power for mc452 and c2600

I have a number of thoughts for the OP:

I have not heard a power conditioner on an amp that i liked, compared to going straight in. (I haven’t heard the Audience, which seems to have very strong support from high end community, but don’t know if that is mainly for front end/smaller components, not power amps).
Surge protection is, I think, a little deceptive in a couple respects: first, the big worry is lightening strikes. If your house or your transformer gets hit, I suspect no black box, whole house surge protector or other device is going to save you from damage.
More likely are voltage surges-- that EP 2050 would certainly be one of the nicer whole house units on the market. According to Chris’ description on the link posted above, it does use MOVs, but only for the big hits; otherwise, the MOVs are not in the circuit.
Trying to be realistic about this, maybe one of our more astute electrician types, like @Jea48, or electronics gurus, like @almarg, can weigh in on the peak power of dangerous surges. The EP is rated at 12kVa, but the Eaton I have (it uses MOVs with a set of lights to tell you when to call the electrician and replace the thing) is more like 80kVA peaks per mode. Do you need that much?
I don’t rely solely on whole house. For example, I have a pair of electrostatic speakers that must stay plugged in all the time. For those, I use a box made by ZeroSurge, in Frenchtown, N.J. Uses no MOVs. Well made and I believe they hold the patent and license their technology to several other competitors. Basically plug into a wall outlet at point of use. Will it color or limit the sound of your amps? I don’t know. I never tried it on my amps. In my application, it is keeping the panels charged with voltage, so even if it were colored to some degree, I don’t think it would matter much. It certainly isn’t choking current in that application.
My main system goes through some additional, fairly elaborate electrical work, separate subpanel, to 10kVA isolation transformer with its own surge protection board (40 or 50kVa per mode) plus some EMI filtering, to dedicated lines for the hi-fi. If I was really anal about it, I could theoretically put point of use surge protection on some of the components, too. (All my record cleaning gear goes through a 4 outlet Tripplites; ditto some other accessories, like the record flattener. But none of that connects directly to the system).
My practical answer is simply to pull power in a bad storm.
The other observation- and those with more electrical knowledge can correct me if wrong, but:
-a surge protector of any type or size doesn’t protect against power dips. Those can be hazardous to your gear as well.
-some surges can result not from lightening or other acts of God or the power company, but simply as a result of what is going on within your household electrical system. I’m not sure how fully dedicated lines isolate that since they still share a common ground with the rest of the house, but it may give you some additional reasons to consider the whole house approach, plus something else.

The other possibility at a this point is for the OP to obtain one or another of these units that he is asking about from a place like Music Direct or another vendor that provides a "no questions" return policy. He can then decide if there is any sonic compromise. As to surge protection, it’s kind of like insurance, you buy it, but you don’t really want to have to rely on it given the circumstances which usually give rise to a claim.
I have one of those Furmans with a rack mount face and a 20 amp plug-- used it for ancillaries, it is rugged and never had any false trips either.

@lowrider57 - what is the breaker rating on your Furman? The one I have (and used for some ancillaries, not in the audio chain itself) had a 15 amp rating, though the wall plug for the Furman is a 20 amp type. Thus, the lower amperage breaker (at the conditioner or device) ought to trip first since it is lower rated than the breaker at the panel, which is 20 amp (per dedicated circuit). I know the amplifier becomes part of the electrical circuit, but assuming both breakers- at the panel and at the device are the same rating (and both operating within their parameters) isn’t the breaker at the subpanel or panel "earlier" in the chain? (maybe this reflects my ignorance of household electrical theory and practice in terms of which breaker is going to get hit with the surge first and how the ground and return work- thus, somebody with real electrical chops should probably answer this). My amps (Lamm SETs) are fused at the IEC receptacle on the amp. I do have ’whole house’ but my impression was that this was necessary, but not sufficient, for critical equipment. (I plug straight in).

Dave- I can’t disagree with anything your wrote. I have always pulled power to my main system in the case of severe (or even not so severe) electrical storms. We are now in Austin, which probably doesn’t get as much electrical storm activity as Houston, but when we do get such storms, they are pretty intense. As to the MOV devices, I’m inclined to agree. Certainly the cheap power strips and some of the other products you mention are questionable.

What’s interesting is that the surge protection within my industrial/commercial style isolation transformer (10kVa from Controlled Power) which sits outside in a Nema weatherproof cabinet at 400 lbs is in part MOV based, with a warning light that indicates the need for replacement. Ditto, the whole house unit that is side mounted to the main service panel for the house. I have had for some years one of those ZeroSurge units that doesn’t use any MOV (I’m sure I mentioned this above) and that’s what I keep my vintage QUAD ESLs plugged into.

I guess my starting point is to be pretty skeptical about how much any of these devices can protect against a close strike, but I use them, nonetheless, as well as point of use boxes, like those made by Tripplite, for computers and appliance type electronics, e.g., the printer, the paper shredder, as well as my record cleaning equipment.
The current code now requires Arc-Fault type breakers. Those were installed at the service (sub) panel fed by the isolation transformer for my dedicated lines. I was concerned about false triggers, but they have worked fine. The cable point is a good one. I should look at my cable modem/router, which only provides Internet service-- no "TV signals" as such-- we stream video and have otherwise ’cut the cord.’
I think we come out in the same place, no?
I’m relatively new to Texas, but really love it here, despite the heat.

@dlcockrum - shout out, remembered you live in Katy from another thread. Are you and yours ok? 

You got 'em. From an irreligious jew. Just get the heck out of there if push comes to shove-- we had an evacuation plan post 911 in NY; I got my motorcycle license, my wife got a helmet, and we got a cat carrier for the kitties. Stay safe. I'll speak to the man upstairs fwiw.