Price Paid:  $575.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
The TICE AUDIO MBF-3 is a great power conditioner, it has beaten the heck out of my old Monster Power MK3500 model. The great thing I noticed is a dead quiet speakers, with no noise even with my ears up to speaker. It has also eliminated a ground loop problem that I had in my VPI turntable, and subwoofer. The picture quality for my 3rd widescreen TV, now has no artifacts or line noise messing up the picture quality. This is a definate improvement in my total system and highly recommend it to all.

Strengths:
Very versitale with 16 sockets in back and has reverse polarity sockets also, no one else even comes close with this.

Weaknesses:
None Noted

Similar Products Used:
Monster Power Mk3500

Price Paid:  $625.00 from Natural Sound

Summary:
Unfortunately, without my prior knowlege, the MBF-3 line conditionaer I ordered had the two switches on the line cord that supposedly act as tone controls. They do act as tone controls, and very poor ones at that! Putting tone control devices on AC line cords is way out there. In my opinion and years of experience with this product, the MBF-3 is not suitable for use with amplifiers and that none of the four combinations of switch positions on the line cords give correct sound. Although the MBF-3 did definitely clean up the sound compared to the standard wall outlet, it also produced frequency related problems, such as an upper bass/ lower midrange dip. The video performance was acceptable, but not exceptional. Still, this was a noticeable improvement in some, but not all ways, over the Adcom Ace-515, but the Tice should have improved everything when considering the price difference.

Strengths:
When considering everything, including the price, I see no strengths, at least when used with an amplifier.

Weaknesses:
Alters frequency response of amplifier. The "tone controls" on the line cord is one of the poorest ideas I have seen in audio; I would not have purchased this had I known of their inclusion. Very high price for this kind of poor performance.

Similar Products Used:
Adcom Ace-515

Summary:
I have the Audio Power Conditioner and the Tice Elite 4. The video quality really becomes vibrant, as a surprise to me. The sound is more detailed. And the customer service is really friendly and helpful.
If I need another unit, I'll definitely go with Tice again, at this price range. Personally, I'll not touch Monster Cable and Panamax. These are just expensive surge protectors.
If Mr. Tice could lower the price, I'd give his products a 5 star. It's quite a high-quality product by this company.

Price Paid:  $1350.00 from Web

Summary:
I had a detail problem on my home theater. I have a Davis Cinema 10 (1024 x 768 DLP) with a Faroudja Native rate Scaler and Pioneer Elite 38a DVD. The picture lacked crispness, especially on the credits, which had fuzzy letters.
These problems are gone now.
The sound is great, somehow clearer on percussion.
I am a happy camper.

Strengths:
Cleared up video

Weaknesses:
I wish the case wasn't so deep.

Price Paid:  $950.00 from Signature Sound

Summary:
I will not lie, the tice Powerblock 3B-HP made a significant improvement in my systems performance. It made it so much quieter. I had a low subwoofer hum that I could not get rid of. I called Velodyne, an electrical company, and visited a number of High End audio/ Video Dealers. But most blamed the subwoofer cables. I'm using Monster Cable M351 THX cables and they all were trying to sell me much more expensive cables. Monster Cable was even going to replace them free of charge to make sure I didn't have defective cables. I also heard some high end hiss on some recordings. I assumed it was the CD and/or the recording. And Finally, I could hear just a tad bit of shrillness in the uppermost frequencies on the "Ultimate DVD's" rattle test in addition to more instances of significant rattling along the scale.

After plugging everything into the Tice Power Block, the noise immediately disappeared. Everything was dead (and I mean DEAD) quiet. The high frequency shrillness was gone. I heard room rattles only on the lowest of low frequencies. The audio frequency response was smoother and flatter. The hiss on the CD's was unnoticable and instead I heard high frequency music up there. I heard notes that I didn't hear before; overtones and reverberations. I could hear instruments behind instruments. A bonus was that I could hear detail and textures in the bass that was missing or muffled over before.

On video the blacks were blacker without losing detail in the shadow area. I found that I could increase the level of the "brightness" control of my Pioneer Elite 50" rear projector monitor, without washing out the black level. It enabled me to pull out subtle shadow detail. I could turn down the contrast even more to perserve the rich colors and improve light level detail without the picture looking bland or flat. It remains dynamic, sparkling, balanced and sharp, without increasing the sharpness control. I was watching "Jurassic Park II" and was noticing the detailed stitching on a leather strap of a bag that one of the hunters carried on the dinosaur island. I've never seen that kind of detail especially on an Interlaced Video feed. Maybe progressive scan will reveal that sort of video detail but I never expected it from my monitor. I do have the Integra RDV-1 Audio/Video Player with Progressive Scan but in the Interlaced mode it suffers from some of the same video motion and line artifacts that all interlaced machines do. But the video presentation is much more realistic, (honestly) filmlike and more 3-dimensional. I am a semi-pro, amatuer photographer and I tend to notice good pictures whether video or still presentations.

Other Power Conditioners I checked out were PS Audio, Richard Grey, and Chang Lightspeed. I'm sure there are others, but I went the original; Tice. I bought the Powerblock HP B3 (High Power). You can buy it reconditioned, with warranty, from Tice, but it's being replaced by the Tice Powerblock HP C3. That one is transformerless.

Some High End Dealers say "don't use them" because they will interfere with amplier performance. I assume they are mainly familiar with Monster Cable, Panamax, Niles and the like. But the Higher end stuff should not negatively affect your amplifier. They should improve it.

I would hate to be responsible for inticing someone to make a purchase based on my observations alone. Go to www.ticeaudio.com and read up on it. Read the reviews here in Audio Review and give tice a call. You will probably get to speak with one of the owners. They are great at customer service.

My equipment includes:
Tice Powerblock 3B-HP
Aragon 8008X5, 5 channel amplifier
Hafler HD-120, 2 channel amplifer
Integra Research RDC-7, 7 channel Pre-Pro, tuner
Integra Research RDV-1 DVD-Audio/Video Player
Pioneer 50” Rear Projector
Atlantic Technology 350THX speakers
Velodyne F-1800 subwoofer
AMC B1-20 subwoofer
RCA S-VHS VCR
Pioneer 704 Laserdisc Player
Pioneer Cassette Player
Otari MX5050B Reel to Reel
Granite Audio, Carver Pro/Pheonix Gold, Audioquest & Monster Cables

Strengths:
Build Quality; Sound and Video Enhancements; Features

Weaknesses:
No Cable, Satellite T.V. or Antenna signal filter

Similar Products Used:
Monster Cable