Power amps into surge protector/Conditioner or DIRECT to wall? Final verdict?

a Krell 250wpc stereo amp survived in spite of not being connected to any passive line cond oddly enough.

They have those big transformers protecting everything after that, kind of how series mode protection works, unless they have enough capacitance coupling the inner to outer coils.

So the component’s fuse itself is enough general protection from electrical surges.

Um, aberyclark no. Fuses disconnect on high current, low speed events. A surge from lightning is high voltage, high speed, and relatively very low current, until it finds a path through silicone. Once the fuse trips, it means the surge has already shorted something. Also, see differences between fast and slow blowing fuses.

Surge protectors activate on high speed, high voltage events. A fuse could take 0.1 second to activate. A lightning surge can occur in microseconds.

Which is why series mode surge suppression is the way to go. Zero activation time to the leading surge edge, and non-sacrificial components.

McIntosh uses Series Mode Protection in their top of the line $10,500 conditioner, but Furman has it in their $180 strips.

Also, cross contamination is real. Use an Elite or use multiple Furman strips to keep your digital/streaming devices from contaminating your clean zone.

aberyclark asks:

So the component's fuse itself is enough general protection from electrical surges.

No. And eriks comment is misleading. Its nothing to do with line surges. The current fuses protect against is current draw resulting from a fault in the component itself. 

Agree with @erik_squires .
Let's say we're talking about surge protection power strips and conditioners. PS Audio and the like are power regenerators and are a different animal.

Good advice from Erik, you want the breaker on a power strip/ conditioner to trip and save the components. Surge protection will work during line voltage spikes, black outs, brown outs. But no surge protector will save you from a lightning strike.

A basic quality conditioner with surge protection would be one of the Furmans or a Brickwall.
And to answer your other question, you would not plug an amp into one of these devices. They have filters or capacitors which will affect or restrict sonics (even though they say non-current limiting).
IME, the cleanest signal for an amp is thru the wall receptacle or with a high quality power strip with no filtering such as a Wiremold.

How can Erik’s comments be misleading? When I had a power failure due to loss of a transformer outside, the fuses on my DVD and amp blew since they were not protected by surge protectors. Breakers on the service panel tripped, but did not save the component's fuses.