Here is a review of a Panamax power conditioner and I was wondering if the things he said were true...
HERE IS THE REVIEW: DO NOT plug your receivers subwoofers or power amplifiers into them. These type of conditioners restrict or limit current and amps need unrestricted current to work they're best. The consequence of this is it can severely affect the dynamics imaging and soundstage of your home theater. I learned this the hard way. From the moment I plugged it in I heard a huge difference in sound. After I checked in on several av forums I learned from others about this problem. If you have a dedicated 20 amp circuit to your home theater plug all your other gear into these but plug your amps subwoofers and av receivers straight into the wall.
This was written by me: Would a Monster surge protector do the same thing to an AVR or Crown power amp? Would it keep them from getting enough juice? My 2500 watt Crown amp has its own circuit. But my 1000 watt Crown amp and AVR and all my components are plugged into the Monster surge protector. Should I try a power conditioner or no?
Anything that processes the signal (in this case, it's the AC power from the outlet) will limit something, whether voltage or current. In this case, it would be current. The comment about a 20A circuit doesn't take into account the fact that almost nobody has a 20A circuit for their AV system and its peripherals. It also ignores the fact that most people don't drive their systems hard enough that connecting their amplifier would be a problem. At moderate levels, I seriously doubt a power device's effect can be heard but at high SPL/power, it could cause a bit of compression
of the power going to the amplifier, but I would bet that the differences are "noticed" because the listener knows it's being used and has been conditioned to notice them by whomever is trying to convince them of something, one way or another.
Power amps don't have the sensitive electronic devices in an AVR, BD player, streamer and other source equipment, so they don't need the same kind of protection. Subwoofers may or may not be the same because some use a DSP or other more sophisticated circuits but that can be handled internally through good design. With the processors used in AVRs, I would strongly recommend using protection. Microprocessors really hate voltage spikes and while one or two spikes may not do much damage, many spikes over a long time will.
I installed a system in a house about 13 years ago and I know they have had nearby lightning strikes because I have been there when they occurred- one time, I was at that house working with the equipment and when lightning struck, I heard a loud snapping sound in that room while the system was in operation- the original AVR still works as it did when new and the replacement (because it has more HDMI connections and updated processing) has never had a problem, nor have the APpleTV, ReQuest music server or anything else in the system.
Best practice- use whole house protection at the breaker panel and local protection at the rack (or anywhere this kind of equipment is used). The local protection handles surges and spikes from motors, switches and other devices that start and stop (refrigerators, light switches, pumps, etc).
