2. home-theater
  3. 134733-110726

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
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.
More to discover