A power strip worth writing about
In my stereo cabinet, I have 8 devices, all of which have their own switches. 
. For the most part, when one is on, I want all of them on. And when I turn it off, I want to turn everything off. Needless to say, it is annoying to have to switch each on and off independently. And what’s more, I don’t want these devices consuming phantom power when they have been turned ‘off’ using their respective remotes. Since the day that I put the cabinet together, I have been using the switch on my power strip to turn everything on and off. But even this was a little annoying as I have to reach deep into the cabinet to find the switch. While it makes sense to me, it doesn’t make sense to most everybody else.
The way most power strips are designed, the switch is always on the outlet plug side. But in my stereo cabinet, the plug is at the wall, and I want the switch at the front of the cabinet, at least to make its utility a little more obvious. Furthermore, I don’t want to see the power strip – I want a simple switch to be visible and the power strip out of sight. I had been toying with the idea of building my own electrical switch into the stereo cabinet, or finding a power strip with the switch on the opposite end, but these are the kinds of projects I probably would never get around to doing.
Imagine my delight when I was walking through the power strip aisle at Home Depot and I saw this brilliant idea from Belken – The Belkin Conserve Power Strip. I bought it for $40, brought it home, installed the power strip in back of my stereo cabinet, and inches away is a very visible, very easy to use switch to turn everything on or off. And it works! Highly recommended for those suffering the same plight as me. The jury is still out on the battery lifetime for the wireless switch, and I’m also curious about the phantom power consumed by this device, but I’m optimistic that it is negligible. My only complaint is that you have to be a little forceful with the switch – sometimes I physically toggle the switch to ‘off’ but it doesn’t actually turn off the power strip. Pressing a little harder, though, the switch always triggers.