whole house surge protector?


I have dedicated lines (nice improvment). We are now in a situation of having to upgrade our circuit box (heavy up).

The electrician is recommending a whole house surge protector which many on this site have recommended. It is not a particularly costly item.

I use power conditioners in my system (Adept Response) both because they have improved the sound AND the offer surge protection.

Several audiophile friends and retailers have suggested I try my tubed preamp and my amplifiers plugged directly into the wall. I have never been willing to try this as we have a terrible power grid here in Washington DC suburbs (Maryland) and there are lots of surges and we lose power all the time with thunder storms and ice storms and.... you name it.

So: two questions (1) does a whole house surge protector harm sonics in any way; (2) if I have a whole house surge protector, at that point, it seems the experiment (plugging components directly into the wall and seeing if the power conditioners are really helpful or harmful) is feasible.

Does this make sense?

Thanks for your help.

--dan
dgaylin

Showing 3 responses by dgaylin

All --

Thanks for your responses. Most appreciated. I will look into the EP2050. I must say my reaction is similar to Cwlondon's.
Frank -- it turns out it is really hard to get an EP 2050. I tried contacting the company directly and the distributor. Long story but, after talking to a dealer who used to sell them (and stopped because he didn't see the reason to do it anymore) it became clear to me that these units are not much different from similar units that sell for less. After consulting with my Audiophile electrician (he's a sound man and an audiophile), I determined that the Leviton unit (and there are plenty of others) will work just as well. The unit I bought is still considerably nicer than the stock units that most electricians install for this purpose.