Whole House Surge Protection

you will not notice any affect to your sound with a whole house surge protection system. the current does not run through the device. they plug into the panel and are sacrifical in operation. I use one and then run the power through a pair of isoclean isolation transformers to smooth out the current on the way to my system.

A few years ago, I rewired my entire house. The new meter from the power company's meter has a built-in surge protector. Right behind the meter is Square D's commercial grade power center with large copper bars that feed 2 commercial grade switches, one 200-amp for the house and another100-amp dedicated to the AV system. Each feeds into its own Square D QO Load Center which has its own built-in lightning grade surge protector. i.e., one panel for the house and the other for the AV system. An 85-foot long armored, cryo'd and cooked 00-awg copper cable connects the the 100-amp switch to the AV QO Load Center, which has 5 circuits dedicated to the AV system: 1 for each monoblock, 1 for the digital components, 1 for the analog components and 1 for the projector. Each of those terminates in an audiophile grade receptical. PAD Anniversary PCs then connect to Transparent PowerIsolator MMs which have non-current limiting surge protection that reacts in pico-seconds instead of the usual nanoseconds.

This change actually improved the sound dramatically (a truly dead quiet background) with no sonic sacrifices whatsoever. And I sleep better at night and feel far more comfortable when I'm away from the house.

Hope this helps.

Ed

Unplug your equipment during lightning storms if you want to protect it.It's the only safe way.Lightning does strange and destructive things.

Tpreaves, good advice but what about those times when one is not at home, either away, on vacation, whatever?