I recently received an inquiry from a patron regarding power consumption and the Wiremold Powerstrip:
Lou,
I was listening to you discussing the Wiremold power strip. I’d like to know your advice on how I should use my available power.
I have two dedicated 20A circuits that terminate into 8 PS Audio receptacles (4 per circuit). I also have one 15A receptacle that is shared with the other receptacles in the room.
I have three monoblocks for my front three speakers, a Rythmic E15HP2 subwoofer, a preamp, HT processor, music streamer, DAC, network switch, and TV. I’ve been wondering if I should use one of the 20A dedicated circuits for the Amps and Subwoofer and put everything else on the other. The TV is plugged into the 15A non-dedicated circuit.
I don’t know if it is best to put the high powered components together or split them across circuits because that would mean the lower powered components would be sharing the circuit. Anyway, sorry for the long question but if you have any advice that would be greatly appreciated.
Warm regards,
-William
A most interesting question and now be prepared for an interesting answer. I'll let the use of the Wiremold power strip be my guide.
Conventional thinking on a power strip is to plug the most current demanding piece of equipment at the beginning of the strip and lesser demands down the strip. In actuality, the reverse is actually better. Why? Well, once an inaccuracy is introduced early in the chain, it cannot be fixed. What happens is that the amplification actually uses more energy to produce the inaccuracies than otherwise.
So, with that said, what do you do? Well, double sockets usually has one as the primary receiver of the wire and then it is jumped over to the adjacent socket. Which is which is not obvious from the outside. So.....
You get to play with the permutations of the outlets. A trial by experience, so to speak. The mono blocks do not concern me unless you are playing at high volumes with inefficient speakers. I don't know what you do or how much current is actually demanded by them. Class D mono blocks do not require as much as say vacuum tube AB amplifiers or some solid state designs.
That's the best answer I can give you with the information that I have. -Lou
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