Power Conditioners

Many of you here use surge suppressors and conditioners to achieve some level of SQ improvement but where I live lightning is fairly common, as it is in most areas of the central and eastern US. Having one of these devices may one day save your precious equipment as it did mine one day several years ago when lightening stuck our house and destroyed the power conditioner but not the equipment plugged into it (not true for a bedroom TV however).

I borrowed a chart recorder we use at my job and monitored our voltage fluctuations during the time of some extreme heat this summer and recorded line voltage fluctuations of +/- 5 volts from 110 to 122 VAC.

I can't say I notice a SQ improvement with one in my system but it sure makes me feel a little better when a bad thunderstorm forces me to turn everything off and even unplug it and other sensitive equipment from the wall, but what if I'm not home, then my fingers are crossed. I don't have enough money to waste suing the power company, they will ultimately win.

rbach604, suggest going beyond the conditioner and also have an electrician install a home home surge suppressor at the panel. I live in a suburb of Memphis and we get lots of lightning with storms and glad I did. Twice lightning was so bad that it took one of those out  but no damage to anything else. Far cheaper , even if it has to get replaced, than replacing my power conditioner or anything else

@facten  ,
+1.
A whole house surge protector is a great investment. The units are self sacrificing, but at least you will protect everything downstream.
Bob

My electric company put a whole house surge protector behind the electric meter.  It's something only the utility can do, but is the best way to prevent surge.  It comes with a multi-thousand dollar insurance policy.  Costs $10/mo. on my bill.  On plugging the amp directly into the wall vs. into the power conditioner, my NAD M3 integrated stated in the manual it should be plugged directly into the wall. I did research this and there is a difference in plugging into the wall vs. into the power conditioner depending on whether one is using separates or an integrated and depending on the component manufacturer's instructions.

I looked at the Shunyata Research Venom Defender AC Power Line Reducer and even though I have worked in AC power systems I can't begin to tell what it does (or might do).  I am not trolling or trying to thread crap.

My question for all of you who have purchased these (what I consider to be questionable and esoteric) power "conditioning" products, is this:  have you tried just a UPS that produces perfect sine wave power?  Seems like that would deal with all the potential issues you might have including voltage fluctuation, line noise from other (non-audio) connected devices, etc.  Plus, it would in all likelihood be much cheaper and quite possibly provide surge protection (though I'm not certain about that).