Power conditioners into a "Home Theatre Surge Protector" into single wall outlet?

RecordingMaster

RecordingMaster

A Sarcastic Statement
Power conditioners into a "Home Theatre Surge Protector" into single wall outlet?

Sup holmies. Silly question for the day. While I may have taught myself how to solder a mic cable, I'm not the guru on electrical currents and the like (my dad came by and helped re-wire all the outlets in my new studio in progress).

What I've always done is had a "Home Theater Power Surge Protector" as like the main hub for all things being plugged that have anything to do with my computer, recording gear, etc. Basically to keep everything all the same place for easy organization, and because it even protects the things I don't have plugged into power conditioners (it has a little light on it to confirm if it's grounded properly and to confirm if it's still being protected or if it's been fried).

That being said, I plug all my audio equipment like monitors, AD converters, interfaces, mic pres, outboard, etc into power conditioners that have a degree of filtration (so they say) so as to not have any hums or buzzes or the like be audible in my gear when I'm using it. So for an extra degree of protection, I plug THOSE POWER CONDITIONERS into the "Home Theater Power Surge Protector", then that surge protector into one single wall outlet. So things like lamps (yes lava too!) and control surfaces and stuff that don't pass audio, but I still want to protect, go straight into the surge protector and not into the power conditioners first.

Anyways, as always I'm probably overthinking it, but for all the electronically savvy guys out there, do you think what I am doing is fine (it's not like I have a bunch of voltage hungry stuff all jammed in there, just a couple preamps and some other rack gear that isnt usually all on at the same time)? Or should I have each power conditioner plugged straight into a regular wall outlet and then the home theater surge protector into a different outlet?

Whaddya think/know/suggest?
 
Does the power conditioner have surge protection? If so, then sure, plug it straight into the wall. If not, I would say there is no harm at all in plugging the conditioner into the surge protector. The surge protector would help protect your conditioner too. As long as the conditioner is getting a reasonably stable 120 volts (+/-) it will do its job with the power coming into it.
 
pegger said:
Does the power conditioner have surge protection? If so, then sure, plug it straight into the wall. If not, I would say there is no harm at all in plugging the conditioner into the surge protector. The surge protector would help protect your conditioner too. As long as the conditioner is getting a reasonably stable 120 volts (+/-) it will do its job with the power coming into it.
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Well yeah, I mean, I'd hope they have surge protection! I have an ART PB4x4 PRO Power Distribution System for the more crucial audio circuits because it apparently has "Advanced Power filtering" (interfaces, ad converter, pres and outboard go into this one - stuff that actually will affect the signal going into my daw). It has a fuse in it. And then I also have a Furman Merit Series M-8 Power Conditioner which I use for audio stuff that doesn't actually pass signals to my DAW (I plug powered monitors into it, power amps for other monitors, my mackie big knob, etc). It has a little "push-to-reset" button on the back so I think it trips like a breaker if something tries to surge it.

Anyways, I'm basically wondering If I am overloading the one outlet if plugging all that stuff into separate power conditioners and power strips, THEN into the big block power surge protector, THEN the wall. Or should they be spread out to different plugs? They are all on the same breaker (all the outlets in the room, lights on different breaker though), so I;d assume it's the same as if I had stuff plugged in spread out everywhere, right?
 
If all the outlets in the room are indeed on the same breaker........it makes no difference which plug on the line you use to plug in your stuff.............any stuff. I assume your dad checked the line for actual voltage and the new outlets for proper ground plug position. The line should be in the 120 volt range. Very small occasional dips in the voltage may be seen with a VOM....but those are normal. Unless he left a line monitor on the line for 24 hours or more he probably couldn't say whether or not the voltage has any serious fluctuations on that line. If your line / power conditioner does have a surge protector in it......you need nothing more to insure that the power to your DAW is the best it can be. Plug your PC into that and you should be good to go.
 
Mickster said:
If all the outlets in the room are indeed on the same breaker........it makes no difference which plug on the line you use to plug in your stuff.............any stuff. I assume your dad checked the line for actual voltage and the new outlets for proper ground plug position. The line should be in the 120 volt range. Very small occasional dips in the voltage may be seen with a VOM....but those are normal. Unless he left a line monitor on the line for 24 hours or more he probably couldn't say whether or not the voltage has any serious fluctuations on that line. If your line / power conditioner does have a surge protector in it......you need nothing more to insure that the power to your DAW is the best it can be. Plug your PC into that and you should be good to go.
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Yes he absolutely checked for 120 V's. All good there. As for going as far as monitoring for 24 hrs, c'mon man, no we didn't do that, haha!

Yeah what I thought is fine I guess. Just doing my typical overthinking of things as far as studio stuff goes...but hey if I didn't, I wouldn't have avoided a lot of catastrophe's over the years! haha

Thanks fellas
 
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