120v or 230v

[jlcct1981]

Hi guys, so I bought an Emotiva XPR-5 and it has the option for 120v or 230v. My question is this, would the amp perform noticeably better if I ran a 230v outlet?

 

[slipperybidness]

Hi guys, so I bought an Emotiva XPR-5 and it has the option for 120v or 230v. My question is this, would the amp perform noticeably better if I ran a 230v outlet?

Do you have a 230V outlet easily available?

You need to define what exactly you mean by "perform noticeably better"

Will the quality of sound be better? Nope.

It will likely run a bit cooler at 230V as compared to 120V. Losses associated with heat are more associated with current than voltage. For an equal power (Watts), the 230V setup will have half the current of the 120V setup, thus it will run a little cooler.

 

[jlcct1981]

I'm an electrician and my panel is directly below the wall that would receive said outlet so that's not an issue. I'm trying to balance the pro's and con's.

 

[jlcct1981]

I'm also thinking about buying a surge arrester but I don't see many 230V options

 

[slipperybidness]

I'm assuming that you saw this in the specs. I would think that a 20A outlet would be more important than 230V outlet.

• Power Requirements: 115 VAC or 230 VAC +/- 10% @ 50 / 60 Hz (user selectable).
  The XPR-5 requires a 20 Amp circuit and standard IEC 20 Amp outlet (which is different than a 15 Amp outlet).If you don’t have a proper circuit and outlet, we recommend you have one installed by a qualified electrician.We recommend that the XPR-5 be plugged into its own dedicated 20 Amp circuit.

 

[jlcct1981]

I did. I would use a single throw 2 pole breaker with a 20A outlet.

 

[jlcct1981]

The outlet that is there right now is running on a 20A single pole breaker

 

[PENG]

As slipperybidness said 230V means almost half the current for the same power so there will be slightly less voltage drop at the primary side of the power supply transformers. That is good but most likely has no audible effect. As for less heat I would add that it won't be much either because the half current effect affects only the primary (high voltage) side of the power transformers. For something like the XPR-5 I would just go with 120V if you have a dedicated 20A circuit nearby.

 

[highfigh]

It's not a matter of performance, it's a matter of being able to sell each model without the need to make some for the US and others for other parts of the World. This keeps Emotiv from having to guess how many of each they will need.

 

[stanley77]

It should work the same either on a 120V or 230V. You could consider the other electrical device that are connected in the same line, it might affect the quality of the supplied power thus affecting the output of your device.

Regards,
T.Stanley
http://blog.7pcb.com