Power Conditioner/Surge Protector Options

Surge protection limits current and the last thing you want are sacrificial components to protect against surges. Surge protection will also limit sound quality.

You can't beat a large, big and heavy torroidial  transformer. This acts like a reservoir providing conditioned power while adsorbing excess voltage.

I have found Plixir AC and DC power supplies and conditioners to be excellent products, which are balanced in operation.

Plug your power amps directly into the wall, their coils are big enough to protect them.

There is only so much you can do unless you want to spend 10s of 1000s.

@boostedis 

Also, where my rig is positioned there is only one outlet so plugging the Amp in directly is possible, but not practical, so having multiple plugin positions is also my challenge which would be solved by a Conditioner/Surge protector.

NO PROBLEM!

@boostedis If you buy a product that provides surge protection then that's exactly what it's going to do but you shouldn't expect sonic improvements, you may even get a small degradation due to current limitation. It's not a leap of faith or hocus pocus but a scientific insurance policy against power grid surges. I doubt they offer much protection against lightning strikes.

Power conditioning is a different animal which endeavors to ensure enough current delivery whilst maintaining the correct voltage, and in some cases smoothing the sine wave and rejecting dc pollution of the system, among other things.

Again no witchcraft or unmeasurable cable non-science is involved, all these things can be scientifically measured, or physically observed in the unit.

However some are going to sound better than others for various reasons which probably can't be measured on an oscilloscope.

@steakster  I was talking independently about surge protection and power conditioning.

Anything in the power line to protect from surges will degrade sound and will limit the KVA demand from power amplifiers. High transient current demand from power amps will decrease voltage if it's restricted. Current up, voltage down. That's why sometimes the lights in your house will dim because the voltage is low.

A voltage regulator cannot maintain correct voltage if it doesn't have a big torroidial transformer to back it up. That's why strip power conditioners/surge protectors need to be fed from a power supply if you are using them with amps.

I only use Class A-A/B amps if you're using Class D or 5w tube amps this doesn't apply.