Power Conditioning / Surge Protection

I have a whole home surge protector. I didn’t know if I needed something more. I was also curious about the benefits of a power conditioner

If you are in an area where you get a lot of lightning in storms then yes I’d suggest getting additional surge protection as a backup to the whole home surge protector. I’ve had to have a couple WHSPs replaced due to lightning striking that close, and luckily the WHSP did its job. My power conditioner includes surge protection, If you decide that you don’t want a power conditioner you might consider a Shunyata Venom Defender for additional surge protection, plug into an unused outlet where you have the equipment plugged in.

Specific to a power conditioner I’ve definitely found improvement from using one.

If the priority is surge protection check out SurgeX

You want to protect and to filter.  The problem is that filtering places resistance in series that causes big voltage drops and kills dynamics.  Most of power supplies take current from mains in short spike of huge amplitude (about 10 fold of average).  I use Furman Elite 20PFi.  They call it "Power Factor Correction", but in reality it is huge inductor in series with large capacitor (in parallel to load) that stores energy delivering up to 55A current for spikes (it presents resistive load to mains).  It also has very tight non-sacrificial over/under voltage protection with circuit breaker, that resets itself.

https://www.furmanpower.com/product/conditioner-power-ht-20a-power-factor-ELITE-20%20PF%20I

In addition, I installed whole house protection in form of dual 20A breaker (Siemens panel style), by just swapping breakers.  Even if you have to hire electrician it is worth it.  Today everything is electronic, including appliances and even bulbs.

"Balanced surge protection" is an interesting name.   Since our USA 120VAC power is split phase, single ended, balanced means it either works for 240VAC, which is balanced, or it applies the same filtering on the line and the neutral, even though it is an unbalanced line.   (The only other option is it just a cool name and has nothing to do with the design.)

There are two schools of thought among engineers here.   Some believe filters on the neutral line is a good idea, others don't.   If you design this stuff, you will be in one group or the other, to be sure.   

All the surge devices for which I design at work, have filters on the line and neutral.    For audio work, I leave the earth connection alone, for industrial stuff, it often has voltage limiting on it from neutral to earth. 

The "inductor in parallel with the line" term must mean in series with the line, since it is counter productive to put it in across the line, and in parallel means the line is shorting it out.   If they mean something else, then it is not in parallel with the line.