I just got my 282 delivered, and a nice California Zin, but we are experiencing and expecting here up to 55 mile an hour winds and a huge rain storm tonight. I’m concerned about setting it up and then power going out which happens a few times a year in our neighborhood here in Monterey California. So I may pass and wait a day or two, and my question then is, does anyone recommend a good uninterruptible power supply to put on the front end of the power, so if it does go out, it doesn’t damage any gear? Looking forward to hearing opinions. Thank you.
They are likely to have the same detrimental affect on sound quality as power conditioners.
In the rest of the world, when there are forecast weather that can affect power (high winds/lightning) it is common to simply turn it off and unplug it (surges ride up earth) and ride out the adverse weather.
That’s general to all hifi but even Naim staff will confirm the unplug it all when storms roll in.
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I’ve never heard of just losing power damaging Naim gear, unless it’s due to lighting strikes on the building that do the damage, in which case only unplugging from the wall beforehand and/or a good home insurance policy helps.
I don’t use anything like surge protectors or a UPS on my Naim gear. They won’t help in the case of damaging weather anyway. If I leave town or there is is bad weather, I unplug it all from the wall. I just use the AV Options version of the Wiremold outlet strip (SuperWiremold Deep-Cryo 9) which has no fuses or anything else current limiting. That’s what I plug my Powerlines into, and the Wiremold plugs into the wall.
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Well, it happened, power went out in our entire town, except for a six block area, right where I am! And the rig is rocking! Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. Jd in CA
The answer is “Fusing.”
UPS units as used in audio & home office systems are only to protect a NAS from shutting down while it’s read/writing, none that I know of have enough power to support amps & source units.
Besides, as said above, power outages don’t do much if any harm to the main system.
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It’s the repeated on/off/on as they try to restore power that’s more likely to damage something. I sometimes think adding a contactor that stays off until you manually reclose it would be a good idea - but I’ve never heard of anyone using one.
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The answer to what?
If your concern is with protecting your equipment from potentially damaging spikes, I can wholeheartedly recommend ZeroSurge. I’ve tested my system thoroughly with and without ZeroSurge, and I can’t hear any difference.
While nothing is likely to survive a direct lighting strike, that’s not the only possible threath, lighting can hit a pole or antenna nearby, sending a harmful spike. Pole mounted transformers do blow up and harm electronics.
Experiment and trust your ears, don’t blindly buy into narratives from anyone, manufacturers included. Many people here have reported sonic benefits from power products and are very happy with them in their systems.
As others have said, when bad weather is expected, I just unplug my kit. I have a UPS, but its for the NAS, not the audio equipment. As an additional line of defense, I run a Siemens whole home surge protector (FirstSurge).
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I spoke too soon, about 10 minutes after I posted last night our power went out. It was weird, because it was almost an advance warning, my CDX2 started skipping. Then I noticed that it was skipping in time with the flashing bedroom light, and then boom out. And it still hasn’t been back on and PG&E says it’s not expected to come on till tonight around midnight, but glad to report no damage anywhere, although over 30 trees went down in Pebble Beach across roads last night. And a lot of the city of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach still without power, of course, right when I get my new 282!
A Tesla Powerwall & Gateway perhaps, given PG&E’s record on power cuts?
It works for us…
If protection is your main concern, I would recommend surge protection devices: type 1, 2 and 3.
Sadly Tesla have stopped selling Powerwalls “a la carte”. Recently they tied them to Tesla solar panel contracts. They pulled the rug out from under right as I was shopping for one.
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