ZeroSurge - The Unexpected Interview

ZeroSurge

[Note: This post is a follow up to an earlier post ]

I'm happy to report that I was able to have a short telephone chat with Jim Manadeo of ZeroSurge.

He wasn't expecting to be interviewed, and I was not taking notes but I came away with it with some important and interesting tidbits.  I've been a fan of series mode surge protection for a very long time and this is the first time I had person to person contact with an industry insider.

Here's the important parts:

• The only current licensee is SurgeX.  I confirmed that Furman was not a licensee.
• Non-licensees who appropriate the technology use iron core inductors which are cheaper, and saturate faster.
• Their biggest markets include the military and Wendy's restaurants.
• My impression is they are not really that interested in the audiophile market, subject to change, of course. They love customers, this just isn't where they try to sell to.

From a technology point of view, Jim pointed out that these usurpers probably do not incorporate all of the circuit innovations, and they use an iron core inductor instead of air core, and this can lead to premature saturation of the magnetic field, reducing surge and noise performance.

SurgeX
Unfortunately, while SurgeX is a licensee the brand seems to have gone through some turmoil.  I won't write about their troubles here because I wasn't taking notes and I can't verify what I heard.  The SurgeX brand has been popular among HT installers and pro musicians but unfortunately I can no longer find a SurgeX web site and it's possible that the products that are at retailers are the only one's left. If you are an official rep, reach out to me for correction.

Purchasing
You can buy SurgeX and ZeroSurge products via Amazon via this (sponsored) link.