Surge Protection

I use a Brickwall PW2RAUD for my 2-channel system.

They all sound like crap, which you will have to endure if you want to be prudent.

Well, here is my dilemma. I primarily want surge protection for my 14B SST (& other components as well). Seems like inexpensive surge protectors are of questionable effectiveness at best. The more expensive units generally include some type of power conditioning. Since Bryston does NOT recommend power conditioners which can restrict power flow, this creates a dilemma. I want to protect my investment, but not at the price equivalent to a great tube pre amp.

PS Audio, for example, builds the Duet ($295) which assumingly provides surge protection, unrestricted power & some filtering.
Has anyone had any experience with this product? Thank you.

Avoid. imo, the PS Audio Duet and the larger unit will pretty much ruin a system. At that pricepoint, you might as well leave it all unprotected.

Bar81: Point well-taken. I am trying to avoid any "conditioning" & just get additional surge protection. Shunyata claims that their Hydra & Guardian do exactly that. Anyone familiar with these products? Thank you.

Kitjv, regardless of what you get or try, I would strongly recommend that you compare your sound with and without it. I suspect you will remove it.

Remember that you can always unplug your system in storms or when you are out of town. My house has been hit by lightening twice. Once the system was on and plugged into a Sound Application unit. Nothing happened to my system or the Sound Application. Once my stereo was off and plugged into a computer surge protector as was a computer. The computer and the surge protector were wiped out but the system was fine. Obviously the surge protector did nothing for the computer. I guess you can take this as a recommendation for Sound Application. It is still made.

I'm with Tbg on this one - I've never heard a surge protector, line/power conditioner, filter, transformer or any other type of AC doohickey that I could live with in an audio application. Leave them attached to your computer where they belong. Personally, I believe these are the biggest deception ever perpetrated on the buying public; just think of how much places like Best Buy and Circuit City make off the uninformed - $200 glorified power strips with a couple of bucks worth of MOVs and line rated capacitors.

I worked in FM radio for several years; in vain we attempted to protect power, signal, telephone, and telemetry lines from lightning strikes. Nothing is faster than Mother Nature. If you want to protect it, unplug it, and don't listen during severe electrical storms.

-Richard