A Meh-rathon of Sweet Meh-mories

This is a Magic School Bus science kit. You either know what that is, or can jump in the forum to ask other people about it.

Why aren’t we giving you more info? Well, we weren’t sure what to write for the Meh-rathon so we decided to look at some past Meh write-ups for inspiration. (You can find a random one here, if you want.) Unfortunately, all that did was make us nostalgic and maybe a little teary-eyed. And then the boss was all “Where’s the write-ups, writer dude?” and we panicked and… uhh… Please enjoy this classic write-up about an entirely different product! Also, feel free to share in the forum if you find one you liked or forgot about or missed entirely.

It’s a good rule of thumb to be skeptical of claims that cables, outlets, and other devices can improve AV performance. For the most part, it’s same shit, different marketing.

Except in this case. Audio gear that runs on AC power - i.e., pretty much everything that’s not portable - is indeed susceptible to buzz, hum, and pops from the power grid. See, there’s no such thing as a perfectly efficient electrical device or system. Everything you plug into an outlet pollutes the circuit with some amount of interference. That’s why your TV might get fuzzy when you turn on the vacuum cleaner - or, more relevant today, why you might hear a faint hum coming from your stereo as soon as you turn it on.

Maybe right now you’re like “eh, who cares? I’m not some fussy audiophile! I’m all about the soul, not the pristine sound!” OK, sure, you’re a real lo-fi caveman. But we bet you wouldn’t settle for, say, those plastic JLab earbuds we sold a while ago. Everybody has standards. Even the most primitive music listener makes some effort to eliminate unnecessary noise pollution.

You’re smart to suspect any feature with a name like “Clean Power Stage 1 Filtering”. But hear us now and believe us later: line conditioning is a real thing. This pair of Monster Cable Pro 200 PowerCenters will actually eliminate most of that phantom hum. (Not quite all of it, necessarily. Remember, there’s no such thing as perfect.) And it makes sense when you think about it, right? If a surge protector can protect your stereo from lightning and solar flares, it should be able to stand up to your nose-hair trimmer.