Hey All,
I was curious to know if any of you folks wire your amps for 240v operation, and why or why not? Thanks in advance.
I was curious to know if any of you folks wire your amps for 240v operation, and why or why not? Thanks in advance.
240V power amps
- Thread starter Bill Forbes
- Start date
Their are a couple of reasons for 240V operation (assuming you are in a country that offers both 240 and 120V)
The current draw is 1/2 of that at 120V. Also there will not be any current on the neutral line, so no loss there for other item running at 120V.
So you can get away with a smaller distro cable.
It also helps to balance the load on the buildings transformer.
The best thing is to have amps that will run off of either-without having to flip switches or move jumpers. THAT can get you in trouble.
In some cases you can get additional power for a longer period to time on 240V, because 120V cannot "refill" the power supply enough.
The current draw is 1/2 of that at 120V. Also there will not be any current on the neutral line, so no loss there for other item running at 120V.
So you can get away with a smaller distro cable.
It also helps to balance the load on the buildings transformer.
The best thing is to have amps that will run off of either-without having to flip switches or move jumpers. THAT can get you in trouble.
In some cases you can get additional power for a longer period to time on 240V, because 120V cannot "refill" the power supply enough.
I am not sure I understand the "refill" issue Ivan alludes to (mains voltage sag?), but all else equal running the same amps at 240V will result in lower IxR wire losses in the mains wiring due to lower current draw. In some cases, this higher mains voltage could result more actual power available for the speakers.
That said I do not expect huge audible differences, but free power is never a bad thing.
JR
That said I do not expect huge audible differences, but free power is never a bad thing.
JR
I believe Ivan's point is that if you expend all of the power from a half cycle during that half cycle, you must wait until the next half cycle to "refill" your power supply. Unfortunately, Ivan has made a slight error since, while 120v and 240v are both multiples of 60Hz, they are not the mains frequency.
Either that or he intends that 240v can carry more wattage due to the increased voltage and therefore, as you suggest, doesn't cause as much voltage drop when the supply needs to be refilled. I think the first one is more amusing, however.
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I think that it was an editing error rather than confusion.
What he said and what he meant to say were two different things.
What he said and what he meant to say were two different things.
I'm not confusing them at all, I'm just coming up with as many possible solutions to Ivan's intentions as possible, including terrible mental mistakes such as confusing voltage with mains frequency.
~:-D~:grin:
It sounds more impressive when you say your amps are running 240 volts.
"Yeah Steve, I run these bad boys at 240 volts"
"Dayummm son, you must push so many watts through your kick bins"
Evan
"Yeah Steve, I run these bad boys at 240 volts"
"Dayummm son, you must push so many watts through your kick bins"
Evan
Or, for those of us in the rest of the world, it sounds entirely normal :razz:
Ivan can tell us what he meant... 2x the the voltage sag from 2x current draw @ 120V vs 240V is bad enough, and will reduce actual power available from the mains.
JR
JR
So if I had a bunch of Crown Xti's and the right distro connectors I might squeak a little more power from them? Would have to get the right power cords for the amps and the right outlets on my distro but the amps sense the voltage and act accordingly??
Interesting...
XTI or XTI2's? I don't believe the first generation have a sensing power supply. XTI2's do.
Correct, the XTI do not have universal power supplies.
The manual for the XTI2 shows "AC Live Voltage and Frequency Configurations Available: 100v, 120v, 220-240v 50/60Hz". Nothing about being universal or auto-selecting is mentioned, though. Who wants to hook up his XTI 6002 to 240v and lets us know?
XTi2 does not have it either. It can come in those configurations, but does not have the global power supply like the ITech series does.
Just had a look at the manual and the pictures show the following:
XTI4002 over the power plug says 100-240V 50/60Hz
XTI6002 120/220-240V 50/60Hz
Might be a misprint but reading that would make it seem like the 4002 has voltage sensing.
That's what made me look in the manual, the different info on the rear panel.
Both XTi and XTi2 are indeed auto sensing, they are however not auto regulating. If you plug the amp into 120V it will run as a 120V amp. if you plug it into 240 it will run as a 240V amp. if you plug it into 120V and raise the voltage the amp will power down. power it back up and it will run at the higher voltage.
Where did you see this information? I didn't see it in the manual at all when I went looking.