AC Power Between Amp and Preamp


For as long as I've had my ARC D-90 amp and SP-12 pre-amp I have connected the amp's AC Power Cord to the Switched AC outlet on the Pre-amp. I actually connect a decent quality surge protected power strip to the switched pre-amp outlet and plug the amp, subwoofer and cooling fan to the multi-outlet power strip so everything powers up and down together.

I have not noticed any issues at all with this set-up and have been doing it for years. I did read in another A/V Receiver manuel however where they cautioned against plugging high current components into the back of their (Pioneer) receiver/amp type unit.

Needless to say the D-90 amp pulls a lot of current. The Bob Carver Sub supposedly has an 1100 watt internal amp, so the big question is should I be running these high current components through the pre-amp. Otherwise I'll have to come up with another way for easy on/off for the amp and sub.

Thanks for any comments.
jamesk58

Showing 2 responses by eldartford

Switching the many amps drawn by the power amp will shorten the life of the switch in the preamp. Why not get a heav duty relay from Radio Shack and let it do the switching. You can get a relay where the coil (control) is 115 volts. Install the relay in an electrical box with an outlet turned on by the relay.
I have an old and inexpensive Adcom ACE-515 AC Enhancer. It isn't anything fancy, and Adcom now sells an improved model. However, it does claim to do some filtering and spike/surge protection, but for me the best feature is that it properly sequences power up and power down of the source components and the power amps.