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

I recently had an Integrated Amp fail and it occurred to me that it was the only component in my 2.1 audio system that didn’t have any surge suppression. I've always kept it plugged directly into the wall outlet since I experienced slight sound degradation (bass & dynamics) when plugged into various line filters/surge suppressors. Wanting better equipment protection, I looked into available protection methods and decided that a good series-mode surge suppressor was more than up to the task. After reading numerous reviews, I decided to give the Zero Surge 8R15W a try. Very nice people to deal with and their discount for military personnel and veterans made for an easy decision.

I received the unit and installed it in my system. Am happy to report that there was no degradation in sound quality when the Integrated Amp was plugged into the Zero Surge suppressor versus plugging directly into the wall outlet. I then decided to also plug the subwoofer into the Zero Surge and found no measurable (SPL) difference in sub performance. At that point, I sat down and listened to various recordings and noticed that the sound seemed to be smoother and better integrated. Perhaps having a common ground point and power feed for all the components is responsible for the improvement. Also knowing that everything is well protected is comforting.

 

for all front end equipment I use a Core Power 1800, expecting a Deep Core any day

Amp was also plugged in, but loses a good bit of speed, so direct to wall, which is a 20 amp dedicated line

Tweak1...if you mean EquiCore 1800, then +1.
I'm using the same power setup and experiencing a very low noise floor.

I have my Gryphon Colosseum running into an AudioQuest Niagara 5000 and I’m happy with how it sounds. I hope it gives my gear some protection from lightning strikes. When I’m home, I still unplug everything when the weather app on my iPhone says there was a lightning strike nearby. Thank goodness for weather radar systems. 

I had a Tesla Powerwall installed in my mom’s house as a battery backup system. About $8k. She loses power out in the suburbs quite regularly when a power line goes down somewhere. One battery can give two days of power, depending on draw. 

You can’t put the battery in a living space and it weighs about 500lbs, if I recall correctly. It can go outside. I suppose it would be cool to have it power a stereo and with a couple of batteries and solar, you could live off grid.

A whole house surge protector is nothing but a bunch of large MOVs put across the AC lines (and to ground which is also important). This is not a bad thing, this is a good thing. It will have no impact on the sound at all.  Schneider/Square-D, Eaton and any number of well known and reputable companies make these. They are relatively inexpensive, but there are larger and smaller ones. If you are in a lightning prone area, go for the big one. It is not going to survive a lightning strike right next to your house, but can survive one in the neighbourhood.

The good thing about putting one at the panel, is then you have the inductance of the AC wires from your panel to your equipment to soften the spike. I would like to think that any competent piece of audio equipment, especially really expensive equipment has some level of built in surge protection as well. The combination of the whole house and the in-equipment is likely to get you through most anything.

Simple power bars with simple surge protection will put more MOVs across the line. Being at your equipment, that is going to help even more. Some basic power bars add some inductance, which will help more, but that will add impedance to high current draw.  Some devices will go even further with larger inductance and circuits after the inductor and provide (in combination with your whole-house protector), protection for just about anything, but it does increase impedance between the AC line and your equipment. You can decide if there is any sonic impact of that or not.