How to protect my amp without changing the sound?


My house has terrible power surges. One surge fried my former system with all Cary Audio electronics and speakers. Everything was fried from the amp, preamp, speakers to the speaker wires and interconnects.

Now I've replaced much of it with a Wadia Intuition amp/preamp/DAC unit. But for obvious reasons can't consider plugging it directly into the wall.

I started off with a Furman power strip/surge suppressor which really throttled the output. Made my $15K system sound like $3K.

Next I tried a Brickwall surge suppressor which really opened up the sound (getting more current through) but drained warmth and musicality from the sound.

I broke down and bought a Furman 16A power conditioner that is warmer sounding but still doesn't compare to plugging the amp directly in the wall.

What do I do? Keep moving up the Furman line?

Power conditioning isn't absolutely necessary, but strong surge protection is. And I'm no fan of MOV's. Any ideas?
larrybou

Showing 4 responses by audiolabyrinth

Hi Kijanki, I rarely have any power disruption's too, I asked about where you live, this does explain the power spikes you get, Chicago has way more people than where I live, very fortunate, I have never got a power spike that I am aware of here, less people on the grid the better?
Hi Kijanki, does the furman 20 pfi change the sound in any way?, you know furman is owned by Panamax, which is higher end than the Furman products, I need one for my digital, do you own this Siemens whole house surge protector?, if so, does it go on one breaker slot, or plug into two breaker slots?, how can this protect the entire house if it is on only one to two breaker slots in the breaker box?, and, what is the white wire for hanging from the bottom?, I do use siemens, an alternative to bryant breakers that use to be here in my house, I have a few Bryant breakers left, not on my system though, just on normal house uses.
Thankyou Kijanki, very helpful and interesting, do you get any better sound with your system useing this siemens surge arrester with this ground scheme?
KiJanki, Do you mind me asking where you live?, I do not get power spikes like that here in Mobile,Al U.S.A., once in awhile, we may loose power on a sunny day, nothing has ever been damaged though, likly because I keep my equipment un-pluged when not in use, once the dropped power happened when my system was on, when the power come right back on, my amp simply was on stand-by instead of full power on, digital was simply off, all turned out good.