MonsterCable's AVS2000 which sales for $1499.99 and HTS3600 which sales for $499.99.

Do they really produce clean power and lengthen the life of your system?

Are these products needed to achieve clear sounds and pictures?

Also, I have a VAC as my center. The manual suggest that I input the bookshelf as small speakers in the receiver, I would do the same with the VAC?

Please advise,

 

The VAC center you would also set to 'small' on your receiver so that the lower frequencies just go to the sub.

Power conditioners are a good investment.  You don't NEED them, but there is almost always an improvement in audio and video.  How much of one can depend on your equipment and the power in your home.  I have had a chance to work with several line conditioners and I do like the value of the HTS3600/3500.  The two models use the same filtering, but the 3500 has an analog display rather than a digital one for $100 less.   I have not had the opportunity to use the AVS2000 so I would love to hear feedback from someone who has.

Voltage stablizers and surge supressors can have dramatic effects on your systems performance, but like Korey stated it relies greatly on your system and more importantly on your home and areas power quality.  I've had limited experience with MonsterCable line conditioning equipment as I had two HTS units crap the bed on me in a two week period in my last home, and I haven't picked up another one since.  Determining your systems current draw, you want to be very judicious in what power conditioning equipment you pick up, it may clean up power but restrict dynamics at the same time.

For the $, putting in a dedicated line and upgrading power cables goes a lot further in enhancing the performance of a system than power conditioning (unless you have really bad power in your house).  I've had great results with both Signal Cable and PS Audio Xstream power cables.  Both are priced very reasonably, but in my experience have provided great results!  I've also experimented with PS Audio's Ultimate Outlets, which provide surge suppresion while being non-current limiting.  While these produce results, IMO for the $300-400 you spend on an UO, you get 4x the performance with an upgraded PC at only $100.  IMO, the law of diminishing returns applies quickly when it comes to power conditioning (again, pending if your power is decent to begin with).

If you don't have a dedicated line, I would first suggest to put one in.  This will give you the most bang for your buck AND give you a better medium to test other power conditioning devices through.

 

For what it's worth, I got the exact same advice when I asked a Sales Rep at Krell about whether or not a power conditioner would help reduce an amp's small buzzing sound. They recommended against using any type of power conditioner.

Some of the power conditioners on the market have one or two outlets designed for high current device such as power amp or power subwoofer without limiting current while cleaning up the noise down to 50hz. Panamax 5300 is an example. Another option is to replace the standard wall outlet by better one such as PS Audio wall outlet (about $45) and replace power cord of your power amp by Signal cable or Element cable. This will improve the performance, sound, and other good things I have heard the sound from the system which has Signal power cord that plugged into Panamax 5300 then connected to standard outlet. The sound is awesome. Bass is tighter and 98% noise free.

I live in a brand new construction in a downtown environment and I thought of purchasing a Monster HTS2500 for my equipment. I personally found no improvement in the sound nor the image on my DLP tv. Infact, I even thought that my analog cable channels looked every so slightly more noisy through the HTS2500 - though this could very well be because I moved the actual physical cable to a location where there could have been every so slightly more interference. After all, most of the EMIs are coming from inside your house and not necessarily from the wall. For these situations, a line conditioner won't do anything. Considering I didn't want to risk limiting the dynamics of my receiver and the fact that I could not descern any improvement in audio/video, I returned it. It was just too much money for surge protection. Perhaps I'm lucky to be in a new building with spanking new cabling as well as downtown where everything is buried in the ground. But one could go to the PC section of any electronis store and get a surge protector, with no filtering, i.e. no limiting of dynamics, for just tens of dollars.

All electronics that run on DC (most consumer electronics) have an AC to DC converter in them that have big capacitors to give a smooth DC signal.  They can also have voltage regulators that output a given voltage, even if the input voltage is a little high or low.  Some houses do have bad electricity coming in which would need something to clean up the voltage and the 60hz sine wave, but most people do not need them, and the money could go towards better speakers, amplifier or an ISF calibration for your TV.

For a surge protector, buy a RCA for 10 bucks that has a $20,000 lifetime guarantee.

I agree..all the checking ive done with various custom installers..the majority say that they mostly a waste of money..good surge protector is all you need!..by the way..most of the REALLY good guys..wont touch anything monster with a ten ft pole!