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Why should you buy a power conditioner? Lightning strikes and surges in your power lines can cause serious damage to your home theater and other electronic components. Also, electromagnetic and radio frequency interference may be degrading both the sound and video quality of your home theater gear. A power conditioner is will filter out these interferences as well as provide surge and power protection for you gear.
When choosing a power conditioner for your home theater there are a few things you should take into consideration. First off you need to consider what you will be plugging into it. If you have a lot of gear you are going to need to make sure the power center that you purchase has enough outlets for all of your home theater gear. If you have cable TV and would like to make sure you are getting the cleanest signal possible you should look for a unit that has coaxial cable filtration. If you have satellite TV you will need to make sure you buy a unit that is made for this type as protection as it differs from standard cable.
In order to protect your equipment you are obviously going to need one that offers some form of surge protection. Lightning strikes or power overloads from your power company can destroy equipment in a matter of seconds. You want to make sure that the power center that you purchase can accommodate all of cable, satellite, phone and of course power needs.
How do power centers protect you from these dangerous surges? Power centers can detect instantaneous surges and when they do they will either blow a fuse or trip a circuit breaker. So instead of destroying your equipment it just blows a fuse or flips a circuit breaker. Most power centers will also check to make sure that your home's wiring is properly ground and if it is not, the power center will tell you so. Most power centers carry a warranty that will cover the price of your equipment should something happen to it and the power center didn't protect it.
Other than protecting your equipment, power centers can also condition your lines, cleaning out electromagnetic and radio frequencies. This can give you better performance by making your system sound better and your video look better. Newer, digital devices seem to be more susceptible to these interferences.
There are two basic interferences, EMI and RFI. EMI is caused by an electromagnetic field somewhere between your power signal and your home. Vacuum cleaners, blenders, washing machines are all big culprits in generating EMI interference. RMI is from radio waves which can originate from microwaves, radio stations, cell phones and many other sources. RMI interference can originate from very far from you home. RMI interference often manifests itself as pops and clicks being hear and sometimes even as snow on your video picture.
Your equipment itself can generate noise which effects your system. Power center type units will help to eliminate this.
Power centers can offer many more advantages other than just surge protection and line conditioning. Some of the available models can also offer sequential outlet turn-on. This can turn your components on in a specific order, for instance turning on your amplifier last to eliminate the thumb which can damage your speakers. Some power centers will also offer brown-out protection. What brown-out protection does is when you are receiving a lower than normal line voltage, which is called a brown-out, power centers with brown-out protection can help keep your equipment safe when this happens. Many power centers offer phone line connections, some of them several. This can come in handy for satellite TV and additional devices like Tivo DVRs and modems.
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