I'd get a surge protector first and foremost, but some of that may come from living in tornado alley and having a bit of fear of what nastiness might come down the power lines during a storm - something reinforced by standing in the hallway of our old house and watching the power slam off, on, off, on, and finally off again in about five seconds during a windstorm known locally as "hurricane Elvis" (spent the next 10.5 days without power, in late July and early August). My system (which was sitting downstream of a Panamax unit at the time) came through that ungraceful shutdown unscathed, but my microwave's display was never quite the same and a co-worker lost a VCR and had to have some repairs made to a Sony TV and a I think a Spectral pre-amp as well.

The biggest reason that I don't recommend folks rush out and add dedicated circuits is that I've seen how difficult it can be to push an amp (even one like the 7700) to a level where it actually needs a dedicated circuit. It's good practice to have a dedicated circuit (or close to a dedicated circuit) for the overall system, but unless you're doing electrical work anyway or you are running some really power-hungry speakers I'd not be quick to recommend getting an electrician to snake a new circuit through the house just for the amp.