Protecting components from electrical surges / outages

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xenithon

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Hi all. I recently had an issue with my DAC/amp - it developed audible hum (transformer itself), which I suspect was caused by Eskom doing load shedding and introducing transients into the grid.

I managed to get a replacement unit, and want to make sure it is protected. I read up here and various other sites, most of which say our grid has good power overall, and that a UPS is overkill (and may degrade the sound) so a surge protector should be fine. I have an old Clearline powerstrip which seems to work fine - though not sure if one needs to check if it is still "good" as it hasn't been used in many years.

So I have a few questions:
- Will using just that surge protector suffice to protect the component? I cannot find the powerstrip on the Clearline website but found details here.
- Will using a UPS be a better option to prevent sudden loss of power and, if so, will a standard computer UPS be fine (one which feeds grid power through in normal conditions and only when power is lost does the battery take over)?
- If not, and going UPS, does it need to be a pure sinewave double conversion / online UPS?

It was a very expensive exercise and hassle following damage to my component so want to avoid that again.

Cheers
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