Whole House Surge Protectors and Audio

The electrical panel in my house is due for a replacement. I have the option of adding a whole house surge protector as well. Do these have any effect on audio? If so, is there a particular brand or model that will have positive rather than negative effects?

My audio system is plugged into a PowerPlant 3.

Last year I had my AC wiring and power panel replaced. As part of the project, I had two products from Environmental Potentials installed: the EP-2050 Surge and AC Correction Filter and the EP-2750 Ground Filter. Both have been working fine and I have not noticed any degradation to my listening room experience. I live in Florida and lightning is a daily risk most of the summer. I purchased my EP products from VH Audio

2 Likes

Here’s a link to the search page on Audiogon for the topic, it’s been debated ad nauseam for years on audio forums.

https://forum.audiogon.com/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=whole+house+surge+protection

1 Like

Several years back I talked to someone at Shunyata about having dedicated lines installed and they recommended also getting a whole house surge suppressor and said that it would not degrade audio quality. They did not recommend a specific product.

1 Like

With all the lightning strikes and power surges here in Florida, I didn’t hesitate to install whole house protection years ago. There are limits to what it can protect against though. We had a direct lightning strike to the fiberglass cover of the underground electrical distribution network between our neighbor’s house and ours and it fried a couple low voltage circuits in the home. No damage to any higher power consumption appliances, tvs, or audio equipment though. Didn’t notice any deleterious effects on sound after installation but it’s not something one can easily test in an A/B manner.

1 Like

Thanks for all the comments so far.

One thing I’m wondering is if the Environmental Potentials EP-2050EE is superior to a standard whole-house surge protector (one that shunts excess current to a ground). I’m guessing that there are few people out there who started with the latter and switched to the former who can discuss what kind of sonic change, if any, they got. And it would need to be someone using a PS Audio regenerator since this would all go before my PP 3.

A few years back a spring thunderstorm took out my home’s ac
compressor. The local utility offers whole house surge suppressors
installed at the power meter for about $6.00/mo. So in response
had them install a whole house surge suppressor at power meter.

In my pre regenerator days…I did not find installing the whole house
surge suppressor to have a negative impact on my audio gear.

As for me…having the whole house surge suppressors is a relief…

There are 4 houses connected to the same service line. 3 out of the
4 now have the same whole house surge suppressors installed at the
power meter.

As always ymmv.

Best wishes

2 Likes