power for mc452 and c2600


I'm relatively new to high end audio. Had a mcintosh integrated amp for few years and now decided to upgrade to separates. Just received c2600 preamp and awaiting on mc452 amp due to arrive sometime next week. 

I don't know anything about power conditioners and protection devices. currently using monster surge protector. My questions: 

1. what is the minimum protection device that one would use for my equipment
2. does it have to be a power conditioner or just surge protection
3. how much do these "power conditioners" contribute to the overall performance? Can you objectively measure their effect? Can they worsen the performance in any way by limiting power? 
4. is there a real difference in relatively affordable (200-500) vs. higher price units (1000 and above) ? 
5. What are you using and what is your experience with it? 
6. Your recommendation on units with good reputation under $500

thank you 
ei001h
I have a number of thoughts for the OP:

I have not heard a power conditioner on an amp that i liked, compared to going straight in. (I haven’t heard the Audience, which seems to have very strong support from high end community, but don’t know if that is mainly for front end/smaller components, not power amps).
Surge protection is, I think, a little deceptive in a couple respects: first, the big worry is lightening strikes. If your house or your transformer gets hit, I suspect no black box, whole house surge protector or other device is going to save you from damage.
More likely are voltage surges-- that EP 2050 would certainly be one of the nicer whole house units on the market. According to Chris’ description on the link posted above, it does use MOVs, but only for the big hits; otherwise, the MOVs are not in the circuit.
Trying to be realistic about this, maybe one of our more astute electrician types, like @Jea48, or electronics gurus, like @almarg, can weigh in on the peak power of dangerous surges. The EP is rated at 12kVa, but the Eaton I have (it uses MOVs with a set of lights to tell you when to call the electrician and replace the thing) is more like 80kVA peaks per mode. Do you need that much?
I don’t rely solely on whole house. For example, I have a pair of electrostatic speakers that must stay plugged in all the time. For those, I use a box made by ZeroSurge, in Frenchtown, N.J. Uses no MOVs. Well made and I believe they hold the patent and license their technology to several other competitors. Basically plug into a wall outlet at point of use. Will it color or limit the sound of your amps? I don’t know. I never tried it on my amps. In my application, it is keeping the panels charged with voltage, so even if it were colored to some degree, I don’t think it would matter much. It certainly isn’t choking current in that application.
My main system goes through some additional, fairly elaborate electrical work, separate subpanel, to 10kVA isolation transformer with its own surge protection board (40 or 50kVa per mode) plus some EMI filtering, to dedicated lines for the hi-fi. If I was really anal about it, I could theoretically put point of use surge protection on some of the components, too. (All my record cleaning gear goes through a 4 outlet Tripplites; ditto some other accessories, like the record flattener. But none of that connects directly to the system).
My practical answer is simply to pull power in a bad storm.
The other observation- and those with more electrical knowledge can correct me if wrong, but:
-a surge protector of any type or size doesn’t protect against power dips. Those can be hazardous to your gear as well.
-some surges can result not from lightening or other acts of God or the power company, but simply as a result of what is going on within your household electrical system. I’m not sure how fully dedicated lines isolate that since they still share a common ground with the rest of the house, but it may give you some additional reasons to consider the whole house approach, plus something else.

^^^Power products that use choke devices also choke the current. IMO, proper modern designs do not use chokes but other superior technologies for surge protection/power "conditioning" and therefore do not restrict current, especially important with amps. These products cost FAR more than $5-700 when capable of providing unrestricted current to high-draw and/or multiple components downstream. Short of that, better off with nothing but a dedicated 20a line from breaker box to receptacle. Short of that, buy a good power cord.

Dave
I would not plug your high power/high current amp into any power conditioner. They limit current draw except for some high-end, expensive conditioners.
Use a power strip with EMI/RFI protection. I use a Furman for my high power amp and conditioners for low current upstream components.
The Furman surge protector has never failed during power outages and spikes, the breaker has always tripped. It is used by pro musicians on stage.

https://www.amazon.com/Furman-SS6B-Plug-Surge-Protector/dp/B0002D017M