power conditioner/power cable


Im fairly new to the hifi world but im confused about something.My local hifi dealer advised me not to use a power conditioner/surge protector unit(monster,panamax,etc)to plug my gear into,instead to just use a power strip. is this correct??One other question i have-if one does use on of the previous mentioned devices is it beneficial to upgrade the stock power cables??Any help would be appreciated,thank you.
cwby8115
I agree with the above comments and will add that I recently bought a Blue Circle Thingee (its a power condition) and Shunyata's Venom 3 cord, and it does the job with great results.
++ 1 on the Venom 3 for the biggest bang for buck. A used Shunyata Hydra conditioner for my front end was one of the best audio decisions I ever made once I had the speakers I wanted.
Jafant-i have 2 nad c272 power amps,arcam avp 700 for my pre and a cambridge audio azur 651 cd player.
Jafant i forgot to mention one other component-im using paradigm studio 60s v.4-the nad's seem to be a good match for the paradigms,again im a novice in this hobby but to me it sounds pretty darn good.