2. cables
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confused about 20 amp power cables

I've recently acquired a pre-owned T+A PA 3100 HV integrated and this is my first exposure to a 20 amp power cable. The supplied cable has what I think is a C19 IEC connector (20 A) on the amp end, but the connector on the wall side has parallel hot and neutral blades as opposed to the 20 amp T blades. Is that end really rated at 20A? 

I have a dedicated 110V 20 amp circuit with 20 A receptacles, but is about 10 ft from my equipment. I am currently plugging the amp's supplied cable into an Oyaide OCB-1 SX V2 power conditioner which is plugged into the 20A wall receptical. The wall plug on the Oyaide appears to be a 15A plug and the  4 distributed receptacles are not 20A  and I assume they are rated for 15A. Is this dangerous to have this 15A section between wall and amp?

Would I be better off, or safer to find a 20A extension cable so I could plug the amp directly into the wall?  I've recently started building my own PCs and could make a 10 ft one with C19 on one end and 20A wall plug on the wall side ( ouch for wire cost for 10ft).  I know that its unlikely the amp will ever draw more than 15A. 

Any suggestions would be helpful!

mintakax

Showing 9 responses by mintakax

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

No worries!  Are you saying the 10AWG power cord could have been 12 AWG and would have been less expensive? 

 

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

@blisshifi -- Hi, yes I am that person. Nice to know that you worked with Michael. I will put the PS 3000 on my "down the road list". Next stop for me is a speaker upgrade :).

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

@blisshifi --Thank you. Nice to know about the 10A fuses. This is really an amazing amp and I look forward to using a decent PC. 

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

@williewonka ​​​​@ditusa --  Thank you for your info.

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

 

Bottom line... why the 20 amp IEC inlet connector? Better contact surface area???

Beats me why it was used.

@jea48 Thanks-- That's kind of what I ended up wondering.

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

I ended up buying a 10ft, 10AWG cable with a 20A C19 female and 15A male to go right to the wall plug. The 10ft definitely adds some cost.  I could have done a 20A male connector but I thought it might reduce the resale prospects if I ever wanted to sell it. At any rate that could easily be changed.

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

Thanks @jea48 --

I read the recent thread you participated in (AC Power in misc-audio), lots of good info in that thread.  I may end up putting in a Furman P-2400 at some point.

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

Thanks!  I believe the wire was 12AWG and the run is roughly 60ft.  Most of the advice I've received has been to plug the amp into the 20A wall outlet.

 

mintakax's avatar
mintakax OP
57 posts
 

Apologies if I gave the impression that I was wondering if it was OK to use a 15A circuit. I was never going to do that. I was wondering about the 15A male plug on the supplied PC and the 15A male plug on the power conditioner. At any rate if you read back a couple of post you will see that I bought a 10ft 10AWG PC to plug directly into the 20A receptacle.

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