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California Brownouts and equipment

A few weeks ago, while my wife was watching a video, a brownout occurred. Not knowing to shut everything off, she simply went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night everything came back on. Now the VCR won't record. I have all my audio and video equipment connected to a Audio Research Ref One preamp which is connected to a Plinius SA100 MKIII amp. It's all plugged into a Richard Grey's Power Company 400s. My question is can a brownout cause damage to my equipment? If so, how severe? Not knowing when a brownout may occurr, are there any suggestions?
rosstaman
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
rosstaman: you might want to review the thread titled "California electrical shortage audio," that began on 02/15/01. It should answer at least some of your questions. -kelly
rosstaman OP
455 posts
 
Thanks Kelly!
dekay's avatar
dekay
2,959 posts
 
Rosstaman: I live in LA (West Hollywood proper) and have not experienced any noticable damage to our equipment. Everything is surge protected (the computer is on a RS surge protecter and an APC line conditioner) and the main Hi-fi is running from a Monster HTS-200 line conditioner. We have only had a few periods of "zero power" that lasted a few minutes at around 6:00am. We did go through a two month period where we were not receiving enough current (per the alarm on the APC that chirped away merrily 24 hours a day) but this cleared up 3-4 weeks ago. I spoke with a dealer up in Canyon Country that lost a major digital piece due to a power surge following a brown out, but I assume that the unit was running unprotected. Low amperage is a slow death for components but I assume that the main risk is when the power comes back on. I don't recall what your setup is but the Monster 2000's are only $125.00 new on line. I can't recall off hand where I purchased it for this price but will be happy to look it up if you are interested. I am planning on picking up a second one anyway in the near future for an experiment that I am planning. The inexpensive surge protecters (designed for audio) that I have tried from RS sound awful on our main rig and the mini system as well, so I cannot recommend them. The Monster sounds great (especially on digital stuff).
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