To Power Condition or not?


I have 6 monblock amps (balanced bidging of Belles stereo amps).
4 are OCM 200s (100 amps of current / 400 watts balanced)
2 are the new 350A (>30 amps current / 800 watts balanced)
2 Velodyne Subs.

All front end components are through a Bybee Pro Conditioner (no amps connected)

I have been using a TICE Power block - Titan for the power amps and have run out of receptacles since I added 3 new amps. (only supports 6 power cords).

Questions:
Should I add another Tice Powerblock to expand the connections?
Should I use any power conditioning on the amps?
Should I run X+ new 20 amp circuits from the main electric supply panel and direct connect the amps & subs?
How do I eliminate the 100 Hz hum (other than lifting the grounds which seems to reduce it significantly)?
harleyhawk
Harleyhawk,
How are those OCM 200's working out? Seems like you have a great setup. Have you considered the Audio Magic Stealth conditioner on your amps? They are not current limiting and really make a big difference. Not cheap but highly recommended.
Currently (no pun intended), I have the 4 OCMs, 1 350A and the velodyne HGS 15 connected to it.
OCMs are working well (3 of the 4 are bridged and 1 is stereo).
One of yours is on the rear right channel (B&W Nautilus 804) and the other is on the center (Nautilus HTM1).
I kept the 2 that seemed to be the same age together on the rears.
My original OCM200 runs the other rear N804 and I use the Soloist 200 for the sides (stereo / B&W SCM-8 dipoles).
I have not purchased the 2nd 350A monoblock / converted my 350A to a monoblock yet .... actual reason for my questions was to prepare for their arrival in March or April.
The fronts (eventually two mono block 350As vs 1 stereo) are N802's and I am hoping for great things when I get the power situation sorted out.... Then it the "big screen" (using a 42" now and it is hard to get really absorbed into the film ... although the sound can be awesone.)

As the volume across all channels goes up I think (I can't measure it - only observe it) that I am running out of current (not as dynamic as I would expect) .... you would think the volume level would be ear shattering but it is not.... I don't really want it loud just very dynamic, Open / Clear / Musical .... at low level it is just that.

Couple of other things are expected to improve the sound ... the Anthem AVM-20 will get an upgrade at the factory to 2.0 SW & Firmware and the Belles 20A preamp is being upgraded by David B. to improve its sound as well (new volume pot / some circuit/component mods) ... have not experimented with tubes yet.

From all of the feedback, the circuit upgrades will probably yield the biggest bang for the buck. Not that familiar with other conditioners ... keep getting mixed signals about using / not using.

The single largest concern I have is the possible amp damage and using 2 conductor wire (Belden 83802) to boxes without grounds ... but I may not fully understand the wiring plan ... separate dedicated grounds can easily be accomodated to meet code.
The metal braiding in the Belden 83802 is unwove and used as a ground or you can add an additional ground wire gently wrapped every 3” on the outside of the Belden. See: http://www.venhaus1.com/diymains.html
Harley: You have enough transformer in the Tice to run ONE good sized stereo amp and that is all. You might be able to get away with two amps if you listen at rather moderate volumes or have high efficiency speakers. Ideally, you wouldn't have anything capable of pulling more than about 1000 - 1200 watts hooked up to the Tice. I have NO doubt that this is causing some of your problems. The Tice might be capable of supplying the quantity of 1800 watts of power but that doesn't mean that all 1800 watts would be of the same quality.

Try plugging the amps directly into the wall and see what you get. While the sound will change due to the noise floor increasing, you should be able to hear a drastic increase of dynamics under load. Even plugged into the wall directly, you are probably going to run into current starvation if you really stood on the throttle. I have amps that can pull 20+ amps individually when really cranking things up on low impedance, low sensitivity speakers.

Just because you have six outlets on the Tice does not mean that you can hook amps up to all of them. Doing so would be like assuming that you have money in the bank simply because you still have checks in your checkbook. It just isn't so.

With what you are trying to run, you really need a dedicated 100 amp breaker box and the associated dedicated wiring / outlets just for your system. Sean
>