Surge protectors--how many $ make sense?

@rfagon Clamping voltage is a single dimensional specification, It means very little unless the clamping time is also specified. In the case of SquareD, their whole house surge protectors have a clamping time of 4-6 nanoseconds. When you consider that a single 60 Hz cycle is 175,000 times longer, you begin to understand how very effective they are in the real world. That said, the Environmental Potentials products are the real deal, and engineered (and priced) accordingly to their higher performance. The EP-HPS at $2400 isn't cheap, but their lack of pretense about their products is very appealing.

My experience is a two-fold approach 

1. Whole house surge protector 

2. Shunyata denali and Alpha v2 NR cables. The difference in sound (or more specifically lack of sound and noise) was noticeable to me. It also has a mechanical surge protector 

I view this as performance enhancing and protection 

Eric Squires: How much audible noise does the Furman P 1800 AR make during normal operation? When it’s operating under heavy current loads or correcting voltage imbalances? 

How much heat does it generate?

@rfagon

My no bs answer is I dont have that specific model.

I have a much older AR model which feeds two other Furmans with SMP.

Under normal operation in my HT it is silent and produces no heat, BUT occassionally when the incoming voltage is low I do hear a mechanical hum.

Its also like 10 years old, so not sure.  I am about to renovate my HT setup and will replace it.