I second a prior comment about the more costly Audioquest Niagara power conditioners improving the quality of sound. I own a Niagara 1000, a purchase suggested by our audio dealer, now replaced by the 1200, which is about $1,000. Improvement in sound was quite noticeable. My wife noticed it too. We both play instruments and go to concerts of acoustic music (classical and jazz) and could hear the improvement in clarity. We have a high number of very short-term outages. Our prior APC S20 surge protector, power conditioner with battery back-up did not improve sound, but see below.
As to surges, whole house surge protection and devices like the Niagara will not product your equipment from lightning induced power surges. I had my power amp repaired on two separate occasions due to lightning induced damage. The surge came through the cable tv line, into the pre-amp, then the amp. If you live in an area with heavy thunderstorm activity you need to add a surge protector on your cable tv input to your system. The APC S20 and other less costly products typically have sacrificial surge protectors (work once, like a old-fashioned fuse) to protect 75-ohm coaxial inputs from cable tv.
As to surges, whole house surge protection and devices like the Niagara will not product your equipment from lightning induced power surges. I had my power amp repaired on two separate occasions due to lightning induced damage. The surge came through the cable tv line, into the pre-amp, then the amp. If you live in an area with heavy thunderstorm activity you need to add a surge protector on your cable tv input to your system. The APC S20 and other less costly products typically have sacrificial surge protectors (work once, like a old-fashioned fuse) to protect 75-ohm coaxial inputs from cable tv.