Question about amps.... (1 Viewer)

[Josh Wolfman]

Anyone have any idea why my Aragon trips my circuits but my Marantz MA-500's and Carver TFM35 won't???? I really want to use the Aragon, but I am renting a house right now that I have no intention of buying and I do not want to install a dedicated circuit. Thx

 

[Kevin. W]

What class of amp is each? Maybe one is a Class A and others class A/B. It seems to me that your Aragon is drawing more power than the others and when hooked up with everything else cause an overload. Only other option is to get an electrician to have a look.

Kevin

 

[Michael R Price]

Does it trip the circuit right when you turn it on? It could be a signal that the Aragon has a stronger power supply and draws more current to charge its capacitors. The simplest way to solve this problem is to put a thermistor on the power line, it has some resistance right when you turn the amp on to prevent it from drawing too much current, but it then heats up and resistance decreases to almost nil, so the amp works normally.

 

[Yogi]

Its an inrush current issue like Michael said. Once the power supply is charged the amp would draw small amounts of current. Having an inexpensive power conditioner would help you. Also sometimes the breakers are faulty which would cause them to trip easily. I has exactly the same problem with my bedroom breaker which would trip occasionally when I turned on the flourescent lighting in the room. I replaced the breaker with a similar one and the problem was gone. You could also try that before you do anything. It only takes five minutes to change a breaker. If you check out the wiring coming out of the breaker box and if its 12 Ga wiring you could even change the breaker with a 20Amp one and then you should be fine. Just make sure the main power is turned off before you begin any work in the breaker box.

Best of luck.

 

[Josh Wolfman]

The amp does not trip the circuit when it first goes on...only when there is a large dynamic range scene on a movie.

 

[Michael R Price]

Josh, can you move your other equipment (TV, subwoofer, etc) to a different wall outlet? That would give the Aragon a circuit to itself. Or, you can try to install a higher-current circuit breaker (even the same rating might work). BTW, you must be listening really loud if your amp's drawing that much current.

 

[Marty Neudel]

>you can try to install a higher-current circuit breaker<

Josh,

please be sure that your circuit can bear the extra load. Sometimes builders skimp on the wiring they use, and select a fuse(circuit breaker) to cover themselves. Even a higher-current load could make the difference.

Marty

 

[Dave Milne]

Like Yogi said, if you have 12ga wire, you can go up to a 20A breaker. My guess is that's not likely. About your only hope is to try to move everything else to another circuit as Michael suggested. You'll have to turn breakers off one-by-one to find which outlets are connected to which circuit. Just moving to a different outlet won't do anything unless it's on a different circuit. Unfortunately, most outlets in the same room are connected to the same circuit. But it's worth a try. It might end up that you have to run a beefy extension cord from an adjacent room (try a bathroom... they're often wired for 20A because of multiple hair dryers, curling irons, etc. They're also usually isolated so that they can be GFCI protected).