Dedicated outlets vs Power Conditioner

With respect to part of your question, I have had equipment fried by power surges twice. Both times were over 15 years ago; lost a Pioneer receiver and a CM Labs amp. I know at least once, the surge was associated with a nearby (not at the house) lightening strike.

dmailer: there's another thread going simultaneously with yours that has much useful information. title:

AC Conditioners: Must Have Tweak or More Voodo

-cfb

My best-results experience:
whole house lightning arrestor
decicated line
line conditioner w/ intergal surge protection
upgrade AC cords

Bob gives some good advise. Get it all and use it all. I especially like the "whole house surge protection" as your first line of defense. If you plug your amps in direct this could be a lifesaver.

I had the Power Company over to the house the other night when my outlets were reading 132volts. Wouldn't you know they were back to around 122volts as soon as the guy pulled up. Think I'll leave the power conditioner in the system :~)

Bob speaks wisely because Bob speaks from experience. Much like Sugar, he has "felt the heat" from lightning strikes / surges first hand. Ask him about the $4K amp that went "bye-bye" last summer....

Glen, out of curiosity, do you or other members have some type of voltage monitoring device running at all times ? If so, what are you running ? I have randomly ( VERY randomly ) checked voltages here and found that it hovers right around 122 - 123 volts most of the time. Since i typically leave multiple systems plugged in and running most of the time, i probably should pay more attention to such things.

As to the original thread, the answer is "YES". Use both but experiment to see what works best plugged in where. While the dedicated lines do produce a "buffer zone" of isolation from other electrical noise generators within the house, they are all tied back into a common feedpoint. Besides that, there will still be noise coming in from the outside line feeding your service entry.

The obvious considerations when using some type of PLC is current draw and current limitation. As such, most PLC's can limit current, especially on brief but intense peaks. Besides that, anything that uses a switching power supply or digital circuitry is putting noise back into the line. If you can isolate those from the "non digital" devices, you may also help things out. Since digital gear is typically pretty power efficient, you may not need a PLC rated for much power at all to get the job done with those specific devices. Sean
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