Surge protectors--how many $ make sense?
My power went out during the LA fires. A power spike blew my preamp's fuse even though it was plugged into an ancient Monster transformer surge protector. So, I need to buy something to plug my gear into. The prices, however, range from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars. Surge protectors have never been at the top of my list of equipment to buy, but I think it's time.
I have a fairly expensive system, about $75K, consisting of VPI Prime Signature turntable, ARC PH-7 phono preamp, McCormack CD (universal disc), Pass XP 30 preamp, Moon streamer, and Hovland Radia amp. New equipment mixed in with old, but all very good stuff. I've never compared surge protectors. So, how little can I spend on a surge protector without disrespecting my previous investment?
@rfagon I cannot. I suggest going by the actual third party testing conducted by Wirecutter. Series mode protectors (Furman with SMP, Zerosurge, Brickwall) generally have much lower let through voltages than those which are primarily MOV based. I wrote about it here. |
True, but almost any power strip has one.
That’s cool, still won’t help you in case of an incoming voltage surge. Breakers protect against shorts downstream. They are all (including this one) too slow and may never react to a voltage surge which can blow through nanometer scale insulation in silicon because a damaging surge voltage may not ever cross the current x time envelope needed to trip the breaker. In this sense the series mode vendors (Furman with SMP, ZeroSurge, Brickwall) are all correct. You need the upstream filter to slow a surge down long enough to have time to respond. A breaker isn't it. |
@rfagon You bring up a lot of items, and that's why I initially recommended the Furman with SMP and AVR. SMP is best in class surge protection, while AVR will ensure your amps and other gear get fed consistently better voltage than your wall outlet might have. I've even had contractors using circular saws on the same circuit as my amp and other gear. The voltage never ever wavered. Your point about the difference in clamping (let through) voltages is also correct. Whole house units are not intended to protect your most delicate electronics, and the NEC as well as manufacturers recommend they be supported by point of use protection. I wrote about this in detail here, but series mode protection (Furman with SMP, ZeroSurge, Brickwall) is faster and clamps lower, plus usually cut off during brown outs and white outs. |
Probably not. That's why I recommend Furman. ZeroSurge also has a big presense in the pro market.
PS - Furman and Panamax are owned by the same parent company and some equivalent features are available through Panamax as well but be careful as Furman and Panamax have a lot of models with different feature sets. The minimum I recommend is the Furman with SMP & LiFT. |
Oh, that’s pretty cool, honestly. :) The NEC has been steadily going towards more arc fault detection in the home. They went from 1 per bedroom to 1 in every 120V circuit in the home pretty much. You can upgrade most breakers to AFCI, but none of them have the cool reporting in this unit. I had a Furman unit with voltage readout. That's why I ended up getting a unit with AVR. I could see how much my voltage wavered through the day, up to 130V peaks when I was in a high rise. Now that I'm in a home I get long term, seasonal and daily voltage swings which my PC doesn't care about, but the AVR keeps me +_ a few volts, or it shuts down. Nothing in between. |
