I was recently left without a Power Conditioner/Surge Protector for
my main system and looked through my stash to see what I could put
together. Found the Furman AC-215A which is a very good unit with SMP
protection and LIFT linear filtering. Unfortunately, it only has two
outlets which I ending up using for the FM Tuner and CD Player.
Having nothing else available, I plugged my Integrated Amp into the
same duplex outlet as the Furman and plugged the Subwoofer into a
separate outlet.
As configured, this left the Integrated and Sub with NO protection.
From past experience I know that inexpensive conditioners (especially
those with series inductors) can “current-starve” amps and subs
with an adverse effect on sound quality. There are power conditioners
available (AQ Niagra 3000, etc.) that employ Power Factor (energy
reserve) technology to address this problem but they’re simply outside my budget.
I was looking for a low-cost solution and remembered that I had a
Tripp-Lite Spike Cube that I had used in another application. The 600
joules of surge protection that it offers is provided by “sacrificial”
MOVs with a small capacitor added for noise suppression. I like the
fact that it’s plugged directly into the outlet and the equipment
to be protected is plugged into the Spike Cube. There is no power
cable, On-Off switch, fuse/circuit breaker or any component in series
with the AC supply.
I grabbed the Spike Cube I had and checked the resistance with a DMM
from the male plug to the female receptacle and found only 0.1 ohms
on the Hot, Common (Low) and Ground. Wirecutter did a teardown of the
Spike Cube (see link below) with impressive results.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/from-the-wirecutter-the-best-surge-protector-for-your-home-e...
I then did some critical listening with and without the Spike Cube on
the Integrated and found absolutely NO sound degradation. In fact,
the sound was slightly better with the Spike Cube, which may be
attributed to the line filter capacitor. For those who plug their
power amps (or integrateds) directly into an outlet because of
dissatisfaction with power conditioners in general, this might be a
low-cost ($10) way of providing some protection without taking a hit
in sound quality. If nothing else, you’ll sleep better knowing that
your equipment is protected.
