Does a P3 make sense in this scenario?

I’m new to the power regeneration world mainly having read about it for a year or so on these threads. I like what I’ve read in regards to the sound improvements, but after a major power surge last night, protecting my gear is front and center.

I live in an older house in North Louisiana. I often see my lights dim when the a/c or other large appliances kick on. There is definitely some fluctuation in how the system sounds at different times of day or night. It’s a smaller town with old above ground power lines. We also have a lot of storms, with lighting and thunder in spades.

Last night a massive Oak limb fell on a power line in my back yard. For some reason, it caused a power surge. I could hear and see it starting to surge my preamp so I ran and unplugged the main power box in time. My sub was plugged in across the room and unfortunately started smoking before I could unplug it. RIP Hsu sub from my college days.

Would the P3 help protect my gear in situations like that? Usually, when the lighting is bad or if I go out of town, I’ll just unplug everything to be safe. But I’d sleep better with some additional protection.

I have the following:

  • Modwright SWL 9.0 AE
  • Van Alstine SET 400 SS Amp
  • DSD Sr.
  • Salk Songtowers
  • active Hsu sub (RIP)
  • AC5 power cables
  • Blue Jeans interconnects and speaker cables

powerbox with six filtered outlets that everything is plugged into (I can’t remember who made it…it was custom) and then that plugs into the wall socket.

any feedback is much appreciated!

If your environment is prone to electrical storms, and you experience a lightning strike on your power grid I don’t think there are many products around that would protect you from that. Some manufacturers offer a connected devices warranty so if something gets smoked you might be covered. However the best insurance is to unplug your stuff from the wall.

They do make whole house surge protectors. An electrician would have to install it.
You would have to make sure that it doesn’t restrict current.
Even though our systems are our primary concern, there are a lot of other things in the house that are at risk.
Unplugging is the right thing to do for now, but if you aren’t home, and a storm comes up, well, do you feel lucky?
As to the sub, Parts Express sells plate amps for very reasonable prices.
If it was me, I would look into whole house protection, and a regenerator.
I would also find out what your insurance covers.

Yeah if you happen to be home. Besides unplugging, the best insurance is to have replace cost insurance.

Or shift to a neighborhood with underground power.

Yes that would help during storms, but the last few outages I’ve had, and subsequent surges, were due to underground power lines being accidentally cut from new construction projects in the neighborhood.

Sorry for hijacking this topic, but another one of our brethren has a busted power plant. Maybe somebody in PS Customer support @jamesh can reach out to him (he says he’s reached out to you twice but hasn’t had a reply).

My power cables are buried. Unfortunately, underground power does not remove the risk of lightening strikes or damaging power surges.

One thing I recall reading (I don’t know how true it is) is that the largest risk of frying electronics in lightning storms comes via smaller gauge stuff like ethernet cables. Perhaps that may be because you would tend to protect the heavy AC stuff while leaving direct lines connected via the Network. Since increasingly components have ethernet connections for one reason or another, some protection for that would be in order, though I wouldn’t imagine running it through some Best Buy power strip would be audiophile approved. Not sure what the state of that art is.

Another case for Wi-Fi ; )