Topic: Voltage regulators and Power amps

[mousemouse]

Hi everyone, just wondering what you guys think  of AVRs. In my house the voltage is always 235-240 so I bought a 2000 watt AVR. My emotiva pre amp and 150w power amp is connected to it along with my streamer. I feel that the sound became less lively  after using the AVR, but maybe its just my imagination haha. Is using an AVR really necessary? From your experience, has it affected the sound of your hifi system?

[yygoob]

i also notice what you have experience it seems the sound is better without using an AVR unfortunately for me lighting struck and  down goes may onkyo 5009 receiver. Not sure though that an avr would have prevented my receiver from being affected by lighting.

[tony]

isolation traffo is better..

[gutierrez]

I only use surge protector.  AVR makes my system sound thin.

[tony]

Hi everyone, just wondering what you guys think  of AVRs. In my house the voltage is always 235-240 so I bought a 2000 watt AVR. My emotiva pre amp and 150w power amp is connected to it along with my streamer. I feel that the sound became less lively  after using the AVR, but maybe its just my imagination haha. Is using an AVR really necessary? From your experience, has it affected the sound of your hifi system?

reasonable expectation, since avr's can never have the lower impedance that is provided by meralco lines....unless your avr is many times over the capacity your system damanded...

[mousemouse]

thanks everyone. What about the less expensive chinese power conditioners? Do those have an effect on sound? I have not tried that yet but those have surge protectors built in so that may be an option for me. I remember about a 15 years ago lightning struck one of our power lines and 2 TVs in our house got damaged so I want some sort of protection during events like these.

[gutierrez]

no effect when I used a line conditioner

[tony]

thanks everyone. What about the less expensive chinese power conditioners? Do those have an effect on sound? I have not tried that yet but those have surge protectors built in so that may be an option for me. I remember about a 15 years ago lightning struck one of our power lines and 2 TVs in our house got damaged so I want some sort of protection during events like these.

fibre optic cables are now widely used so the only way for lightning to affect your gears is thru the power lines...

isolation transformers with honest to goodness line conditioning will help....line conditioning is preventing ingress of rfi emi, voltage surges can be arrested by using 260vac MOV's that will trip the breakers or break a fuse....

[scoob]

Is there a ready to use (plug and play) isolation transformer available sa market? Price range?

[synchro_01]

thanks everyone. What about the less expensive chinese power conditioners? Do those have an effect on sound? I have not tried that yet but those have surge protectors built in so that may be an option for me. I remember about a 15 years ago lightning struck one of our power lines and 2 TVs in our house got damaged so I want some sort of protection during events like these.

Been in the hobby for 30 years. tried power conditioners, surge protectors, Iso transformers and variacs.  From low end to high end.  You are better off disconnecting your system from the mains when weather isn't optimal.  That is the only way to protect your system from a nearby lightning strike.  Re: sound, sad to say but in my experience of owning very revealing systems in the past, all of those protection devices affect the sound one way or another. Some less intrusive than others.  The bass response is the first to suffer. Kulang sa diin yung bass when a device is inserted between the power amp and the AC mains.

a lot of audio hobbyists prefer to connect their system directly to the mains.  What are the less intrusive ones that I tried?  Chang Lightspeed, Tripp-lite and a no name hospital grade power conditioner that I bought from JR Pecauco 20 years ago. 

[mousemouse]

fibre optic cables are now widely used so the only way for lightning to affect your gears is thru the power lines...

isolation transformers with honest to goodness line conditioning will help....line conditioning is preventing ingress of rfi emi, voltage surges can be arrested by using 260vac MOV's that will trip the breakers or break a fuse....

Did you build this sir? Or could you kindly point me to the direction as to where I can get one?

[tony]

Is there a ready to use (plug and play) isolation transformer available sa market? Price range?

if you know how to look....a line conditioner should provide galvanic isolation, should have emi/rfi filtering, over voltage tripping mechanism and it would work both ways....

any one item here lacking and you have an incomplete line conditioner..

these are the questions you should inquire about when buying these....

[tony]

Did you build this sir? Or could you kindly point me to the direction as to where I can get one?

i did, 2016, 2017, 2018 these were used in our DUSIT audio show.....unfortunately this covid pandemic prevents me from going out so i can not make one right now, you can pm Edrel PS Sison, he can make one for you...

[mousemouse]

Been in the hobby for 30 years. tried power conditioners, surge protectors, Iso transformers and variacs.  From low end to high end.  You are better off disconnecting your system from the mains when weather isn't optimal.  That is the only way to protect your system from a nearby lightning strike.  Re: sound, sad to say but in my experience of owning very revealing systems in the past, all of those protection devices affect the sound one way or another. Some less intrusive than others.  The bass response is the first to suffer. Kulang sa diin yung bass when a device is inserted between the power amp and the AC mains.

a lot of audio hobbyists prefer to connect their system directly to the mains.  What are the less intrusive ones that I tried?  Chang Lightspeed, Tripp-lite and a no name hospital grade power conditioner that I bought from JR Pecauco 20 years ago. 

Thanks! I will try plugging my equipment directly to the wall sockets for some time and see if I will like it better. I also posted in another thread about upgrading amps, maybe plugging my current equipment to the wall socket will hold me off spending money on a new amp haha

[mousemouse]

i did, 2016, 2017, 2018 these were used in our DUSIT audio show.....unfortunately this covid pandemic prevents me from going out so i can not make one right now, you can pm Edrel PS Sison, he can make one for you...

thanks sir! I will PM him

[tony]

the thing here is to get isolation traffo twice or even thrice your actual loads....twice is good and economical too..

list down all your equipment and total their wattage requirement...

[at_sunset_blvd]

same here CHANG LIGHT SPEED (CLS-9600) user for nearly for 25 years for my HT gears & still providing it's worth. My average voltage here at home is 235v straight from the mains but passing thru the Line Conditioner is an average of 225v to 232v the most, well anyway as for protection I'm not really sure if my system is secured but some of my HT gears are still doing find until now whether on stormy nights or during thunderstorms (except for the dangerous part in a sudden outage & in a minute or so it powers back on right away). Never use any AVRs for my main gears except only for the vintage ones w/c I think would really need for their dainty conditions & also their 110v requirements.

I also have an Isolation Transformer built by Edrel Sison & this one is so stable at 110v never goes below 108v or higher that 110v.

For me the safest thing to do is to have a Servo Type Regulators w/ Time Delay on our TVs coz usually their the ones greatly affected by sudden surges, high voltage streams & the occasional sudden black-outs then powers back on in a few moments.