Hubbell hospital grade outlets w/ surge protection

I've not found simple MOV-based surge and spike protection to affect current draw with my system. Some power cords do offer basic spike and surge protection (MIT and Tice come to mind) and I tend to use these straight into a P&S hospital grade outlet with power amps. I have noticed restrictions in dynamics with larger power amps where transformer-based conditioners were used. I'm a little leery about sticking MOVs and other sacrificals in the walls.

It could (it might, or more likely might not). Properly engineered line conditioning will not limit dynamics, and the system will most likely sound better then without conditioning, but the only way to determine that is to try a good unit such as a Shunyata Hydra or Chang Lightspeed with your rig to find out for sure. Of course you should also have a dedicated AC line and quality AC cord(s) to complete the lineup. While an AC outlet containing an MOV protector will provide some level of transient protection, it most likely will not protect as well as the larger transient snubbers inside the Chang's etc. but is still certainly better than nothing at all. Also note that these snubbers are not adequate for primary protection, but serve well as a 2nd stage of protection downline from a whole-house primary arrestor located at the home's power panel enterance.

Go to gcaudio.com and read about the new First Impression Music outlet - sells for 60-65 a piece. I do not remember if the surge protection is there. Contact Galen Carol and he may know the answers to your Q"S.

The FIM is based on a standard Woodhead receptacle (about $10) and I don't have any experience with it, nor am I in the market for $65 US receptacles. In my experience, the Arrow Hart 8200 is a great sounding hospital grade receptacle, available for about $8 and better than the Hubbell 8300 (which I have and cost almost 3 times as much), and far better than the P&S 5262, which sells for about $7. In their literature on the Power Port, PS Audio states clearly (which I was not aware of when I bought my Arrow Harts) that the Arrow Harts were the best sounding standard receptacles that they had heard and use(d) them in their Power Plants. They now have their Power Port, which I would imagine (at $49) is in the market to compete with the likes of the FIM and may be based on the Arrow Hart (the 20 amp model, not the 8200 which is a 15 amp receptacle), but I'm not totally sure from reading the literature. None of the receptacles mentioned in my post have built-in surge protection.

Some high end amplifiers and preamplifier have power conditioning built in, so who knows. I believe many conditioners do limit power, mostly the low priced ones. There are many fine ones that do not. One of the Vansevers conditioners is even called the "Unlimiter". Finally, surge protection and power conditioning are not the same thing.