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Thunder, Lightning and your audio system


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I worked for PS Audio and a lot of my time was spent advising customers on system set up including power conditioning. There is no product which can ultimately protect electrical components from close lightning strikes: consider that lightning is powerful enough to fly through the air for miles and it becomes clear that even an open relay will not stop a close strikes, it will just jump the gap and fry things if it wants to.

While we expect lightning to be somewhat predictable, unfortunately, it is not, and often does not necessarily follow the path of least resistance (or so it seems, maybe lightning "knows" better than we do ;-).

If you have a serious lightning event going on, the only way to be sure any electric equipment is safe is to unplug it from the wall-other than that, a good home owners policy can be quite helpful in the event of equipment failure. Do not make the mistake of thinking any power conditioner or surge suppressor will protect you-if the component is plugged in, you are at risk.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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  • 2 weeks later...
Good to get so much real life feedback regarding surge protection devices. I've always only used a basic power strip (no lights, switches, surge, etc.), with the belief that surge protection devices were not necessary, but I was never completely sure of it. Now I feel confident recommending to friends that they forgo surge protection. However, is there any credibility to the idea that surge protection can help to extend the life of a components power supply by absorbing small, everyday surges and spikes. My guess is no.

 

Actually, yes, this is true to an extent. Most surge protection devices use MOVs, and these do a pretty good job of absorbing smaller everyday overvoltages. But one must be aware that MOVs are sacrificial devices, which will wear out over time (depends on how many, how big hits they take) and the way they are employed in most circuits one will not know when the MOVs are worn out. Many components these days also have a simple MOV surge protection device built in to the power supply as well: these are pretty easy to spot, they look like a round disc with two leads, often blue or brick red in color. They can be paralleled for better capabilities, and sometimes one will see a stack of them in better devices, there are also "good" MOVs and "bad" MOVs. With a really big surge they may blow up, leaving a big mess behind when they do (weird powderey residue).

Note, that some people report that MOVs are not good for sonics... I generally leave them out of my system for this reason, but many, many high end power conditioners use them for surge protection. They are best at dealing with smaller overvoltages.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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chg: I do not really know, TVs and computers are powered with SMPS, and I just do not know enough about their supplies to know how vulnerable they are to over voltage conditions. Generally speaking, not considering lightning, most over voltage conditions happen when the power comes back on after an outage, even a very brief one, and stress on electronics are cumulative in nature. If one has a frequent outages at their home, it probably is a good idea to have some surge protection on most electronics.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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