Power Cords/ Conditioner/Surge Protectors

I wrote about why I recommend Furman with SMP instead of ZeroSurge or Brickwall today.  All three have series mode protection.  The patents on it expired a long time ago, by the way.  Furman tests better, and has additional features like Linear Filtering (LiFT) and on some AR (voltage regulation) not to mention convenience features like switched outlets, etc.

If you already have a Brickwall or Zerosurge I'm sure they'll continue to deliver excellent protection for a very long time.  If you are looking for new I'd suggest Furman with SMP to be better values.

See the blog post for Wirecutter’s actual surge testing.  AFAIK, they are the ONLY source of third party surge testing.  Every other review, opinion piece out there focuses on specs. 

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.

For power cables the thing I’m most insistent on is having them shielded.  What good is it to clean up the noise in your AC line with an expensive conditioner when Wifi and Ethernet and HDMI cables are going to induce more noise back into the AC?  I don’t think you need to go very expensive and I DIY mine but Amazon also has shielded AC cables as well.

I’ve never felt any of the boutique conditioners were in my budget but I’ve used Furman with SMP/LiFT for a long time.  In some locations where I had many very close neighbors I definitely felt it improved the sound quality and made it all smoother and more relaxed to listen to.  Any surge protector with series mode protection is a good choice because they all filter at very low frequencies, around 3 kHz. 

Panamax is owned by the same parent company as Furman but the Furman feature mix is better IMHO.  Both offer a _lot_ of features and buzzwords so important to make sure you know exactly what model has what feature.  For Furman, SMP/LiFT and EVS always seem to go together but they do make products with none of those too.  If you also want to make sure your voltage is stable regardless of season or HVAC use look for AR as well.

@bigtwin and now you know 

@singere 

the best option is to try one upgraded PC on all devices to hear differences. 

@jea48

Thanks for such a detailed and informed explanation! It never fails to amaze me the depth of knowledge so willingly shared by folks like you on the Forum.