Coax Connectors on Surger Protectors

[itschris]

Does anyone use these? I have a PureAV 12 socket Surge Protector behind my cabinet. I'm in the middle of a cleaning and re-wire and was wondering if there's a real benefit to use the coax connections. I've read that it can clean up the signal and reduce noise. I think that's a streach on a $65 surge protector.

 

[Steve81]

To my knowledge there is a benefit, at least in terms of surge protection:

5. MULTI-PORT POINT-OF-USE (PLUG-IN) PROTECTORS
Multi-port point-of-use protectors (also called plug-in protectors) normally consist of an AC protector and one or more signal-line protectors, in a single assembly, designed to be installed near equipment that connects to both AC and signal lines.

These protectors serve three purposes:

1) The AC protectors normally have lower effective surge limiting voltage than the panel protectors described in Section 2, and also might protect against sustained AC overvoltage (Section 5.1).

2) The signal line protectors normally have lower surge limiting voltage than the primary signal protectors described in Section 3, and might also protect against voltages (such as AC voltages from accidental contact with power lines) which are be too small to be stopped at the primary signal protector (Section 5.2).

3) The grounds for all the protectors are connected (bonded) so that inter-system voltages are minimized. As stated above, under lightning conditions, large voltages can be developed between, e.g., phone, CATV and AC grounds, and these voltage differences are frequently the cause of lightning damage (Section 5.3)

http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/IEEE_Guide.pdf

 

[Adam]

Outside of potential surge protection, I also use them to maintain a common ground between my electronics and my antenna feed, which eliminated a ground loop hum that I had.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm in agreement. I use mine as it brings all coax to a common ground, and that ground is the same which is used by the rest of the gear in the A/V system. This can help to keep the audio and video as clean as possible. Since I use an analog system ground loops can be a big deal, and I've seen the improvement that has been made by hooking things through my power center.

 

[Alex2507]

No kidding, anytime I've ever talked to a variety of cable TV guys they have always said to not go through the power center ... so I didn't. I mean I had before and didn't notice any difference one way or the other but as I get to finishing up with cable management I'll go back through the power centers because of what I've read here. Thanks.

 

[Speedskater]

While it's an execlent way to get all your equipment to the same ground potential, not all Surge Protector Strips treat the cable TV signal kindly. Often the channels in the higher frequency bands don't make it through. Note that with digital cable TV, the channel number no longer equates to the frequency band.