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

erik_squires:

Right. So the SMP is always on, there’s no activation lag. It also provides relatively low over-voltage protection. These may not be surges, but long lasting events. This can happen if your electric provider doesn’t balance the loads right.

This is not true! The part of SMP that is series mode surge technology is always on. However, this section is more limited in its capabilities with let-through voltages, compared to real series mode surge technology. The MOVs and EVS (Extreme Voltage Shutdown), other parts that makeup SMP (Series MULTI-STAGE Protection), have a delay before kicking in.

I just did a little bit of research sadono and I believe you have you facts wrong.

• SurgeX sued Furman for trade-mark infringement and false advertising. They did not sue them for patent infringement. They cannot legally use a term/logo like SMP (Series Mode Protection) which appears to be a trademarked term and false advertising likely because it implies a relationship to SurgeX, but I am guessing on that last part.
  

• The SurgeX site has a reference to their two original patents. They are from the 80's. 
  
• https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/12/92/3b/86aee532396c8d/US4870534.pdf   
  
• https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/d5/03/32/db000be262ff24/US4870528.pdf
  

Any protection from those would be long over. I looked on USPTO (patent database) and there are new ones, but they seem to add features or include a transformer in the circuit.

sadono,  Can you please describe what "real" series mode surge protection is?

The picture of the Furman unit here: https://www.furmanpower.com/series-multi-stage-protection-smp on the left (from the large inductor and over) seems to match what is described/drawn in the SurgeX patents I linked to from the 80’s. On the right appears to be some traditional MOVs, and probably some voltage detection to turn on/off the relay on the right side. The additional use of the MOVs is a good thing and probably makes the circuit on the left perform better.

sadono91 posts11-05-2019 11:18pm
This is not true! The part of SMP that is series mode surge technology is always on. However, this section is more limited in its capabilities with let-through voltages, compared to real series mode surge technology. The MOVs and EVS (Extreme Voltage Shutdown), other parts that makeup SMP (Series MULTI-STAGE Protection), have a delay before kicking in.

Lowryder

the company is Core Power Technologies, but yes

@tweak1 , ok. There's Core Power and EquiCore. Both use balanced power I believe.