I thought I would relay an experience I had regarding a power surge last week, so those of you that have not addressed it in your system, will.

I had a brief power outage (5 min.) last week. When the power came on, a surge hit my system. I have had outages happen on several occasions with no issues whatsoever.

My monster power 3600 ($500) that I used for my home theater setup began to beep, was not working and started smelling like burnt wiring. My PS audio duet ($199) no longer works, even after I hit the reset button. My PurePower 1050 ($2,500) is now leeking DC into the line and everything plugged into it hums and sounds like crap.

What is very interesting is the fact that my Richard Gray (2 Richard Gray 400s) also took the hit with no effect to them or any of the components connected to them.

My home owners insurance covers up to $1000 per item, with a $500 deductable. I'm checking into what is covered by each manufacturer, but most cover connected equipment, not the actual unit itself. As far as I'm concerned they did their job by not allowing damage to thousands of dollars of loss that I would have had.

I'm looking into some "whole house" protection, but I'm still going to replace the units. The thing is, you need to make sure that you have 1) Protected your system 2) Check what your home insurace covers and 3) What the manufacturer covers.

Some of these power conditioners/surge protectors are becoming high dollar items. Make sure you are protected accordingly and are aware of your potential loss.