Power Conditioner and Surge Protector

It often makes a big difference, but units and results vary.

My best results have been obtained using BPT Balanced power products.

Dynamics never suffered- with Pass X-250 amp no less.

Tube amps I've owned benefited as well, as did the digital front end.

My bet is you'll never really know until you try.

Surge protection is not a bad idea. However most of the damage I have seen (many years in an engineering capacity and background is BSEE) involves nearby lightning coupled via phone lines. Problem is that this is not all that easy to protect against - need rather fast acting protection. As to a power conditioner, unless you have a particularly hostile electrical environment or own particularly badly designed equipment it isn't going to help (or for that matter hurt) anything because you are protecting against something that isn't there.

Get rid of your power strip!!! Throw it in with your x-mas lights. Plug amps direct in the wall. Pick up a something like a BPT or Shunyata product (used) for all your other gear. There are endless threads on line conditioners. I would stay away from Panamax and Monster.

Dear All,

I believe the question is 'worth spending the money on'. Some of the products mentioned cost a small fortune. I certainly have never tried such high end conditioners before and fore the price they ought to work bloody well. But if we are talking about your add ons to a 4-5k system then the cheaper products for a few hundred dollars are often poor and not worth the effort. If I had to use hundreds of pounds to improve the sound of my system, I'd also be looking to upgrade my system to get better engineered products!Having said that in the value for money stakes i second shunyata as they do seem to be one of the better ones. Furthermore a bit of blu-tac under my speakers can totally transform the sound of my system for pennies, as can a $400 super tweeter, or placing a weight on top of my cd player, or using a cd mat, try coiling a copper wire of various thickness's for about 6-7 turns on your speaker and interconnect and mains cable and you will be astonished at the subtle changes that can occur. All of these can lead to a more refined or tonally fulsome sound and the list of tweaks is ENDLESS in the pennies cost bracket. so lets get things into perspective here regarding value/ system cost .

I use a PS Audio Power Plant Premier for my source and pre/pro, TV and cable box and plug my amp (which can draw a lot of power...Spectron MK2) into the wall. The only thing I might consider plugging the amp into is a Shunyata Hydra-8 but I don't see the benefit as this point since the Spectron uses isolation transformers and power supply regulators in its power source section.

The PPP (AC regenerator) does help with the sound and picture on the TV but it is limited to 1500 watts. It will help with any hum that isn't assoicated with a ground loop situation and/or leakage from the amp itself.

Both are plugged into a dedicated 20 amp line which is a good idea to have to isolate noise from other circuits in the house to some degree.

Some of this depends on if you live in area with 'clean' power, dips and surges in the grid or lighting prone areas. There a passive surge/spike and conditioner like the Shunyata can be worth it.

Furman also makes good products, imo.