Damaging Receiver (1 Viewer)

[BrendanG]

Somewhat of a strange question: I have all my components (receiver, dvd player, tv, cable box, subwoofer) plugged into the same surge protector. If i turn my receiver on first, am i doing any damage to my receiver by turning my tv or subwoofer of after that? is that sudden jolt of power out of the surge protector hurting my receiver? and another question, should i even have my subwoofer connected to the same surge protector or another outlet? is it too much power out of one surge protector? also i have a low end denon receiver and a 27 inch sony wega tv if that helps the answer at all. any answers? thanks

 

[BrendanG]

anyone?

 

[Dave Milne]

should i even have my subwoofer connected to the same surge protector or another outlet? is it too much power out of one surge protector?

That depends on the current/power rating of the surge protector. If it's a 15A model, then anything you plug into an outlet you should be able to plug into the surge protector. My personal preference is not to plug power amplifiers into surge protectors. You want the lowest source impedance to get maximum dynamic headroom out of the amp. Power amps are pretty robust to spikes (no delicate digital circuitry; huge power supply filters don't let much through anyway). On rare power amp models, the protection circuitry can be triggered by spikes or high-frequency noise.

One issue you didn't mention is the potentially speaker-damaging pops that occur when turning on source components after the power amp (or receiver) is on. General rule of thumb is to turn the power amps off first... and on last!

 

[BrendanG]

thank you very much

 

[Cagri]

General rule of thumb is to turn the power amps off first... and on last!

Can you or someone else confirm that it is this way and not the other way round? I am just confused thinking receivers with power outlets.

 

[Chu Gai]

the general thinking is you don't want the potential for a transient from your preamp or whatever else is hooked up to an already powered up amp to be passed through your speakers giving them a thump. besides, it allows one to go through a ritualistic thing with their components. kind of like the Jo-Boo thing in "Major League".

 

[StephenL]

For proper protection all interconnected components must be plugged into the same surge protector.

 

[Mark Barnhill]

most definitely, power amps off first, and on last!

 

[Dave Milne]

For proper protection all interconnected components must be plugged into the same surge protector.

I guess I don't understand this. Could someone explain?

 

[StephenL]

A surge can cause a large difference of potential between components that are not plugged into the same surge protector. The difference in potential will equalize through any electrical connection between the components, possibly damaging them.

 

[Cagri]

I was out for the weekend and I'd left all my components in standby mode. When I came back today, after about 60 hours, I saw that my receiver was on. Everything is connected to the same wall outlet without a surge protector. I thought the power might have been gone for a while and when back it could have turned itself on, but the timer on my VCR was working so that is not what happened. Everything was on standby still but the receiver, and it was very hot. It seems to work fine though... Can a surge cause such a thing?

 

[Chu Gai]

Likely what happened is your power went on and off.

This might be a good time to review or clarify what a surge is.
Surge A surge, in the context of a surge suppressor, is a damned powerful punch. When a company markets a surge suppressor, and the unit is UL 1449 listed, they're talking about hitting that unit with a 6kV, 500 amp slug for 20 msec. What can cause something like that? Lighting hitting your outside service pole. Now that doesn't mean that a 200 amp slug isn't a surge. It is. But statistical analysis by the IEEE, a standards organization, has determined the 6kV one mentioned above as most typical.

A surge protector can be constructed in many ways. Depending upon how they're constructed, the amount of voltage they let through in the event of a surge is typically 330 volts I believe. Less is certainly possible and it really depends how the manufacturer has chosen their components. It also depends on what specifically is being protected as to what the let through voltages will be. Satellite and cable have more stringent requirements and if you take a look at Panamax's products you'll see what their let through voltages are.

I don't know if you've got your own house. If you do, I strongly advise that you have a whole house unit installed by an electrician or yourself, if you happen to be comfortable working around electricity. Then you can always choose secondary devices to handle things like glitches, spikes, noise, etc.

 

[Cagri]

Thanks Chu.
I am doing some reading to determine if I need the use of a surge protector. I see different types of surge protectors some of which are presented as "computer protectors", others as "A/V surge protectors". Is there a difference between them other than the telephone line connections or can you use one for everything?

 

[RobCar]

I was out for the weekend and I'd left all my components in standby mode. When I came back today, after about 60 hours, I saw that my receiver was on.

I watched the movie Unfaithful a couple months ago, then put all my equipment into standby mode and went to bed. But several hours later, at like 4 in the morning, I heard this creepy snippet of a song playing, over and over. I was at first kinda freaked out, but then I realized that there had been a power outage and that the HT equipment was now fired up. Anyway, in retrospect, pretty funny.

 

[Chu Gai]

good thing it wasn't Poltergeist!
If, for whatever reason, you're going to opt for a point of use system and not whole house (which i strongly advocate for), then everything that's connected in your HT system needs to be protected. Posts along these lines have been many both here and in Tweaks.
A very inexpensive and apparently capable unit is one from Stratitec that protects cable, and other equipment. It's a little over 3000 joules (MOV based) and you can get their top of the line for under $20 at Sam's Club. The Max series from Panamax is not too shabby either but the prices are higher.
Other types of units, that go away from MOV technology is the DPS series from www.transtector.com. While also protecting against surges, they also do a very nice job with noise and glitches. You have to buy those direct from the company. A little under $100. Transtector is a sister company of PolyPhaser, one of the industries giants when it comes to lightning protection.