High end UPS for Expensive audio eequipments

@bojack -
I had terrible experience with an APC UPS. Not for audio, but for my desktop PC.. It worked well for about a year, and slowly I started having issues with my PC crashing or hanging for no apparent reason.
I pulled out my (non existent) hair trying to figure out the problem. Replaced memory cards, reinstalled the OS, replaced the power supply... So much frustration. So many hours wasted. Even took it to the shop which gave it clean bill of health and charged me $60..
It ended up being the UPS polluting the line with so much noise that caused the PC to crash. I hooked it up to an oscilloscope, was shocked at what I saw.
UPS removed, problem solved.
I will NEVER buy another APC product again.

akg_ca is correct when it comes to surge protection. Power supplies already contain robust protection that makes most surges (including mythical ones from household appliances) irrelevant.  Concern is for something that might occur once every seven years.  A rare anomaly that can blow through electronics must be earthed at the service entrance.

Others have recommended a 'whole house' protector.  But did not recommend THE most critical component in that protection system - earth ground.  An effective protector must connect low impedance (ie less than 10 feet) to single point earth ground.  Essential even if incoming wires are underground.  Absolutely necessary to protect plug-in protectors or a UPS.

No protector does protection.  Effective protectors (as installed for free on phone, satellite dish, and TV cable) always have a low impedance connection to single point earth ground.  Protection is the item that harmlessly absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules.  Plug-in boxes have no earth ground and will not discuss it. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

@westom

Please describe which power supply design you are talking about? I haven’t done an exhaustive study, but after examining say, two dozen devices, including DAC’s, mostly amplifiers and preamps, headphone amps, etc., I have yet to see a single one that included "robust" surge protection. I will occasionally see UL listed "noise" filters which are not the same thing, so I really would like to see what you are talking about. The one location where I have seen consistently and extensive use of surge protection is in PC power supplies.

Westom, you are also misinformed about the latest surge technology. Series mode does not connect to ground. They use a very large coil (compared to most surge protectors) instead which becomes the high voltage point in the circuit, and dissipate surge energy as heat instead of current. Their UL listing proves the effectiveness, and the normal "joule" rating becomes irrelevant.

A ground circuit is not needed in an SMP, so the quality of the ground for this application is no more needed than for GFCI circuits. As for your parallel devices being "harmless" we had about 2 dozen of these "harmless" protection devices (MOV’s?) in surge strips flame when a glitch in the local switching station occurred. They did protect the systems attached, but the speed of the surge was a lot slower than lightning.

But the cost / value item is another issue. I find the Furman devices inexpensive enough, and my gear precious enough to worry about it.

Best,


Erik

westom

Power supplies already contain robust protection that makes most surges (including mythical ones from household appliances) irrelevant.

That's absurd. Few devices contain serious protection against power surges. And I'm not sure why you call appliance surges "mythical" when they can be both heard and measured.

An effective protector must connect low impedance (ie less than 10 feet) to single point earth ground ... Effective protectors (as installed for free on phone, satellite dish, and TV cable) always have a low impedance connection to single point earth ground. 

That's not only mistaken, but typically a violation of current code, at least in the US. Multiple ground rods are now required at a service entrance and if that's not part of an installation now, it will almost certainly be required if the service is ever upgraded. Also, the length of the connection to the ground rod is not usually the determining factor of the safety ground's impedance - that's established by soil conditions. Moreover, a household's ground isn't really through those grounding rods - those are just the safety grounds. The real ground is back through the utility connection - as required by code - unless you have some type of electric problem or malfunction.