what's the deal with power strips/supplies

[RockOn4Klipsch]

I have 2 power conditioners/ Automatic voltage regulators, both are APC's, 1 is a H10 and the other is a H15. I got them both for 99.00 bucks each.

I originally had only the H10 which I would trip regularly while watching movies so I invested in another, the H15.

It does filter quite a bit of noise out from my DirecTV lines, it also gives me a piece of mind that my investments are protected with a great warranty and the APC's have a lifetime warranty.

I do notice line boost when the washer and dryer are running, have they improved my audio or video experience....NO but at the price I got them for I feel very happy with the purchase.

[Saturn5]

So you are saying there is a
dollar to dollar ratio based on how much I've spent on equipment to how
much I should spend on my surge protector? Does the same go for speaker
wires? You have me worried here because I bought my speaker wire at
monoprice thinking that it was all the same. Hopefully the ratio only
applies to power protection and not everything else. Could someone
please describe the exact ratio I should use, that way I can best
determine how much I should spend on a surge protector.

Nice. Your clever wit wins you a free internet. [8-)]

Hey, if you want to spend $5000 on equipment and think it's worth only a $20 bargain bin surge protector, be my guest. I wanted something that provided voltage regulation as well as surge protection. I'm more concerned with dirty power or fluctuating power than I am a lightening strike. I've got homeowner's insurance for that.

For someone in your situation, you'd probably be better off seeing if your power company offers electronics insurance. The ones here do. You buy their "whole house" surge protection, which is basically just an insurance policy that says they'll replace any electronics damaged due to power surges, etc.

How much you should spend should be based on the quality of the power in your home, and your tolerance for risk to your equipment. If nothing ever happens, then you only need a $20 surge protector. However; if your system is ever damaged by power surges, you'll know you should have spent more. You can do that next time.

[Saturn5]

C) One thing I'll give them is that some strips have connections for modems and phone lines. In that situation a lighning stike, even distant, could burn out the front end of a modem, etc. You have to wonder whether our modems don't have MOVs. to address the situation in the first place.

FYI, I have lost a computer to lighning strike on my phone line. I had a surge protector on the PC, but the power surge ran in through the phone line, and my modem survived long enough to destroy the motherboard before it fried.

When you look at items like the APC C10, also consider the warranty. For $50 you get "Lifetime replacement or repair warranty, $350,000 Lifetime Equipment Protection Policy." Even if the box did nothing, that might be $50 well spent. It's cheaper than most extended warranties they hock at Best Buy.

[mistermoravec]

Saturn, thanks for your input. I was not meaning to be sarcastic. I was serious. It was never my intent not to use at least the apc c10. I was curious if using a more expensive surge protector would actually provide that much of a better experience. From what I've read here, as long as the power coming into my home is fine, then a c10, or maybe even two c10s should be fine.

[skonopa]

For what its worth, I am using a Panamax M5300-PM myself. Before that I was using an older Realistic surge suppressing/power conditioner before (which I've paid around $100 at the time).

For the Panamax, this was normally a $600 unit, but I got it for around $300 when Tweeter went out of business. I guess when I have some $20,000 or so worth of gear in here, what is another $300 to give it some decent protection. Not only that, the Panamax gave me more outlets (10 vs the 5 that was on my old unit). As for the sound and picture, I did not notice any change one way or another when I put the Panamax in the system, despite all the big claims on the box about it cleaning up the sound and picture. However, I did notice it seemed to get rid of a hum that I was getting in one channel, though.

In addition, I am using an actual UPS (CyberPower CP425G) for the DirecTV HD DVR/reciever and the Elan Via!DJ music server, as both of these units can be very sensitive to power outages, even intermittent ones (plus both of these units takes FOREVER to boot back up. The Via!DJ is essentially a Linux computer, with some fancy software and speciallized hardware for managing and playing back a large music library, for example).

As for lightening, I've lost a Roku SoundBridge M1000 unit (at a cost of nearly $200, which sucks, as I've loved that thing) and blew up the modem on my old DirecTV DVR/Reciever (my old, beloved, Ultimate TV unit that I had for nearly 7 years up to that point! Oh well, gave me excuse to upgrade the service to HD and get one of the new HD DVRs). Thankfully, it did not wreck anything else, say something far more expensive.

Since getting the Panamax and the CyberPower UPS, I've not had ANY problems with power issues since then. BTW, I have also been using a CyberPower UPS on my main file server for several years now, and it has been rock solid!

As for that old Realistic unit - I am now using on my downstairs two-channel rig. The thing is still perfectly good, so might as well use it if I can.