Do You Unplug Equipment During Thunderstorms?


On one hand it seems like a good idea to unplug audio equipment during thunderstorms. But on the other hand the chances of getting your house hit directly by lightning seem fairly low. Some places get more thunderstorms than others. So I am curious what other people here do. Do you unplug your audio equipment during thunderstorms?

sid-hoff-frenchman

I try to unplug it all now. I have lived in my house now 36 years and used to work outside the home. Ground surges from lightning are a real issue here in the mountains of Colorado. Twice I have had equipment fried by lightning. First, one channel of a dual mono amp took a hit and proceeded to blow. It's surge also blew the woofer of the speaker it was connected to. The woofer was kindly replaced by the speaker's maker (easy install by me), and the amp was sent to the manufacturer would repaired it.

The second time, about 5 years ago, it fried the D/A processor and a different power amp. This time the repairs/replacements would have been much more expensive and the insurance company balked, telling me I had to prove it was from lightning. WTH!

I have always had "protective" surge connectors, with guarantees, but those don't mean diddly. They may protect from regular utility company surges but not from mother nature. Now I work from home and unplug when I can. 

 

Yes! The best app to use if you want to know what is in the area is the Weather Bug. I had my system get hit by lightening. It came through the cable into the cable box, fried my video processor via HDMI, then killed my projector. That’s when I bought my power regenerator from PS Audio which everything plugs into and all of it is air gapped. Added bonus is it lowered the noise floor significantly and the colors on the projector actually improved, and you can program everything to start and shut down in the order you need it to. . . Huge WAF for me. The system stays unplugged unless I’m listening or watching a movie. Don’t make the same mistake! 

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