# 20 amp



## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

Just intalled 20 amp breaker, thought it was time to do since i've been waiting to install emotiva upa-2,with this small tweek it has increased headroom significantly,to the ear. cleaner mids and profound bass.


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

A new breaker made an audible difference?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Just curious, did you make sure that the wiring from the breaker to the plugin is able to handle 20amps? It must be 12awg wire.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

It sounds cleaner,I was leary of dropping a ton of $$ on a high dollar power cable so I decided to try this and I'm glad I did.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

Yes I ran 12/2 romex recomended for a 20 amp circuit and a 20 amp receptacle x 2


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Ok, then I can understand the possibility that your old wiring was causing a lack of power if you had to much on it. If the receiver/amps were not getting enough voltage it can cause distortion.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

Correct,it was being shared with the wife's kitchen appliances.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

The shared 15 amp breaker couldn't take the load we were putting on it. Glad I did it now I can tell what I was missing.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

Now the question that I can not answer is will that $$ power cable make a difference ??


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

very unlikely, its only 6ft of wire and is not going to impede the flow.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

Thanks! Can't wait till Saturday when I start up the upa 2.


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

moparz10 said:


> Now the question that I can not answer is will that $$ power cable make a difference ??


How could a 6 foot Fancy power cable make a difference after the electricity has traveled in a hundred miles of regular wire ?


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## Twin_Rotor (Jan 1, 2012)

WooferHound said:


> How could a 6 foot Fancy power cable make a difference after the electricity has traveled in a hundred miles of regular wire ?


Simply put, high voltage step down via transformers. Just take a quick peak at a simple power transmission guide and you'll get the jist of it.


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## SAC (Dec 3, 2009)

moparz10 said:


> Now the question that I can not answer is will that $$ power cable make a difference ??


So you are suggesting that the stock cord is unable to handle the current load of the unit? Or is it modifying the voltage outside the range which the power supply can address? 

And that you were previously overloading the current capacity of the 15 amp circuit and that the most critical ramification was 'audible'? And the breaker did not trip?

The assumption and conclusions presented here are rather 'interesting'. You might start by listing and then totaling the current ratings of each of the devices on the circuit and letting us see what the rated load is on the circuit.

...And the most significant change is that you actually _heard_ a difference...


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

SAC said:


> And that you were previously overloading the current capacity of the 15 amp circuit and that the most critical ramification was 'audible'? And the breaker did not trip?


That surprised me. I figured any component will take all it wants regardless of your breaker size, if it wants more than available the breaker will trip.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

the breaker would trip at least once a week, mainly when pretty much everything in the kitchen was on and the wife would turn on her mixer.when it tripped it would take out the kitchen as well as all of my gear and lights in that room.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

if you start getting close to the breaker tripping there are other issues that can develop, things like noise, and even voltage drop will cause poor sound in receivers and amps.


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## NegativeEntropy (Apr 22, 2009)

I would be surprised if noise would develop due to loading a circuit heavily - the purpose of a breaker is to prevent the wire from getting too hot and causing a fire, nothing more. I do not see how a high amp load by itself causes noise.

Now, if a mixer was being run on the same circuit and loading it with electrical noise and the power supply of the amp/receiver did not filter incoming noise adequately (which it should) - I can see how that might lead to a problem.

A 100' long, 12 gauge copper wire circuit loaded at 20 amps would see a voltage drop of about 7 volts. That should not be enough voltage sag to cause a problem. If the circuit was longer (1 way) than about 160', then I'd start to get concerned.


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## pbc (Sep 3, 2007)

Interesting, not sure I've ever read someone mention that upping the breaker resulted in more headroom. Makes sense I guess given the circuit can provide several hundred more watts?

What did/do you have connected to it?

nm ... guess that's posted in your sig!


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## WooferHound (Dec 8, 2010)

NegativeEntropy said:


> A 100' long, 12 gauge copper wire circuit loaded at 20 amps would see a voltage drop of about 7 volts. That should not be enough voltage sag to cause a problem. If the circuit was longer (1 way) than about 160', then I'd start to get concerned.


He added a new breaker and ran a new 12 ga wire. He may have had 14 gauge wire originally like my house was originally wired with.


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

14 guage is what i have throughout the house.the upa 2 sounds great. even greater is that my VTF-3 MK4 arrived today,hopefully i wont have to work this saturday otherwise it will have to wait till sunday.


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## planetnine (Mar 3, 2009)

Breakers tripping is another matter, but all you need is a good mains suppy that doesn't dip more than a volt or so on heavy bass levels. Your equipment _should_ have regulators in its PSU, which work quickly enough to take the residual ripple out of mains -a bit of bass thump shouldn't cause them a problem. 


>


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

I also installed all 20A 12/2 for my theater outlets. Better safe than sorry. 12/2 is a little harder to work with than the 14/2 but well worth it IMHO


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