2. misc-audio
  3. 193979-166418

Power Cords/ Conditioner/Surge Protectors

Do I need to add power cords/conditioner/surge protector to my system or is it product dependent.

My current system consists of:

  • Moon 390 network player
  • Moon 761 amplifier
  • Sonus Faber Sonetta V speakers

Should I use the stock power cords on the Moon equipment or look at new power cords? If new cords should be purchased let's hear some recommendations. Will the power cords change anything sonically?

Should I also add power conditioner/surge protector to the equipment? Again, does it change anything sonically? If recommended do you look at Shunyata, Panamax etc.

Thanks for your input/recommendations.

singere

Showing 2 responses by joshua43214

joshua43214
60 posts
 

Nearly all surge suppressors use MOV's.

MOV's fail silently with no warning. They go bad from repeated micro-surges. It is recommended by many that you replace your surge suppressors every year or 2 depending on where you live.

 

I lost $14,000.00 worth of AVR, BD player, and projector to a failed surge suppressor. The worst part is that I knew that they can fail silently, and did nothing about it.

 

Retail wise, my amps are $13K, my preamp $18K, my DAC $6K, and my digital front end ~$5K.

Being older and wiser now, I spent the money of ZeroSurge suppressors. I have 3 of them. 1 dedicated to the projector, 1 for the AVR, BD player, and a big one with isolated outlets for the 2 channel system (about $600.00 for this one alone).

 

I will never trust my expensive stuff to a MOV suppressor again unless I replace it yearly. You can buy yourself an expensive audiophile one that will fail silently just like any random one off Amazon, or you can get one that will never fail.

Do some research on the tech behind any device you are considering. I was one of those people who said "been using MOV's for years, never had a problem" until I did.

 

Also, the Zerosurge also works as an extremely good filter. Others have reported good luck with them when used as a filter, and I have not hear any reports of them "sucking the life out of the music" like you hear with most filters. My electricity is pretty clean, I heard only a very slight improvement in quality.

 

-Josh

joshua43214
60 posts
 

@jea48 

The surge was caused by a pole mounted transformed that exploded. The pole is about 300 meters from me on the main road I live off of, and "downstream" from the branch that runs behind my house. I am the last house before the fuse on my branch and my neighbors lost electricity. the blown pole was kinda cool, it blew the top right off and it burned until the fire department put it out. 

 

My computer, server and modem are in different rooms, and had fairly new surge suppressors, so they survived just fine. My printer though was unprotected and was also a casualty.

 

Your point about internet is a very good one. I use subnets in my house to isolate IoT devices for security. My 2 channel system uses fiber ethernet, so it is safe from internet spikes.

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