had used the lower ones it wouldn’t have caused any problems but I didn’t like the way the cable seemed pressed against the shelf at the point of bending (hope I have explained this OK).
I had to dim the front LCD Panel after a couple of days as it became distracting. Don’t get me wrong it was great seeing the Volt Meter fluctuating between 235 Volts and 243 Volts and the Current Meter showing more and more Amps being consumed
but after a while I couldn’t stop looking at it and kept missing stuff on the TV
I haven’t used any of the programmable bits of the unit, I just have all banks set to Always-On to be honest I don’t fully understand use of Switched and Switched Delayed but that’s probably due to the relatively simple components that I have.
Likewise I haven’t used the Trigger Out or Remote AC/DC features.
I primarily brought the unit for it surge protection properties (and £300,000 of Connected Equipment Warranty
) and decided that I might as well have the conditioning features although I wasn’t sure if I would see/hear any difference in performance at my level of AV expertise.
I must admit that I haven’t really had a chance to test the unit thoroughly to decide if there is any improvement in the audio or video quality; it’s just been much to hot to sit indoors plugging and unplugging devices to compare fully.
Hopefully, I will post further details later when I can report on the conditioning features properly.
Hope this is of use.
BTW. Dabs now list the unit £230 excluding VAT and delivery, so my purchase at £236.55 including VAT and delivery seems to be have been a great bargain
Linear Mode
