TJ (Tom) Cornish wrote on Thu, 22 July 2010 09:23 |
Alan Sledzieski wrote on Wed, 21 July 2010 17:14 | Not sure why you say not to run a regulator on a amp? Please explain, thanks.
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Voltage regulators attempt to mask the problem of "Not Enough Juice For The Gig", a sister problem to "Not Enough Rig For The Gig".
From a protection standpoint, power amps are the least picky of anything, many of which can continue to operate down to ridiculous levels, like 80 or 90 v, with reduced output as you mention. A voltage regulator will not make a material difference in amp life.
From an absolute power standpoint I'm not convinced you get much more out of the wall outlet on a high-current load through a VR. If you're getting 100 volts to the VR (is this a no load reading? You didn't say), it's boosting it 20% to get the voltage back up to 120, which increases the current from the wall 20% plus the thermal losses of the VR. This puts more stress on your hundreds of feet of wire and the input supply voltage. You may get a little more out, but you are at much greater risk of breaker tripping, melting your 150' extension cords, etc.
Instead of spending $500 per amp on voltage regulators, that money is much better spent on more efficient amps - ITechs, PL380s, Powersoft, amps with power factor correction, etc. that can pull more usable watts out of whatever power they get, rather than just wasting power in two places - both in the VR and in an inefficient amp.
VRs may have a place for more sensitive stuff at FOH or on stage, but virtually no one is using them for amps.
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Interesting. Would i be correct in assuming this?
If a amp puts out 5000w at 120 volts, would it put out 3333 watts at 80 volts?
I understand you do not get more out of the wall in terms of current capacity. As voltage drops, current goes up. The wall outlet and wire is protected from the breaker, so there's little chance of melting a wire.
If voltage is low would a amp tend to run hotter because of increased current?
As far as more efficient amps, after hearing and seeing a crown xti on bottom end i would never trust any of crowns newer equipment. That's just my opinion.
ar 1215's can be bought for $350, that's $1400 to cover my $25,000 dollar system.
If you had a choice of running your amps at 120 v + or - 5 volts or 80, what would you pick?
It will be very hard for me to ever try a different amp other then a crest. I love the sound, performance, and durability.
As far as regulators and capacitors. The 120 volts at you wall pass's through quite a few regulators before it gets to you. Regs at the generation plant, then regs at the substation, then regs on the individual feeders also. They all step up, or step down the voltage, most of the time there stepping it up, this raises the voltage on the load side, but also raises the current on the line side. This is done so the transformer will put out 113 to 124v. Thats what is needed at your weather head to pass industry standards. Being a lineman we fight low voltage complaints quite a bit.
I'm not arguing that a amp is the least effected by low voltage, but if there's a way to keep the voltage near 120 I'll spend the little extra money on regs
Thanks for your input,
Al