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I need help setting up Two Reference power conditioner 20Is on the same circuit

I have TEN Anthem Monoblocks M1s I need protected for my Home theater. I have 20amp GFI Recepticle Circut.

Three Questions:
1. Can those two Furman 20Is be plugged into the same circut two outlet wall 20amp receptacle and work in sync with having my monoblocks split between the two Conditioners?

2. The Furman Reference power 20i only has FOUR “High Current, Ultra Low Impedance, Linearly Filtered AC Power” Outlets. I only have TWO i20s for 10 mono amps. This leaves me with 2 Left. I don’t know what to do. The other eight outlets on the Furman 20I are “Discrete Symmetrically Balanced, Linearly Filtered AC Power” Outlets.
Can the monoblocks work in sync with the high current outlets on the two Furmans PC as long as they are BOTH plugged into the same 20amp wall circuit?

3. Final question, The remainder two monoamps: can I plug three monoblocks into an extension strip to be plugged into the High Current outlet? I was thinking 3 amps powering my side/rear surrounds.

I’d appreciate some input. Thanks! -Eric
hometheric
10 responses Add your response
erik_squires
16,057 posts
 
Hi Eric,

Since you only have a single 20A outlet, you could use a single Furman 20IS with a power strip.

You are correct in that you only have 4 high current outputs. These use the series mode noise and surge protection, but not the balanced voltage conversion. 

However, your problem is going to be total output power. A single 20A outlet cannot provide more than 2400 Watts of power at any given point in time. Having said this, you may not need more. 2,400 watts is a lot of output. 

Your best option is to get as simple a power strip as you can, without built in surge or noise protection, and use them to increase the available outlets. 

You know what you may like, Parts Connection makes these 6 outlet extension boxes as kits, with built in V meters. This will help because if your HT ever causes your voltage to sag, you'll see it. 

http://www.partsconnexion.com/kits_tri-plex.html

I would also get ferrite beads, they will help reduce any switching noise which leaks from the amps. They are super cheap. Once you have built the strips, you can snap them right on. 

http://amzn.to/2FKxCyT

Alternatively, you could use a Furman conditioner with the same filtration, but only the high output sockets:

This has 8 outlets built in, but lacks the power factor correction:

http://amzn.to/2p1cudV

If you absolutely must have the power factor correction: 

http://amzn.to/2p2KrLv


Best,


Erik 
hometheric OP
3 posts
 
Wow! Thanks for the information and links!
The wall outlet does have Two 20amp gfi receptacles. Can I plug both furmans in?Then use that triplex power center as the extension for the remainder 3 amps? Thanks again!
erik_squires
16,057 posts
 
Yes, you can plug both in, but that circuit is still only 20 Amps. You won’t get 40 Amps though.

For that, you’ll need an electrician.

Best,

E
hometheric OP
3 posts
 
Thanks. I’ll do that then.
m-db's avatar
m-db
972 posts
 
You have a garden hose.
How many garden hoses are you planning to connected to it? 



hometheric OP
3 posts
 
None
m-db's avatar
m-db
972 posts
 
None? Lets review, continuing with the water analogy. 
I have TEN Anthem Monoblocks M1s I need protected for my Home theater. I have 20amp GFI Recepticle Circut. 


From the obviously overlooked Anthem M1 Specifications.   
[["POWER REQUIREMENTS
Consumption in a typical music/theater installation
standby mode, 120V mains
<1 W
standby mode, 240V mains
<2 W
operate mode, idle
33 W
typical operation
300 W
Where mains voltage is 120V, one dedicated 15A circuit per amplifier is recommended depending on speaker. [>>>A 20A circuit is adequate for two amplifiers playing (typical operation) music (HT explosions are more demanding) where speaker impedance is 8 Ω.<<<] This product operates from a single phase AC power source that supplies between 108V and 264V at a frequency of 50 or 60 Hz."]]

You still have ONE 2400 W garden hose and you're going to connect "TEN" 300 W hoses to it. 
Now, lets assume your speakers dip below the 8ohm specification above to somewhere below 4ohms which means they could demand as much as TWICE the wattage from your amplifiers. Would that be TWENTY hoses?

What ever it is your 20 amp circuit went from a flowing hose to a drip line.  

frostdotcom
39 posts
 
Im going to agree with m-db here.  Although audio uses a lot less power than often quoted (most of the time those amps are putting out 7 watts) but the point of them is to have all the reserve power they can.  You have a lot of money in this, Id have an electrician run 4 lines if it were me, but at the very least run two 30 amp lines with 10 guage wire from the panel.  That might not even be very expensive especially compared to what you have into the system already.  
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

That's a lot of amplifiers.  Ten 1,000 watt monoblocks.  I would not advise hooking all of them to one 20A circuit.  There is a huge risk of over-draw and possible fire at this point.  I don't know the current draw, and the M1 are Class D amps, but there is going to be an idle current.  On normal Class AB amps, it's typically 65 watts to 150 watts.  On Class D, let's assume 50 watts (but possibly more on the 1,000 watt M1).  So, ten amplifiers at 50 watt idle means you're drawing 500 watts constant.  If you get any loud music/movie scenes, you could definitely over-draw that 20A circuit.  If each amp draws 200 watts (which is definitely possible because even Class D amps are only about 80% efficient on average), you're looking at hitting the 2,000 watt point pretty easily.

If you ever see those fire fighting movie/television shows where the people are plugging in like 20 computers into 4-5 chained power strips, this is exactly what you are doing here.

With Class D, I would not connect more than 4 of the M1 amps to a 20A circuit (I would only connect two to a 20A circuit if you plan on cranking them past 50% loudness).  So, I would highly advise putting in a minimum of 3 or 4 20A circuits using 10awg Romex wiring for each circuit.  You could use a double-outlet box (4 plugs) for a each circuit.

I have experienced another side effect of connecting multiple audio equipment to the same plug/circuit.  Because of the high constant draw, this constant draw of amplifiers could affect each other and cause a slow-down of fast current draws for high frequency transients.  This results in a slow and warmer sound that doesn't have the resolution and attack and impact that you would normally hear.

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Just saw m-db's post where M1 idle current is 33 watts, so correct my statement above.  However, recommendation still stands at 2 amps per 20A circuit, but you could probably stretch this to 3-4 amps.
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