30 Years, 5 Cities, Many Storms - Not One Failure


As I am tempted by offerings for the newest crop of expensive, high end surge suppressors and power conditioners, I thought I might share with the Audiogon community a particuarly inexpensive one which I have been using since 1978.

Through the years, I have moved at least 8 times, lived in 5 different cities through all seasons including stormy Northeastern winters, Summer "brownouts", total blackouts and countless late Summer, high humidity thunderstorms.

I have owned tube gear, solid state gear, televisions, video devices, LCD projectors - the works - typically leaving all my components on 24/7.

In my latest house, I reported in another thread that the village infrastructure is not so robust; my wall voltage fluctuates from 114 - 124 volts, and we reguarly see brownouts in the summer and power outages in both winter and summer when storms knock branches into the above ground power lines.

Would you like to know my low cost secret for protecting all these components?

NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That right, I have NEVER used a surge suppressor or power conditioner of any kind. I have never unplugged any equipment during a storm - in fact I usually didnt even turn it off.

So as much as I am always seeking new ways to throw money at this lifelong hobby of mine, I am little confused about all the fuss on power conditioners and in particular, surge suppressors.

Does this thread surprise any of you?
cwlondon
Putting a scare into folks with dire predictions is always a good tactic.

I gambled and lost ... cable box, two PC's, Nakamichi amp, garage door opener and a TV.

AND I MEAN it melted them down ... nothing could even be repaired. It was a total loss.
Are those Furman surge protections in some of the pictures of your systems for displaying or for surge protection ?
I take it you don’t work in the insurance industry. Your reasoning, if you can call it that, is completely flawed. You can't take the data from a very small sample (you) and apply it to the masses when doing a statistical analysis of risk vs. cost. That is completely backwards. You have to look at the percentage of systems that do get hit and then the cost of your system vs. the cost of protecting it.

Your line of reasoning is akin to these pearls of wisdom I’ve heard over the years.

“I drive drunk all the time and I’ve never had a problem.”
“I’ve been smoking for 30 years and it’s never hurt me.”
“Chester married his sister and their kids seem normal.” (I live in TN)
“Seat belts will just trap you in the wreck; I would rather be thrown free.”

OK, that last one doesn’t apply but it’s just as dim-witted.
Andredoan

Ha - well spotted! This is actually a very recent development mainly for the new PC system.

I thought I would give those a try but mainly because they were
a) < $200 and b) convenient with cool lights

But I have never used them for my Levinson amp or ARC preamp, which remain plugged naked and direct into the wall.

Herman

No, I don't work in the insurance industry, but I work in the investment industry and have at least a bit of statistical analysis in my background.

Yes, you cite several dim witted examples which I will try not to take personally as an insult to my thinking.

From an investment perspective we like to describe risk as positively or negatively convex, where I might agree that not having a surge suppressor is a negatively convex risk, provided one is not spending the mega bucks on surge suppressors from say, Transparent, which is one of the brands that inspired this thread.

So easy enough to understand that just because it hasn't happened to me, doesn't mean it wont happen to me or that I should drive around with no seatbelt.

But to be honest, until this thread I had never heard of anyone losing a component, while more and more manufacturers seem to be jumping on the bandwagon with high margin products.

So what I was driving at really, was the amount of snake oil and fear mongering that goes into the marketing of these devices.

I do wear a seatbelt and I dont smoke. But I drive a motorcycle(with helmet and protective gear while sober always), drink red wine and I particularly love cheese and red meat.

Thanks for the advice as I try to find a similarly appropriate place on the risk/return spectrum with surge suppressors.

Thank you