Clean power/surge protection

[benxx]

May I ask what kind of power supply you guys use? Does the $100-$149 monster power supplies that clams to provide "clean" power make any sense? or the simple $20 one with $10,000 connected product potection enough?

Thanks

[DrJRapp]

No the 100 to 150 Monster power centers don't make sense because they don't go far enough. I think that the HTS 3600 (street price around $300-$350) is about where I would start with a typical mid to high end HT A/V setup. Of course there are several other manufacturers out there that make similar or superior stuff to the Monsters.

[ht_addict]

At a minimum you would want to start with a unit that seperates the audio from the video to minimize cross talk of components. But personally I would look no lower than the 3000 series. In my setup I have a Monster HTS5000mkII hooked to a Monster AVS2000 giving me clean 120v.

ht_addict

[hamlyn]

What about Rotel's own RLC series line conditioners? Does anyone have any experience with those?
I personally find PS Audio products to be far superior to Monster. With Monster, I feel you paymore for the NAME than you do for the product.

[PiDD]

What about power from the panel? Conditioners are great (so I've heard) but if you have a pre, amp, htpc, dvd players, projector .. etc how would you run that?

I ran a line to the panel for all but I always have a thought in the back of my head that its not enough power for all I hooked up to it. Especially the 1095, it must draw a lot of power?

Should I run another line for all the components but keep the amp by itself?

Any thoughts on this?

[ht_addict]

Only run a seperate line if you want to seperate your setup from household componets that maybe on the same line. As far as power draw goes, right now I'm watching Titan AE and just finished watching T3. Current draw according to my AVS2000 hasn't gone above 3A. This is with my RPTV, DVD, Yamaha RX-V1400, Monster HTS5000mkII and AVS2000 and Rotel RMB-1095 running of the same socket.

ht_addict

[rosros]

Well lets see, I have a tuner, dvd, hdtv,4 high current power amps, processor, sub, speakers, vcr plugged into a monster hts5100 and at above reference levels I only pull down 5 amps max.

Monsters are good products and do the job. Personally I would not go lower than the 3500mkII but prefer the hts5100---much better isolation filters.

[PiDD]

3 Amps only! Thats great to know.

Thanks

[brucek]

3 Amps only! Thats great to know

I always have a thought in the back of my head that its not enough power for all I hooked up to it. Especially the 1095, it must draw a lot of power?
Should I run another line for all the components but keep the amp by itself?

I would find out what the power requirements are for your equipment and not someone else's.

There is a wide difference in every brand and equipment type. Simply go to the manual for each of your pieces of equipment and look up the power requirements (they're also usually available on-line).

These specs are normally at the end of the manual. Power will be listed in Watts or VA (volt-amps). For this exercise consider them equivalent. Add up all these power figures for your equipment and you will have a good idea of the maximum power required. Equipment will normally idle and operate quite a bit lower than this figure, but it will give you a feel for the maximum. A standard 15 amp circuit can supply 1800 watts.

[PiDD]

Great info .. thx. I assumed the 1095 was the big power consumer and that the rest would take care of itself.

The 1095 is rated at 800 watts
The 1098 is rated at 70 watts
The ECP projector is 450 watts
The HTPC Power supply is 350 watts

Looks like I am coming close.

One question ... When they say the 1095 is rated at 800w is that under the highest load possible?

[brucek]

is that under the highest load possible?

Power ratings are usually spec'd at maximum requirement.

Equipment will operate at less than the maximum, so from what you listed you would be fine.....

brucek

[Elmac]

Hello Pidd

One question ... When they say the 1095 is rated at 800w is that under the highest load possible?

Yes this is correct. They will always give you the worst case scenerio.
If you r running your equipment all the time at ambient temp higher than 100 deg F and humidity 80% and higher with speakers below 4 ohms and going above reference levels/full power (about 80 or more on your 1098 ) Your amp will draw about 800W, if not here are the settings you can go with.
Reference level you will only draw about 40 to 50% of your rated power. Depends on the music type or movie you r watching. This will give you about 320 to 400 W (2.7A to 3.3A) of power consuption just for your 1095. Your PJ will draw about 300 to 350W and 1098 is about 60W. Your HTPC power supply is only about 150W of actual draw.
So don't worry you r well below your Max
Hope this helps

[jrd]

Don't know how well it works, but here's a link to a product that might be worth looking into: http://www.pricewheeler.com/index.htm Seems like there's two issues at hand: clean power AND surge protection. This product seems to excel more at surge protection, although it claims to clean things up as well. I don't currently have any power strips, bars, or conditioners in my setup, but when I add one, it'll probably be this one. After reading the info on their site, I don't ever want one of the cheap units that use MOVs.

[PiDD]

Great info Matt thanks, I can put this one to bed now!

Rob

[Prozakk]

Tripp-lite. Quality. Cheap.