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  3. 193545-178608

AC Power

I have a relatively nice system, but have done nothing with my AC power, with the exception of upgraded PC’s and a cheap iFi plug in power conditioner. My question is multi fold… do I need to do something, and if so what? Dedicated line (15A or 20?)? Quality power conditioner? Both? Which one first? How do you tell?

My system is a combination of HT & 2 channel & I tend to use both simultaneously as I like to watch sports while listening to music.
My amp is (I think) a relatively low draw… Moon 330A, Rythmik sub, BHK pre, Aurender, Qutest w/Sbooster, R11’s. No high power amps are in my future & never listen above 75db. I do currently plug my amp directly into the wall. All my wall warts are gone. For my HT, add a 75” Sony TV, Marantz 7015 AVR & a Klipsch sub (although at zero volume the AVR & sub should not come into play).

I am considering buying the Furman IT-Reference 15i or 20i first as they are well reviewed & are priced very well on Amazon ($1,400 / $1,900). Before I pull the trigger, should I go dedicated power & at what amperage (my nephew, an EE & audiophile thinks I am drawing no more than 5 amps) as that will dictate the Furman model?

Interesting, my nephew thinks neither are worth the investment. His statement: “Do you have appliances on the circuit now? What kind of interference can they inject?...voltage drops would come from current draws...which trip breakers.
Not steady 60hz a good power supply handles. So it all comes back to was the power supply engineer dropped on his head as a child.”

”Personally I think it’s something audio people do when they have run out of gear to buy.”

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

signaforce
jea48
4,651 posts
 

@erik_squires said:        

In addition to the conversation not really going anywhere, I feel it’s also being less than cordial, so I’m checking out.

LOL, "being less than cordial". LOL laugh

 

@erik_squires  said:     

It may help you to understand that the MOV’s in an SPD’s for the most part deliberately CAUSE shorts (series mode an exception) which is why they must be a certain distance from the panel. This ensures the AIR of the breakers isn’t exceeded when they do short.

"It may help you to understand"

I took that as an insult.

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In addition to the conversation not really going anywhere

The conversation is settled. You were wrong.

You proved you were wrong when you introduced series mode SPDs into the conversation.

@erik_squires said:

@jea48 - Of course, always follow the rules, but the 30’ requirement AFAIK is to avoid excess current that is too high for the AIR (current interrupt rating) of panel breakers.

( should be AIC not AIR).

in response to my post:       03-19-2025 at 03:43pm

The 30ft minimum distance requirement has to do with the fault current rating of the Type 3 SPD . Any idea what the Furman is rated at?      

(FYI, It was you that introduced AIR instead of AIC into the conversation. My bad for not catching it and correcting it at the time.
 

Series mode SPDs blows your above statement out of the water.

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Best regards,

Jim

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raysmtb1's avatar
raysmtb1
808 posts
 

I’ve seen this thread happen dozens of times on this website. I always thought that the first part of engineering a component was getting control of the electricity. Isn’t that what happens starting with a fuse and then there’s rectifiers and all kinds of other stuff that steps the power down to where the engineer wants it or wants it changed from AC to DC to operate the rest of the circuitry of the component. If all this is going on I would assume that the manufacturers do it because they can’t control where the components will end up and how bad the power situation is wherever people use them. I think all this stuff is just more stuff to sell people who get bored with their hobby. A couple years back all the rage was these different colored fuses for hundreds of dollars and then crazy $10,000 power cords. Sounds to me like a whole lot of people that got more time than money or is that more money than time I don’t know but the whole thing sounds like a waste. My equipment sounds great wherever I have it

signaforce's avatar
signaforce OP
305 posts
 

@raysmtb1 Not an uncommon perspective. Interesting you don’t believe in power improvements as you have a nice system. You seem to believe in vibration isolation, but not power. I only know that the 2400 without question improved the overall sound of my system. YMMV


@erik_squires My new (arrived today) Furman PST-8D & has further cleaned up my system. Not as dramatic as the 2400, but audible.
I assume it was the conditioned and isolated power to the router feeding my Qobuz streaming, but you would know better than me. Got it open box on eBay for just over $100.00. Great addition. Thanks again for your sage advice. I am getting close to end stage… maybe.🤔 

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