2. amps-preamps
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Lightning

There was a storm that I thought had passed.....I was down in the man cave just pulling a record from the turntable and pop! a lightning strike about 100 feet from the house and the lights went out. It knocked out the right channel of my 3 month old Ortofon Cadenza Red, volume control of my Raysonic SLP 120 integrated(stuck at max) Also damaged is my internet modem, wifi and alarm system- two days after I was downsized out of a job.

Unfortunately, the Raysonic was not plugged into my Furman PC since I was playing with power cords and was using an outlet strip due to the thickness of the cord. It looks like a surge went from the outlet thru the Raysonic, interconnect and into the turntable thru the Whest phono into the cartridge?

What suggestions does everyone have about protection against such events? Sure I can unplug things but what if I am not at home and a storm rolls up?
stl114_nj
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
I watch the weather forecasts every day and unplug when there is a possibility for severe weather while I'm away. Never a problem with lightning yet, but a raccoon once shorted the power lines messing up a piece of equipment a few years back. Can't plan for something like that.
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zydo's avatar
zydo
242 posts
 
I never had to use it, but I had a panamax years ago that they said would protect against a lightening strike. They said it had a $1,000,000 connected equipment guarantee. Maybe they have some fine print that gives them a way out. I'm not sure. It might be worth a look.
swanny76109
382 posts
 
Get whole house surge protection installed at the main supply to the house. Mine is Eaton, there are other brands. My electrician installed it for around 300 bucks (he did some dedicated lines too and I can't remember the exact breakdown). I live in lightning prone North Texas and so far so good. Many times your local power company will install and bill monthly, or you can pay once and have it done, but either way it's pretty reasonable and effective. You do need surge protectors on your equipment too, follow above advice.
heyraz
177 posts
 
Contact your insurance company. The same thing happened to me and lightning does what it wants to do regardless of any protection you think you may have. If you can prove you took a hit, even indirect, you'll be covered as long as you had it in your policy. BTW-You should have replacement value specified in the policy.
I now have a Monster Power center in front of all of my components, which is supposed to carry something like 10 G's of coverage, but you should contact your insurance company first.
Note-my company gave me some BS that the strike had to hit my property. If it came down next door and bounced over, it wouldn't be covered. I went out back and found a dead branch from my pear tree and told them that was where the strike occurred.
After you get new gear, put it behind a surge protector and make sure everything is properly grounded. For example, the mast of my roof antenna is earth grounded to an eight foot x 5/8" copper rod driven into the earth. That just diverts static down to earth, a full out strike is unpredictably destructive.
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