What to look for before you buy a home theater power protection solution

Power Protection 'Check-List'

Selecting the appropriate power protection for a home theater setup is important as it will surely have an impact on both your equipment protection as well as on the overall system performance. 

Selecting the correct power protection gear is in itself a process that should be done with due diligence.

Your choice will eventually determine the effectiveness of the selected conditioning gear with respect to your home theater setup.

Do not try to under-rate the importance of this process. Remember that the electricity in your house is not your friend - it’s dirty and lacking in power. 

Even more important is that any unconditioned supply might very well shorten the life-span of your electronics.

It is true that there is a price to pay for power protection, but...

Please do not be tempted to plug any part of your system straight into  the wall power outlet socket - or worse still, to plug your equipment into a cheap outlet power strip. Why?

'Dirty' power directly affects your components by starving them of the power they require to operate efficiently, and in a way they were designed to.

By choking a component’s power supply, you make it work harder to overcome the dips and sags in the AC line, thereby degrading its sound and video quality while shortening its life-span.

The use of complete home theater power plants, with elaborated line conditioners, separate noise reduction and protected connections for AC lines, phone and TV coaxial connections, is surely the ideal approach. 

Unfortunately, these systems do not come cheap - typically, you should allow between 7% to 10% of your home theater budget for a suitable power conditioning solution.

 What-to-look-for when planning a Power Protection Solution

There are several 'power conditioners' to choose from that will clean up the AC power. The use of power enhancers or conditioners will surely bring about a more dynamic audio presentation and a significant improvement in video system performance. 

Similarly important is that you’ll be protecting your equipment from electrical storms; in particular, you will be protecting your gear from the small daily surges that otherwise would make their way to your system components.

Selecting a power protection solution is not always straightforward. We hope that this what-to-look-for checklist will prove to be of some assistance to you when planning to invest in a power protection solution for your home theater.

What To Look For: 

• Discrete Filter Sections

Look for power filters that isolate the different type of signal components from one another. In particular, high current devices should always be isolated from low current ones.

•  Protection For Other Connections

Similarly important, choose a power conditioning unit that includes separate dedicated protected connections for off-the-roof antenna coaxial TV input, cable-TV and/or Digital satellite services, phone-line protection for pay-per-view broadcasts, and other modem-based services.

• 'Spec' Grade AC Outlets

Spec-grade outlets feature large 24K gold-plated internal copper contact blades; these will ensure a reliable and improved long-term energy transfer.

• Fast-Acting Spike Protectors

Never try to operate your gear without some sort of surge protection - its cheaper than having to replace your home theater equipment. However...

Make sure the power protection unit employs fast-acting surge suppression circuitry to guard your equipment against harmful spikes, power surges, and lightning strikes.

Keep in mind that ordinary circuit breakers are too slow to protect your equipment from dangerous over-voltage events.

Beware of cheaply made power conditioners or protection devices, as their surge protection elements may end up to be a one time use only, leaving your system unprotected after a surge. 

Remember that the quality of a surge protector is reflected in the price of the protection unit, but not only. Check the joule rating of the unit; this measures how much damaging energy the suppressor can handle. Ratings vary from a typical 500 joule up to 2000 and over - the higher the value, the better.

Power Protection Gear

Before-you-buy Check-List:

• What equipment should I protect?

• Do I need line protection for phones, coax and any other part of the network?

• Should I think about a whole-house power protection solution?

• How many outlets do I need?

• Is the AC line voltage stable or do I need to invest in AC line regulation?

• How much do I plan to spend?

Power line protection strips, surge suppressors,  UPS, and home theater line conditioning equipment at affordable prices.

We have put together a vast selection of power protection gear from major suppliers at our online Home Theater Store.

Products range from small inexpensive power protection strips, reasonably priced UPS, and complete home theater power centers for improved system performance.

The links below will take you straight to the respective product pages:

• Electronics: Power-Line Protection

• Electronics:  Uninterruptible Power Supplies

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Last updated on  21st February 2005

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