Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Surge Protection Pros and Cons?

Any chance of posting a picture of the damage?

Hector

I do not know if this subject has been aired much before as I am a new boy here.

All "experts" do not recommend surge protectors or UPSs being used as they say the sound is affected.

My second system (now being disbanded) was in a village subject to many power cuts and I am not sure that is too helpful for the hi fi - particularly as I believe a speaker had to be re set up as a result.

I suppose the insurance will pay but there is a trade off between protection and sound. Is the sound issue really worth the lack of protection?

Is there any music or tester to ascertain any difference? In other words, is it a general issue or something that we may notice specifically.

The surge came in through the cable box coax cable. I use both an isolation transformer and a series mode surge protector, brick wall or surge-X, and an Exactpower unit to control for brownouts. I am in a rental but in my last house I used gas arrestors on the cable lines. The series mode surge devices are UL rated for 6000V, 1000 repetitions, with no degradation.

With all of that protection, lightning can fry component level items on circuit boards through the energy in its plasma field if the strike hits your house. I had that a few years back with my powered Genelec sub.

Purists may say directly into wall but my system was sounding pretty sweet prior to this disaster.

I don't believe you can protect against lighting strikes, the strike goes where it wants, through, over, around.

In the US, I understand brownouts are more of a problem.

The sound does not have to get worse with good audio gear protection. I run my entire system on:

2 Shunyata Hydra Triton, sources/preamp/HD621 and front trio DSP Speakers are on two separate circuit breakers with no other gear present.

1 Shunyata Hydra Talos, Projector, PC, monitor, DSP Surrounds.

These are costly but the S/N ratio in the system actually improves without sacrificing bass or impact or musicality. They also filter the ground well where alot of devices tend to send crap. For every Shunyata Hydra added the noise in the system went down, more of the "attack from nowhere" feeling.

+1 for Shunyata

Big fan of Equ=Tech. Never failed me yet. You also get a good read on current voltage and input voltage.

The few power filtration/surge protection devices I tried each changed the sound of my system in different ways but I felt all of them were colouring the sound more than cleaning it. I ended up using a Nordost QB8 power strip with star earth grounding and adding a surge protector to my home electrical box. That seems to have worked well.

While old, here is a Equ=Tech Review that is specific to Meridian. My suggestion is to get the largest one you can afford/fit/carry.