Am I limiting current to my amps and sub?


I have the panamax 5400 as a line conditioner for all my gear. Am I "limiting" current to my amps, I.E are my amps starving when I crank it by using this Panamax?

If I bought a high end Surge Suppressor and plugged my amps into it then to the wall, would the amps still be starved?

The reason why I ask is because the sales guys said I was limiting current and I should buy the furman line conditioner as it doesn't limit the current, but supplies current for better loud dynamics.

I just want to bounce that off you guys to see if I was sold on something that I don't really need. I have 30 days to return it.

What I came home with:
http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=02&id=ELITE-15PFi

What I have:
http://www.panamax.com/PDF/Datasheets/M5400EX_L550A.pdf

Gear:
3x McIntosh MC501 ( three 500W monoblocks)
Rotel 1098 (1KW amp, 200W x 5ch)
Paradigm Signature Servo 15 subwoofer
(above components are plugged into a regular power strip that goes into the "AMP" outlets of panamax)

Pioneer Elite PRO111FD TV
McIntosh C500t pre-amp
Classe SSP600 Processor
Audio Research DAC7
Pioneer BDP-09FD
Marantz DV9500 Universal Disk Player (SACD)
Motorola Cable Box
15AMP Breaker
joelz
Joelz - Limiting compare to what? If you compare to sound without conditioner than just plug them directly to the wall and compare.

I have Furman Elite 20PFi. It changed the sound in positive direction - removed bass resonance I had at one upper bass frequency (now is even and "melodic") and opened up midrange (it was probably covered by this resonance). Dynamic is the same as before. I got good deal on 20A Elite.

Strange thing is that it made HDTV (DLP) picture cleaner and more vivid - I had to reduce brightness a bit. This TV is 100% digital all the way thru so it probably cleaned up bit noise. I might have a little noisier environment than average because of class D amp (but I could not see difference unpluging it).

Once I mentioned my class D amp I realized that it has regulated (SMPS) power supply and is not sensitive to voltage drop on line (line and load regulated) so your results might be different. One thing better with Furman is that it has four high current outputs (you got 4 amps and a sub) while Panamax has only 2.
Experts say you should not load a circuit more than 80% of it's rated limit, so on a 15A wall circuit you should not exceed 12A. Many people do, but to be safe...

Your Mac amps are spec'd at "POWER REQUIREMENTS 120V 50/60Hz, 6.6A" and you've got three, so that's 19.8 Amps draw.

That, alone, is more than your power strip can handle, more than your (15 amp maximum rated) Panamax can handle, and finally more than your 15A wall circuit can handle. Pick any one of those the failure points, or all of them together.

But, that's not all.. You've got the Paradigm Servo 15 sub also on the same power strip and it can draw 1500 watts RMS sustained. 1,500W/120V = 13.6 Amps

And then the Rotel RMB-1095 at 200wpc x 5 which equals 1,000W/120V or 8.3 Amps

19.8 + 13.6 + 8.3 = 41.7 amps

Not only do you have a bottleneck at the cheap power strip WHICH you SHOULD NOT BE USING with those three McIntosh amps, but you also have one at the Panamax, and finally you do at your wall outlet. You are exceeding their ratings by almost THREE Times what they can handle.

Seems to me like you've got a real bad/dangerous situation waiting to happen. But, it's late, I've had a few(too many) beers, and could be totally wrong.
Sounds like 'K' is on track here.
I have a Panamax 5510 w/iso trans and use only low current stuff with it.
My amp/sub, both 'd' amps, have there own circuit thru a PSAudio Soloist outlet.
One thing, though, and maybe not so minor. Just using your Rotel as an example, the 8.3 amps is NOT including the fact that the Rotel is probably only about 50% efficient. So, to get a KW out, you have to put a bunch more IN. The rest? Heat and PowerFactor losses.
To avoid poor energy transfer (caused by filter chokes that limit amplifier dynamics) only a regenerator will do. The PS Audio Power Plant Premier sucks IMO (and it's not big enough for your needs anyway). APS PurePower now makes a 20 A model http://www.purepoweraps.com/pdf/2000%20tech%20specs.pdf and Exactpower will be introducing a 20A model next year.

I'm waiting for the Exactpower because it uses patented technology that only fixes the out-of-spec parts of the AC wave (never more than 20%) instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater and starting from scratch; which is the old (and highly inefficient) way of doing it (PC Audio PPP, and APS PurePower.)

Everything else is useless crap IMO -- especially with an amplifier(s). (BTW, Furman is now owned by Panamax, and isn't much better!) Another thing people don't usually realize is also that voltage regulation is essential for maintaining tube bias in tube amps. You can get equipment to do this separately of course, but the APS and Exactpower have that built in, along with surge protection that really works.

A word about surge protection: most modern equipment will have built-in surge protection to protect it from the kind of "day-to-day" surges in our aging power grids. That's all that units like Furman, Panamax, Monster, Richard Gray, Shunyata, and all others can provide; so in that regard, thay are ALL redundant! For REAL surges, that can do REAL damage (like lightening, or utility start-ups after power outages) VERY FEW units will protect you. The coming Exactpower will, but if you really want to be safe, unplug your system when a thunderstorm approaches or when you go on vacation.* In addition, if you live somewhere that has lots of power outages, you had better get yourself an in-rush current limiter for your system at the very least, and if it were me, the whole house!

* And don't just "throw the breaker" at the panel. Lightening has been known to jump right across an open circuit breaker trying to find a path to ground (usually right through your equipment!)
Very interesting responses!

I'm still at a loss though. What do I plug my equipment into if I have only 2 outlets (4 plug ins) to the wall?

Can't use powerstrips, the line conditioners I have are no good and the A/c regenerators are out of my budget right now.

Any tips would be appreciated!

p.s, I won't be maxing out all amps at once right now. Most current draw I've seen is 7.6 Amps as read from the Panamax (with Bowers annd wilkins 803d speakers, I was pulling 10.4A w/2 channels and the TV on!)
OK, so you have two D.O.'s (duplex outlets) are they both on the same circuit? My advice would be to turn them each into a 20A dedicated circuit, if there's room on your panel for two more 20a breakers. Tip: when you create two or more ded. cts., shuffle the other breakers/circuits around in the panel box if necessary so that all your ded. cts. are on the same side of the neutral bar in the panel box. Otherwise parts of your system will be running on AC power that is out of phase with the AC running other parts of your system ;-)

This will not cost a lot of money (should be around $500 for materials and a licensed electrician.) And will always add to the quality of anything you may do powerwise later on.

If your utility company provides steady power within a couple volts of 120 VAC +/- (measure it yourself at different times of the day/night with a simple volt/ohm meter from Rat Shack) then this may be all you need. If you need more outlets, you can buy plain audiophile 4 or 8 plug boxes, star-wired on short pigtail cords, and with no switches, filters, breakers or other crap. Get one box with RFI filters (just a couple of capacitors), on its outlets for your digital components. That will prevent them from injecting digital hash into the rest of your power wiring.