Surge protectors--how many $ make sense?

Shunyata Venom 16 Power Conditioner:  

Electromagnetic Breaker

Over-current protection is a requirement for today’s high current audio power distributors. The vast majority of manufacturers use an inexpensive thermal fuse or breaker. Both are specifically designed to heat up as the current level rises. This causes voltage drops, increased contact impedance, thermal noise, excessive heat generation and current limiting effects. There is a better solution — the hydraulic electromagnetic breaker that utilizes low-impedance relays and a sensing coil that reads the current level without heating up or limiting current. They can operate right up the to the maximum current level without heating up or limiting instantaneous current. They are rarely used in competitive products since they cost 10-20 times that of a common fuse or thermal breaker.

Eric_squires thanks for recommending devices that meet UL 1449 which is the UL standard for surge protection.

i notice that UL voltage protection rating may be “listed” or “component recognized”. Can you please comment on the difference? Thx

@audio-b-dog, with the level of investment in your listening chain I’d seriously think about getting something like an AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioner with an AQ Dragon power cable or at least try the pair in your home and see if they do anything beyond giving you peace of mind. I think it comes down to how stable and clean the electricity is running into your home. 

i notice that UL voltage protection rating may be “listed” or “component recognized”. Can you please comment on the difference? Thx

@rfagon

I cannot.   I suggest going by the actual third party testing conducted by Wirecutter.  Series mode protectors (Furman with SMP, Zerosurge, Brickwall) generally have much lower let through voltages than those which are primarily MOV based.   I wrote about it here. 

OP:

Over-current protection is a requirement for today’s high current audio power distributors.

True, but almost any power strip has one.

There is a better solution — the hydraulic electromagnetic breaker that utilizes low-impedance relays and a sensing coil that reads the current level without heating up or limiting current.

That’s cool, still won’t help you in case of an incoming voltage surge. Breakers protect against shorts downstream. They are all (including this one) too slow and may never react to a voltage surge which can blow through nanometer scale insulation in silicon because a damaging surge voltage may not ever cross the current x time envelope needed to trip the breaker.

In this sense the series mode vendors (Furman with SMP, ZeroSurge, Brickwall) are all correct.  You need the upstream filter to slow a surge down long enough to have time to respond.  A breaker isn't it.

@rfagon

You bring up a lot of items, and that's why I initially recommended the Furman with SMP and AVR.  SMP is best in class surge protection, while AVR will ensure your amps and other gear get fed consistently better voltage than your wall outlet might have. 

I've even had contractors using circular saws on the same circuit as my amp and other gear.  The voltage never ever wavered.

Your point about the difference in clamping (let through) voltages is also correct.  Whole house units are not intended to protect your most delicate electronics, and the NEC as well as manufacturers recommend they be supported by point of use protection.   I wrote about this in detail here, but series mode protection (Furman with SMP, ZeroSurge, Brickwall) is faster and clamps lower, plus usually cut off during brown outs and white outs.

@mikhailark 

Probably not.  That's why I recommend Furman.  ZeroSurge also has a big presense in the pro market.

PS - Furman and Panamax are owned by the same parent company and some equivalent features are available through Panamax as well but be careful as Furman and Panamax have a lot of models with different feature sets.  The minimum I recommend is the Furman with SMP & LiFT. 

@panzrwagn

I would also check out Ting - www.tingfire.com - an electrical arc fault detector.

Oh, that’s pretty cool, honestly. :) The NEC has been steadily going towards more arc fault detection in the home. They went from 1 per bedroom to 1 in every 120V circuit in the home pretty much. You can upgrade most breakers to AFCI, but none of them have the cool reporting in this unit.

I had a Furman unit with voltage readout.  That's why I ended up getting a unit with AVR.  I could see how much my voltage wavered through the day, up to 130V peaks when I was in a high rise.

Now that I'm in a home I get long term, seasonal and daily voltage swings which my PC doesn't care about, but the AVR keeps me +_ a few volts, or it shuts down. Nothing in between.

My 2015 house in the American Southwest has a breaker board that trips if you burp too loudly. So I just run two entry level Furman power strips, which occasionally trip. I had an electrician inspect my $30K system. It's all class D.  He said the amp draw was nowhere near overload.  

My 2015 house in the American Southwest has a breaker board that trips if you burp too loudly.

@incorrigable 

That's actually not a good thing.  Since you had an electrician inspect your audio system I imagine you also had the panel inspected?

I've been in this 2006 home for 4 years and the only time I've had a breaker trip was entirely my fault or during GFCI testing.

@rfagon

UL Listed is for complete products. UL Recognized (U and Reversed R) is for “recognized components” that have been subjected to testing limited by their conditions of acceptability". The individual MoVs are generally recognized since they do not have an enclosure or NEC compatible connection to the mains.

I was a UL product safety engineer and did some work on TVSS in the late 80s. Spent most of my UL engineering career testing and certifying SMPS and electrical medical devices for safety.

@rfagon Clamping voltage is a single dimensional specification, It means very little unless the clamping time is also specified. In the case of SquareD, their whole house surge protectors have a clamping time of 4-6 nanoseconds. When you consider that a single 60 Hz cycle is 175,000 times longer, you begin to understand how very effective they are in the real world. That said, the Environmental Potentials products are the real deal, and engineered (and priced) accordingly to their higher performance. The EP-HPS at $2400 isn't cheap, but their lack of pretense about their products is very appealing.

My experience is a two-fold approach 

1. Whole house surge protector 

2. Shunyata denali and Alpha v2 NR cables. The difference in sound (or more specifically lack of sound and noise) was noticeable to me. It also has a mechanical surge protector 

I view this as performance enhancing and protection 

Eric Squires: How much audible noise does the Furman P 1800 AR make during normal operation? When it’s operating under heavy current loads or correcting voltage imbalances? 

How much heat does it generate?

@rfagon

My no bs answer is I dont have that specific model.

I have a much older AR model which feeds two other Furmans with SMP.

Under normal operation in my HT it is silent and produces no heat, BUT occassionally when the incoming voltage is low I do hear a mechanical hum.

Its also like 10 years old, so not sure.  I am about to renovate my HT setup and will replace it.

It sounds like for a number of you there is no $ limit. Your budget is maximum protection. I am an average audio guy who is constantly pushing at the end of my budget. I'll let you know if the $3K makes sense for me. It's as high as I can go. Real world budget, I probably should have said.