surge protection & noise?

Rsjm80, I use Furman Elite 20 PFi. PF stands for power factor correction -
in short big inductor and big capacitor. On one hand it appear as load
closer to resistive but on the other can provide high current to the load
(because of mentioned capacitor). Most of electronic components have
linear power supplies and take current from the mains in short spikes of
high amplitude. That is the main reason for many power conditioners to
cause loss of dynamics (big volatge drops).

Also most of inexpensive surge protectors use MOVs that have limited life.
My Furman usue non-sacrifitial protection that last practically forever. It
consists of 12 outlets - 4 for amplifier, 4 for video and 4 for audio-video.
All outputs have specific noise filters. Believe it or not but my HDTV has
better colors plugged into Furman. There are better Furmans and better
conditioners (I don't want to sound like advertising for Furman), but I want
to stress the point that good filtering and non-sacrificial surge protection
without loss of dynamics is possible.

In addition I installed myself whole house surge protection in form of dual
20A circuit breaker (Siemens style panel) that I bought in Home Depot to
replace existing one (5 minute job). The only difference in shape is
additional wire that, cut short, connects to ground bar.

Kijanki, Thank you for helping with an explanation, that helps me more. I know about MOVs and what I have also been interested in was the units from Audience as they are like the Furman (I didn't know that Furman was built like that).
Since I use an Integrated and my CD only that's why I'm looking for single outlet units(plus it would be exponental expense getting a multipul outlet unit for me. Filtering makes a huge difference as does vibration control and room tuning all of what I have learned. Thank you for your suggesting Furman as I have also heard Brick Wall uses this type of protection (if I'm right) too and maybe the future will let me find money enough to invest (once and for all) in something that will do my full job for me.

I have been giving power conditioners a lot of thought lately. I am also concerned with surge protection as well as line noise. For the last 15 years or so I have been using an Adcom ACE 515 power enhancer for my front end. This unit not only protects my gear, I think it also makes a small positive difference to the sound. But my gear has come along way since then and power conditioning probably has also. So far I am leaning toward a Furman Elite-20 PFi. The Furman conditioners seems to offer the best protection and features in the price range.

I also looked at the Shunyata Venom PS8 power strip with the Venom Defender. The PS8 is just a high quality power strip. So the only surge protection is from the Defender which is in an adjacent outlet. It just seems like the Furman offers much better surge protection for around the same price.