Power Question

[ido1957]

I have everything plugged into one wall socket using 3 power bars all chained together.

I recently bought a new piece of equipment (pre) with a 30 watt power rating. Now I find that when I sing it slightly dims one of my 4 light bulbs. And my power amp is getting hot on one side and its fan is running louder (probably trying to dissapate the heat).

Marshall amp, 2 X mic ps, guitar processor, reverb unit, mixer, keyboard, pre, tuner.

Any power gurus out there have any insight? Do you think the unit is overloading my circuit? I'm most concerned by the overheating power amp. This just happened so I haven't been able to play around with power etc...

[daklander]

 

I have everything plugged into one wall socket using 3 power bars all chained together. I recently bought a new piece of equipment (pre) with a 30 watt power rating. Now I find that when I sing it slightly dims one of my 4 light bulbs. And my power amp is getting hot on one side and its fan is running louder (probably trying to dissapate the heat). Marshall amp, 2 X mic ps, guitar processor, reverb unit, mixer, keyboard, pre, tuner. Any power gurus out there have any insight? Do you think the unit is overloading my circuit? I'm most concerned by the overheating power amp. This just happened so I haven't been able to play around with power etc...

 

 

Split the load to outlets on different breakers.

[ido1957]

 

Split the load to outlets on different breakers.

 

 

That is the solution which I will implement - I was hoping an electrical tech could shed some light on why the power amp heats up on one side (it's physically hot one one side and cool on another). And why only one light bulb dims out of 4 (that's wierd). I'll test breakers and run an extension cord to another circuit - hopefully the house has more than one breaker for the rec room.

[WRGKMC]

As current increases and the units consume more watts the voltage may fluctuate up a little,

but not enough to make a huge deal of changes in the way equipmet operates. Inside the equipment

the voltages is regulated and converted to DC for all of your componments to operate so the actual

voltage is regulated inside the gear as well as the power company to your house.

Power companies regulate power in most areas with computers that readjust output based on useage.

 

If your outlet is on a taxed line thats close to the breakers limits the only real danger will occur if

your untis have weak components and the circuit breaker blows. You can get power strips for computers that

have built in surfe protection. I recomend that for all your expensive gear. The strip should blow before your gear does.

 

None of this is going to make your gear run hotter or cooler. Thats strictly one of two things.

Either you're pushing the unit harder than usual, like a PA powe head pushing more watts, or more speaker cabs and thus more heat,

or that gear is malfunctioning and has a real problem.

 

If theres no malfunction and the gear is within recomended operating temps as per the manufacturers specs (not what you consider as hotter this week than last week stuff)

then its likely not an issue. Audio gear gets hot both tubes and transistors. i dont even use a heater in the winter in my studio. I just crank my ger up and it gets warm quick enough.

If anything I have to kick the AC on to cool things down.

[ido1957]

Update - examined the power amp a little closer. Channel 2 is much lower volume and is shorting out when I turn up the volume from my mixer. The red overload light comes on, it shorts out then resets? and low sound comes out again then the sequence repeats .... Channel 1 is fine. Looks like the cat chewed on the line out cord from the mixer to the amp. I switched cables and it still shorts out so I'm guessing the channel has been damaged and needs to be fixed. Not sure if the cat chewing on the cable caused it but I will be buying new cables. I emailed Long and McQuade to see if they will repair this (not under warranty anymore) or where it can be sent. ART SLA2 power amp...

[WRGKMC]

If your overload is lighting, your likely have a problem with the speaker wires, not the input to the amp.

Check all your speaker cords carefully. You dont want to short the amps output or you can

blow the amp up. Shorting the two imput wires together is relatively is harmless and wont

cause an amp to overheat or shut down. Its the output cables and the load on the output thats critical.

you need the correct load on the head and the ohms need to match. If you connect the wrong combination

of speakers and have the wrong impedance (or use the wrong cables) you can smoke the head.

Do not use guitar cords for speaker connections. They are designed to carry 1 volt or less.

A poer amp can produce 70V or more and draw many amps. It will melt most guitar cords and short them out.

Use only two condictor speaker cables designed to carry that wattage. The wire gauge should be at least as thick as a household

extension cord or thicker.

[ido1957]

Ok - I did check the speaker connection on the back and it looked good. And since I was getting some sound I didn't suspect the speakers. I will check out all the speaker wires - maybe the cat chewed the speaker wires further down the line... Darn cat already cost me an HDMI cable...

[ido1957]

Well, I went and bought some new speaker cables just in case on the way home. I unplugged and replugged the speaker cables in switching here and there. Speakers were both working, then both cables were working with no overload/malfunctions???!?!? So I'm going to bring the speaker cables back to L and M after I try running the amp a few times to make sure everything is okay.

Ghost in the machine....maybe...

[WRGKMC]

Chech the jacks. Doesnt take much to twist a connector inside and have one partially short.

If the head is been around awhile, I'd get a can of compressed air and take the cover off and blow all the dust out.