Power Protection in the Home Theater

While many realize the need to invest in power protection, yet few approach this subject in the appropriate manner. The issue is not lack of awareness by rather, the many misconception surrounding the subject of power protection and power line conditioners - especially in the home theater.

For many home theater owners, power protection is nothing more than surge suppression. Many believe that once they plug one of these devices across the line, all their equipment is totally secure!

This in itself is not totally correct. In addition, there is much more you can do to protect your gear and get the most out of it. For example, many are not aware of the beneficial effects that the use of power line conditioners has on the performance of audio and video systems.

This comes to no surprise. Unless you have an idea of what those external connections - AC power, telephone, TV antenna, etc., are feeding into the system, it would be impossible to persuade yourself to spend at least a couple of hundred dollars more, simply to 'clean' the AC line or protect your gear from whatever is coming on that phone or TV antenna connection.

We present you with a series of articles designed to help you get a better understanding of what power protection in the home theater is all about.

Power protection can be expensive - we show you how to get the best out of your available resources without compromising the safety of your home theater gear.

The Quest for Clean Safe Power

If power protection is one of your main concerns, then you are aware that selecting the most suitable protection gear is not an easy job.

The large selection of power line conditioners, home theater power centers, and even inexpensive surge suppressors presently available on the market can make the whole selection process rather difficult.

Going for the wrong choice in power protection is surely not an option - it may lead to inadequate protection. Many would soon find at their own expense that inadequate protection might turn out to be nothing more than no protection at all!

The use of dedicated home theater power plants, complete with elaborated AC power line conditioners and protected connections for coaxial aerial TV inputs and phone line/network connections, is the ideal approach.

...but there is an expense to all this which may not always be within your planned home theater budget.

We hope that this series of articles on power protection will prove to be of some assistance to you in getting a better understanding of the various issues related to power protection in the home theater environment.

There is a lot one can do when well informed - and this does not necessarily mean that you have to spend thousands of dollars on power protection solutions.

Topics covered range from inexpensive surge suppressors to the more elaborated power line conditioners and complete home theater power plants. We also investigate the possible use of inexpensive computer grade uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) as part of a possible home theater power protection solution.

We complete this series of articles with a power protection check-list as well as tips on how to determine power protection equipment ratings to best cover your audio/video requirements. The later is important as the use of power line conditioners and automatic voltage stabilizers that fail to deliver the instantaneous power requested by your amplifier may very well result in a sort of compressed sonic response especially at the lower frequency extremes while loosing the much desired depth and dimensionality of the soundstage.

Power Protection Section index:

Power Clean Up: Why invest in power protection and line conditioning?

We discuss the problems related to dirty and dangerous AC power. But not only...

AC is not the only external source feeding your gear - there are other sources feeding your equipment and that may have an impact on system performance.

Surge Suppressors (1) - A first line of defense

Probably, the use of surge suppressors is your best insurance policy to guard expensive electronic gear from damaging voltage spikes and lightning strikes.

We look at the operational principles behind surge suppressors. We also explain the various surge suppressor ratings used to describe the surge protection capabilities of these devices.

Surge Suppressors (2) - A word of caution

Surge suppressors represent the most common form of power protection - designed properly, surge suppressors will work over and over again, but...

Do not take surge suppressors for granted - we discuss a number of important issues one should be aware of when working with surge protection devices.

How-it-Works: Power Line Conditioners

Protection can range from the simple filtering of radio frequency interference (RFI) and electron-magnetic (EMI) generated noise, to surge suppression, AC power line conditioners, and AC regeneration.

In this article, we discuss the different power protection solutions as used in power line conditioners, together with the pros and cons of each. It is one thing if you are after power protection alone, and another if you want to get the best out of your cutting-edge audio and video home theater set-up.

Use of computer-grade Uninterruptible Power Supplies as part of a home theater power protection solution

Is it possible to make use of inexpensive computer grade uninterruptible power supplies as part of a power protection solution in the home theater?

The purist in home audio and video would surely discard such a preposition ...but what if budget is an issue? Discover more in this article.

Selecting Your Power Protection Solution: Equipment Rating, What-to-Look' tips, and 'Before-you-buy' Check-list

A first step towards implementing a power protection solution for your home theater is to determine the power handling requirements for active power protection gear such as automatic voltage stabilizers and power line conditioners.

Yet, determining the equipment power rating alone is not enough; the whole power protection solution design process should take a more holistic approach. For this purpose, we have prepared a 'what-to-look-for' guide when planning your purchase as well as a 'before-you-buy' check-list.