Dedicated circuits

Nelson’s comment on the brief intervals of power inflow from the wall with capacitors used to fill the gaps makes clear to me the reasoning behind the Multiwave feature in my PS Audio regenerator. It extends the peak of the sine wave to allow for a longer period of inflow. 

@zlone 

I doubt the PS Audio regenerator would handle the load of two Audio Research REF 160M mono block amplifiers.

PS PowerPlant 20

Maximum continuous load, 2000VA

2000VA / 120Vac = 16.67 amps max

Maximum peak load, 3600VA

Peak is fast quick draws of current. Lasting how long? Millisecond duration?

3600VA / 120Vac = 30 amps max.

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ARC TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

 Power output:

 140 watts continuous from 20Hz to 20kHz. 1kHz total harmonic distortion typically 1% at 140 watts, below 0.04% at 1 watt. (Note that actual power output is dependent upon both line voltage and “condition” i.e.: if power line has high distortion, maximum power will be affected adversely, although from a listening standpoint this is not critical)

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Power Requirements per Monoblock

105-130VAC 60Hz (210-250VAC 50Hz) 400 watts at rated output, 700 watts maximum, 260 watts at “idle”, 1 watt off.

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I am pretty sure the 105-130VAC line voltage does not mean the amp will function properly if the AC line voltage is not steady. I doubt the high DC voltage section of the power supply has voltage regulators.??? 

Playing music with high dynamic passages at a moderated to high volume level could very well reach 700watts X 2, maybe more. Does the 700 watts  take into account fast, quick, short high dynamic passages of music being played?

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Voltage Drop Calculator 

enter,

Wire Size.

Material of Conduit.

Distance.

Load Current.

 

Enter distance of branch circuit wiring from electrical panel to wall outlet. (Distance is up, down, over, and back. Not a distance of strait as a Crow flies.)

Enter load current. (Continuous). Press Calculate.

Press Clear.

Enter estimated dynamic load current, ampere, peaks.

Press Enter

Write down results.

Next, for wire size, enter #10AWG. Press Enter.

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Food for thought:

kijanki

4,508 posts

06-07-2022 at 07:27pm 

2x200W amp might take from mains close to 1kW during peaks. The problem is that peak supply current won’t be expected 8A, but rather close to 40A. It is because current is drawn only for very short time (millisecond pulse) at the peak of full wave rectified sinewave. It applies to most of LPS. Power delivered with such short pulses not only creates larger voltage drops in house wiring, but also heat-up amp’s power transformer, that has to be oversized (higher copper losses and higher core losses for eddy currents and hysteresis).

 

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/329443/current-through-the-smoothing-capacitor-in-bridge-rectifier

@jea48 Good post. I think it is generally agreed to plug your amplifier into the wall, probably for these reasons. And probably also one reason that dedicated lines make such a difference.

Side note, up until recently I have had my amp plugged into the wall and not the P15. My amp and preamp are Audionet AMP1 and G2 respectively. And the G2 has a chassis grounding connection that is pretty much mandatory once you hear the difference. One limitation, if you want to call it that, of this gear is that the AMP1 only accepts single ended/RCA inputs. Based on experiments, it seems that there is a slight differential in the grounds of the P15 and the wall. Moving the amp to the P15 equalized this and took the noise floor of my system down a hair more. If it were balanced connections, this would not have been an issue.

 

@zlone, 

Based on experiments, it seems that there is a slight differential in the grounds of the P15 and the wall.

Difference of potential, voltage, measured in millivolts from a ground contact of an outlet on the P15 to the ground contact of the outlet the P15 is plugged into? There shouldn’t  be any difference.of potential. It should measure zero, nominal volts.

Or is the measurement to the other dedicated branch circuit EGC (Equipment Grounding Conductor) outlet ground contact? Again, in millivolts?

Or do you mean a resistance, measured in OHMS?