Home audio & video forum: Are power conditioner/surge protectors really necessary?

"will I actually notice a difference in the picture or audio quality when using a power conditioner?"

With tongue in cheek I'll answer that you will, only after a lightning strike on a nearby power pole. These items are only additional line and surge protection. I install one per device in the house and the plan here is that with all the surge protectors installed the total number of joules that can be absorbed due to an out of bounds electrical spike might do no damage.

Bob

Yes. If they only work once you've paid for their purchase many many times over. While living in San Diego the local power company thought that it might be a good thing to double the voltage to our sub-division. Everything that was running on 120V was fed 240V. I had a dozen things blow up all around the house - cordless phones, clocks, the washing machine and the like but my computer and stereo equipment was protected by surge suppressors which "gave their lives" to protect the equipment connected to them.

The power company did end up paying for everything they blew up.

Bryan, I'm also a licensed electrician with 20+ years of experience, and your reply to this post is right on the money. A surge/spike protection device that audiophiles use to protect their equipment or "generate" 120v clean input to that one device can cost upwards of $2000 for a good one- just type it in in your favorite search engine and you'll see what I mean. However, surge/spike protection, whether it's a one receptacle type device (these are usually the multi-receptacle strips you buy at your favorite electronics store) or a whole house device, will not protect any device from improper voltage delivery by the utility- which is why they paid for all of the damage due to their mistake.

If you're looking for a whole house solution, ensure the device is UL listed for that purpose, that it is patented, and that the manufacturer stands behind their warranty. Also realize that most strip outlet surge protectors have a limited warranty and some do not even promise surge/spike protection- in other words, be an informed consumer and read about the product you are purchasing, don't just listen to some commission based sales person feed you a line of b.s. to push up his paycheck.