Tripp Lite Omni VS 1500XL

best for the money

By Harley_Glide  Apr 6, 2005

Pros: surge protection/line conditioning/ voltage regulation

Cons: no wattage/amperage draw metering

I had been looking at line conditioning/surge protection products for my home theater system over a month and found mostly over priced, "targeted" products. By that I mean things that were specifically targeted toward the home theater crowd... where they believe if you're looking at these products you have a serious investment to protect and are willing to spend an inflated amount to protect it. True to an extent. I do have a nice system and I do want to protect it but I also like the "bang for the buck" too and this little thing serves it up in spades. I've compared the specs to many non u.p.s. systems and found it to compare quite nicely especially when considering the price. The main reason I need battery backup is because of the projector. For anyone who has one of these you know that the fan has to run for a couple of minutes after initially powering off the unit to cool down the lamp. This is extremely important because if not done it can shorten the lamp life considerably. Now, in the event of a blackout, I'll have time to properly shut everything down. High end audio equipment hates hard shut downs just as much as computer equipment. Now, I know that this is primarily designed for computer usage but the website page for this unit says that one of it's intended uses is for home theater systems too. I have a projector, TRUE 100 watt/channel THX certified amp (not one that just peaks out at 100 watts), signal processor, two dvd players (yes two. one is for the theater intro dvd and system setup dvd's and the other is for actual movies), playstation, cable box, and a 13" tv used for setting everything up before turning on the projector. The 1500va rating and 940 watt draw rating are plenty for this setup and the overload light has never come on even under the most punishing conditions such as the pod race scene in Star Wars Episode I or the Japanese attack scene in Pearl Harbor. I think one reason for that is that the two non backup outlets aren't considered in the rating and therefore have higher current capability. I could be wrong but that's what I got from the literature. So far, so good. No problems. The most noticeable difference for me since installing this is that the fan in the projector is now running at a consistent speed where before it would run up and down with the voltage fluctuations and the lamp would slightly dim and brighten. If you have a serious HT system then this is the way to go. I wouldn't run a powered sub off of the backup outlets and some more powerful amps will overload it too but most components will work fine with it. when comparing it to Monster or Panamax line conditioners without backup, this is just the best way to go. The only thing I don't like about it is the fac that you can't actually monitor what you're equipment is actually drawing from it. I know it's below the threshold because the alarm isn't going off but it would still be nice to know. Of course this doesn't affect the performance of the unit at all so it's more of just a personal wish than an implication of a problem with the unit. Sorry, I just like numbers instead of "idiot" lights. I haven't had to deal with Tripp Lite support yet so I have no comment on that. Read more Less