do i need a conditioner or just a surge protector (1 Viewer)

[zane]

ok i've got a $3000 tv and about $1600 of audio equipment to protect and i'm just wondering if I really need a power conditioner such as a panamax 4300 or if a good surge protector will do, to my knowledge we don't have extremely bad power or anything around here but I could be wrong, could you suggest a surge protector or conditioner you'd reccomend

 

[Chu Gai]

recommendations depend upon a lot of things...for starters...
you live in a private house or not?
any dedicated lines running to your HT?
what else is on the line...dimmers, halogens, pc's...etc.
you looking for a unit to plug everything into because you want the convenience of one button turn on...things like that.

 

[zane]

as of now i live in an apartment and the tv and receiver are hooked up to a standard wall outlet and there are no lights or other appliances on the outlet, i just want something to protect my equipment but if i can spend a bit more and improve my audio or video then I may go that route

 

[Chu Gai]

well it's tough these days to buy surge protection without getting a little bit of emi/rfi suppression. the 4300 lists for 200 and a little bit of searching suggests you can get about 30-35% off of list. It's got 1650 joules of surge protection and 50 dB of noise reduction on all three lines (LN, LG, GN). it's unclear to me if there's any sort of isolation between outlets. some people prefer some degree of isolation between outlets because they have concerns that some equipment may adversely affect the power lines therebye affecting other equipment. it'll also shut itself down under prolonged over or undervoltage situations and has a few other bells and whistles that may or may not be important to you.
not as sexy looking and not with the same bells and whistles is something like the Belkin F9G1033-12
which has 4270 joules of protection and does have isolation (not sure of the degree) between adjacent outlets. further away you go from the power cord, the greater the isolation so i guess you'd plug your potentially most sensitive component (TV?) into the last outlet. That's going for somewhere around $100. i mention the belkin unit simply to illustrate an alternative that's out there.
there's no shortage of units that combine surge suppression along with emi filtration although, at least to my mind, there aren't too many companies out there, besides monster, panamax, and a couple of others that put out units that provide the bells&whistles that so many people want.
whatever it is that you do wind up getting, simply make sure that everything that's connected to the HT, including the cable or satellite is protected. myself, i'm not too big on this attached equipment warranty. get a good renters insurance policy and rely on that in case of catastrophes.

 

[zane]

thanks for all the info i'm gonna see if i can find the belkin protector cheap

 

[Chu Gai]

zane, not meaning to spin your head, but you can find the Belkin Isolators which are pretty similar to the one above except that they don't have cable protection dirt cheap at places like Staples or Office Max. Both places have no hassle return policies so you could evaluate them (that isolated emi approach). Then if you wanted, you could just pick up a little in-line surge protection unit for the cable at places like RadioShack (i think?), your cable company, various electronic stores, or even on-line for $6 each. Also one other approach that uses silicon avalache diodes are products from www.transtector.com (they don't sell in stores, you'd have to order directly from the company) like the DPS Plus series. I believe those are about $85 and a couple of their advantages over other approaches is that SAD's don't degrade and if the surge protector blows, there's an open circuit which means nothing gets through to your equipment. 5 year replacement warranty. Confused yet?

 

[zane]

yes i'm quite confused, so the cable protection you mention is cleaning the power signal from voltage spikes and sags? the silicon surge protectors sound kind of neat since they should theoretically last forever unless they are blown

 

[Chu Gai]

well none of the units are going to 'adjust' your voltage. most well made equipment is designed to meet its specifications over a wide range of voltages (pull the manual out on something you own and look it up) so unless you've got some serious things going on, i'd not worry too much about it. myself, if i was concerned about varying voltages, i'd go out and get one of those logging multimeters that Radio Shack sells and record a couple of days worth of data to see what i'm dealing with. Even 20 dB of attenuation reduces EMI/RFI by a factor of 100 (99% reduction).
for starters zane, you ought to get yourself a decent surge protector if you're renting. myself, i'd opt for the transtector type unit for a few reasons.
good warranty.
doesn't degrade.
if it fails your equipment is still protected.
it's f***ing fast so a surge won't sneak through.
good company (sister company of Polyphaser...some consider one of the standards in industrial lighting protection).

what it doesn't have is all those other nice features like the monster or panamax units with regards to switched on outlets etc. if you're interested, drop me a pm and i'll give you a person that'll talk to you and answer any questions you may have far better than I.

if the bells and whistles are important then i'd look at a panamax unit over a monster simply because monster makes it too damned difficult to get any information.

 

[zane]

could you link me to a good trastector surge protector with cable tv protection, all i could find was surge protectors for data lines, I don't really care about bells and whistles I'm just worried about protecting my equipment, I don't neeed any switching options, I had thought that line protection would help out but from what you've said it doesn't sound like I need it, thanks for all your help

 

[Chu Gai]

sent you a pm...