Surge protectors and power conditioners - Good idea or bad?

Some of you may not have lightning problems but many of us do. We had five power outages last year due to lightning, including one lightning strike that blew up a transformer at the substation about two miles from my house. I have a whole house surge arrestor at the panel, and have a Furman IT-Reference 20i power line conditioner, surge protector with an isolation transformer.

I really don’t care if the Furman affects the "blackness," "holographic presentation," etc., and twenty other esoteric terms which I can’t hear. What I do care about is not blowing up a $5K preamp, $10K amp, and associated equipment.

Oh, and the guy that thinks lightning hits the highest object...look up the term "rolling sphere" as it applies to lightning. You’ll find out lighting is finding path with the least resistance to ground and not the highest object.

I live in Miami Beach.  I live in a newer house (2015).  We get lightning and storms all the time in the summer and a lightning strike blew my preamp and I had to send it in for repairs.  I then put a whole house surge protector in at the breaker panel and no more problems.  A cheap insurance policy to protect your equipment!

Whole home surge protectors are noting but a bunch of big MOVs across line/neutral/ground, or in Europe, MOVs and gas discharge tubes. There is absolutely nothing they are going to do to hurt sound, but they sure may save your equipment. Everything you have plugged into the line will affect the line more than these things will. 

Blah, Blah, Blah.... Big Storm: Unplug your Stuff.. problem solved.

Reportedly, 80% of all surges/transients in a home's electrical system are generated by appliances in the home. Anything with a motor is suspect. I believe that continuous "hits" with surges and transients will shorten the life of the equipment. If you value your equipment, consider the protection offered by a good series-mode suppressor. Reasonably-priced units are available from Zero Surge, Brickwall and SurgeX with audiophile versions (Audioquest Niagra, Furman Elite PFi, etc.) with power correction (energy reserve) technology for those who are concerned about dynamic current limiting with big power-hungry amps.