Powerful Protection, Powerful Sound

With Storm season approaching a lot of our clients have been asking about surge protectors, power conditioners, and power regulators. These items can be your systems last line of defense against irregular power conditions such as power surges, lightning strikes, and dirty circuits/outlets. Beyond the obvious value of protecting your expensive hardware, these units will also improve the performance of your A/V system.

For many of our clients the idea of a power conditioner is a new concept. It can sometimes be confusing what exactly are the differences between a power conditioner and an outlet strip. An outlet strip can be purchased at most big box stores or online portals for just a couple
bucks, and offers more outlets than a simple wall outlet. One of these outlet strips may even have surge protection, but what makes it different? Well, to be frank, quite a bit. A cheaper outlet strip or surge protector will absorb a small surge in electrical current, but anything more and the surge will be passed down to your equipment. This can damage your A/V hardware to the point of not even being able to be repaired. If the current is enough to bleed through a cheap outlet strip, it will also effectively destroy the outlet strip. (they can even catch fire…)

A good quality power conditioner will not only protect your hardware from the above mentioned situation, but also improve the performance of any connected devices. Higher quality units like Furman and Richard Grey Power Company will add noise filtering to your system. Have you ever been watching TV, then someone in the kitchen turns on a blender? Sure enough!  A lot of times you’ll end up with static on the TV. This is the concept of electrical noise. The same thing happens to your stereo, although it’s not as pronounced. What causes the TV static is noise transmitted through the electricity in your home. This same noise can get into your audio equipment. While it may not be a noticeable hiss or buzz, it can effectively raise the noise floor of your entire system.  The higher the noise floor of your system, the more likely you’re going to hear distortion in your system.

Wilson Audio proudly offers both Richard Grey Power Company & Furman products. Not only will these units protect your gear, but they will ensure you get the high definition sound your system is capable of. Come visit our retail showroom in Metairie, LA to discuss which option is best for you.