Power-Protection for Your Home Theater Setup

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August 3, 2001 | David Chernicoff | Connectedly Speaking
Power-Protection for Your Home Theater Setup

One thing that amazes me about midrange (and up) home-theater equipment is the price some people will pay for perceived value (as opposed to actual value). I don't want to start an argument about multihundred-dollar 18 interconnect cables or high-end speaker cables (I own a few of the latter myself), but what I find really interesting are the prices that home theater and high-end stereo aficionados are willing to pay for power protection.

I guess you can convince some people to spend $250 for basic high-end surge suppressors to protect their expensive stereo equipment, but do these people really think that a quality $50 surge protector designed to protect expensive and sensitive computer equipment will do a poorer job? For the money that they're paying for these power-protection devices, they could be getting a good UPS that would provide a similar level of power regulation and also give them battery backup to keep their equipment running during a power failure or give them time to turn the equipment off. For example, the American Power Conversion APC BACK-UPS PRO 280VA costs less than $150 and can provide protection and power to a small stereo rack with little trouble.

When I set up my primary home-theatre system, I had a spare high-end UPS available, an APC Back-UPS Pro 1400VA. To this unit, I attached a few of the components I didn't want to risk power line damage to: three amplifiers, a receiver, a 61 Trinitron TV, and a power strip with the DVD player and satellite controller attached. This UPS unit costs about $600, which is still significantly cheaper than some of the high-end audio-enthusiast power-protection devices I've seen advertised in magazines and on the Web. The unit provides about 30 minutes of power to a high-end server system and any attached peripherals. I was less concerned about the battery backup than I was about other features that the UPS provides, such as automatic voltage regulation; I agree with the audiophile power folks—clean power is good power. I eventually discovered that the battery backup was a good thing. The power where I live is not very reliable, and we often have short time periods when the power flips itself on and off repeatedly. With my backup-protected home-theater system, I don't have to worry about this power fluctuation damaging the home-theater components.

The power protection is very transparent. One evening, while sitting in a darkened room watching a DVD movie, I became distracted by a regular beeping noise. While trying to find the source of the beeping, I noticed that the microwave's LED clock was blank. That was the only clue I needed. The power had gone out, and the beeping was coming from the UPS. Curious to see how long the back-up power would last, I went back to watching the DVD. About 5 minutes later, the main power to the house came back, so I never did discover how long I could have kept watching.

The bottom line is that power protection for expensive electronic equipment, be it a computer or a stereo, is important. Computer back-up-power vendors can provide you with a reasonably priced power-protection solution that might be a better value than you imagined.

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Reader Comments

Great article David, I am the webmaster for a company that provides refurbished APC UPS and you can get the protection you need, example the BUPro1400 for alot less than $600. I hear people say alot that they do not want to spend so much, but you really don't have to spend alot to get proper power protection for the home theaters.

Thanks

Gerrick -July 22, 2004

Hello, I found your article to be very informative. I recently bought a projection screen t.v. and also purchased a Dynex Home Theatre Power Protector for $150.00. Does this seem reasonable? What could the difference be between this and a basic $40.00 surge protector?

Thanks, John

John -November 14, 2004

answer very simple use a bigger battery a 12 volt car battery that connect to your UPS or you can run many car batteries with relay and power invertor with charger connected to it.

acrylic_dream -July 3, 2005

Great article...I purchased a APC Back UPS Pro 1400...it works great for my home theather Set-UPS...I also saved money by buying a refurbished one from www.refurbups.com a highly recommended source for APC UPS equipment. Thanks Jim

Jim -March 28, 2006

I thought the same thing to be true, but after a recent power outage I lost my brand new LCD TV which was supposedly being protected by an APC XS1500. All my computer equipment (hooked up to the same APC) was unphased by this outage so I tend to believe that these newer TVs require a higher level of protection. Either that or they aren't worth bringing home.

mark -July 18, 2007

I was wondering if I could use my Monster HTS 5100? WOuld I just plug the power cord from that into the APC??

marcus -August 8, 2007

a Tripp Lite UPS should be good

bbb -September 23, 2007

well I just bought a home theater sytem but sinec I added this ultra power surge suppression every once in a while like the fridge starts or something like it it shut down the power bar is this normal and what can i do to prvent this

Claude -December 9, 2007

Many people think you need to spend alot to protect you home theather equipment, I resell Home theater turn-key set-ups,and have brought many APC ups, APC battery back ups from refurbups.com my experience has been great...I would recommend them to anyone in the market for APC UPS for you home theater. I would recomment the APC smart 1400 and APC smart UPS 1000...Billy..

Billy -February 22, 2008

You got the right idea here but there is one issue with APC. I have had 4 year degree (not 2 year) Electrical Engineers and EE's with a masters degree perform oscilloscope readings on the power out of the wall and the power the APC regenerates. It actually makes the power out of the wall worse. APC is like the Bose of power. They have great marketing/pricing and bring back up to the masses but the power generated is really bad. It can actually fry circuit boards over time. If you use these APC's get an internal isolation transformer to go between the APC and your equipment or just don't use it if you want to keep your equipment for more than 3 years.

james -July 25, 2008

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