whole house surge protector?

I have dedicated lines (nice improvment). We are now in a situation of having to upgrade our circuit box (heavy up).

The electrician is recommending a whole house surge protector which many on this site have recommended. It is not a particularly costly item.

I use power conditioners in my system (Adept Response) both because they have improved the sound AND the offer surge protection.

Several audiophile friends and retailers have suggested I try my tubed preamp and my amplifiers plugged directly into the wall. I have never been willing to try this as we have a terrible power grid here in Washington DC suburbs (Maryland) and there are lots of surges and we lose power all the time with thunder storms and ice storms and.... you name it.

So: two questions (1) does a whole house surge protector harm sonics in any way; (2) if I have a whole house surge protector, at that point, it seems the experiment (plugging components directly into the wall and seeing if the power conditioners are really helpful or harmful) is feasible.

Does this make sense?

Thanks for your help.

--dan