Following is the press release from Belkin about its new power consoles…

”Everything going on in and around your house can interfere with your home cinema sound and picture. A quality home cinema system is an investment and by eliminating problems at the source users ensure that their home cinema experience is worth every penny spent.

Belkin introduce the PureAV Home Cinema Power consoles. Three models are scheduled to launch and each is packed with innovative features designed to remove electrical noise and provide clean, conditioned power to all connected components. Noise or Dirty power can come from a variety of sources including appliances, fluorescent lights and digital components such as a DVD or CD player. This “Dirty” power creates popping and hissing noise on audio components and adds static and snow to your video displays. PureAV Home Cinema Power Consoles control and condition this harmful interference and other power disturbances to dramatically improve picture and sound quality.

Multiphase Pure filter circuitry clean and purify power removing EMF and RMF line noise that can interfere with the picture and sound. Built in advanced Over voltage Protection automatically disconnects power from equipment in the event input voltage reaches a dangerous level and restores power automatically when voltage returns to a safe level.

All PureAV Power consoles have been designed in house to aesthetically work with your home cinema system. Brushed aluminium housings are accested with blue digital display on the front of the unit. All cables are banished to the back to the unit so the result is a stylish, functional addition to your home cinema set up. All PureAV Power Consoles are backed up with the Belkin lifetime warranty and connected equipment warranty that have made our Award winning Surgemaster line of Power protection so successful. With the highest connected equipment warranty in the business and a guarantee that protects your investment and your equipment the consequences of not protecting your equipment just aren’t worth it.

Benefits:
* Protects sensitive equipment from power disturbances
* Offers multiphase PureFilter Circuitry to provide the highest level of AC line noise filtering and clean, clear power
* Removes electromagnetic and radio frequency interference from household appliances, fluorescent lights and digital components
* Eliminates popping, hissing, static and snow
* Disconnects power with Advanced Overvoltage Protection in the event of overvoltage
* Protects from coaxial cable/satellite signal line disturbances
* Features broadband/Ethernet protection
* Safeguards DSS/telephone lines
* Offers rack mountable convenience with included brackets
* Lifetime Warranty and Connected Equipment Warranty

Pricing and Availability
* AP20500uk3M = £169.99 inc VAT SRP
* AP21000uk3M = £269.99 inc VAT SRP
* AP41000uk3M = £369.99 inc VAT SRP

The PureAV by Belkin range is Available from Dixon’s and Curry’s stores nationwide.”

[ush flynn]

they sound like a worthy investment for top gear. Anyone have any experience of these? They are available cheaper... the top model here
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop...ProductID=3393

is almost £100 cheaper

[stiben]

Even less at £226 inc here http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...9&v=1#infoarea

[Kendalbeefcake]

Hi,

I'm also interested in these..I can't face spending £600 (more than I did my amp) on power filtering, has anyone actually seen them at all/have any photos of the rears/conncections..The Belkin site has manualls but they're only line drawings and I'd like to see what they look like in the "flesh"..

Thanks

I wonder if the sockets are the 13A UK standard?

[Kendalbeefcake]

That's what i'm worried about! I found the same thing on ebay US with some nice pictures, but they didn't seem to have room for UK plugs, I don't really want to have ditch my Black widow cables and use US style connectors..Can't (so far) find any UK reviews of this product..

[BandWidthJunkie]

I e-mailed every supplier of the Belkin PureAV Home Theater Power Console PF50 I could find on Google to ask if the unit included UK 13amp sockets.

The general response was "....not been told otherwise by the supplier..." so I decided to order one from Dabs.

Just had confirmation that the ordered has been shipped, which is great because I got it for £225 inclusive of VAT but exclusive of delivery (£10.56 inclusive) and it is now listed as £230 exclusive of VAT and delivery

Other sites are quoting anything from £235 to £312 exclusive and nobody seems to have any stock.

I will report back on the unit when it arrives and I have had a chance to test it

[Kendalbeefcake]

Well what did you think of it then??

[andye2004]

Originally Posted by BandWidthJunkie

I e-mailed every supplier of the Belkin PureAV Home Theater Power Console PF50 I could find on Google to ask if the unit included UK 13amp sockets.

The general response was "....not been told otherwise by the supplier..." so I decided to order one from Dabs.

Just had confirmation that the ordered has been shipped, which is great because I got it for £225 inclusive of VAT but exclusive of delivery (£10.56 inclusive) and it is now listed as £230 exclusive of VAT and delivery

Other sites are quoting anything from £235 to £312 exclusive and nobody seems to have any stock.

I will report back on the unit when it arrives and I have had a chance to test it

Any news this as yet?

[BandWidthJunkie]

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

[Kendalbeefcake]

Great review there BandwidthJunkie..I'm now seriously considering this but I hadn't really considered the issue of only having 1 powerconnection for the sub and multi-channel amp.. My only other dilema is would I be better of spending the equivellent money on a more conventional ISOTEK 8 way mains adaptor..

Thanks again..

[BandWidthJunkie]

Originally Posted by BandWidthJunkie

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.

I can now confirm that this configuration works

Also this is the first thing I can report as a slight improvement in signal. Before routing through the PF50 my Sky HD box reported a 60% signal strength and a 60% to 70% signal quality on LNB 1. The signal quality was always fluctuating between 60% and 70%. After routing through the PF50 the signal quality is now steady at 70%. There as been no change on LNB2, but that was already 80% signal strength and quality

I just wonder if unplugging and replugging the LNB leads have led to the change or the PF50

Still need to do some proper tests, but currently I can't honestly say that I have seen any improvement. My biggest problem is that I was already very happy with my setup and I'm very new to AV stuff and don't really know what I should be expecting from the PF50.

At the end of the day I like the unit and the piece of mind it gives having it

[Kendalbeefcake]

One more question...How much heat does the thing generate? Given its size I was going to put it in the cavity underneath my atacama rack (there is room) but it's gonna have to sit on the carpet I'm worried about damaging both the carpet and belkin??

Thanks again..

[BandWidthJunkie]

The unit has silver feet which raise it about 13mm off the shelf (ground) and it produces hardly any heat at all. Mines been on all morning and it is only very slightly warm to the touch.

[BandWidthJunkie]

Originally Posted by Kendalbeefcake

My only other dilema is would I be better of spending the equivellent money on a more conventional ISOTEK 8 way mains adaptor..

I looked at the Isotek GII Mini Sub but decided on the Belkin because of 2 reasons. Firstly the GII Mini Sub only has 6 outlets (although 2 are High Current types ) and secondly the price - £545

I must admit my supplier did say that the Isotek stuff is very good, but I just couldn't justify the price and it wouldn't have had enough outlets for all my kit.

[LazyBones]

Originally Posted by stiben

Even less at £226 inc here http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...9&v=1#infoarea

Now listed there at £270.25 inclusive.