What happened: While playing the Soundoctor’s test tone CD at moderate volume, when I got down to 30 Hz and 20 Hz the (JL Audio e-110) subs made a loud propeller like sound and the room seemed to shake a bit. Then after a few seconds, the P15 shut down (but the LED screen still illuminated). After restarting the P15, I played the same tones at low and then low-medium volume and they sounded as expected, as did music at moderate to moderate loud volume with lots of deep bass. Then I turned the subs’ volume settings down from 10 o’clock to 9 o’clock position (1/4 up), played some music with deep bass, and again tried the Soundoctor CD again at moderate volume. Same type of reaction at 30 Hz, followed a few seconds later by the P15 shutting down. After that, I pulled the CD, restarted the P15 and everything played as normal. So did I overload the P15 or …?
Don’t think my system is close to the P15’s 1200 VA total (let alone its peak). I use all WyWires Diamond power cords, except for the subs, which use the next level down, the Platinum model for power and IC’s on the suggestion of WW’s developer (by coincidence, I have another pair of Diamond PC’s and IC’s coming soon for the subs). The subs are set to crossover at 40 Hz, 24 dB slope, and are situated about 16" up on custom made box risers, with Gaia II’s underneath. No external crossover, so the main speakers were also playing.
I had never experienced this before with the Soundoctor CD (or anything else), which I’ve used very occasionally for set up. Last week, however, I replaced a Supratek Cabernet tube preamp with a VAC Master, which has much greater output, and so wanted to check how things had changed (the CD aside, much for the better).
System: The P15 is plugged into a Wyred Pro Power Stream power conditioner, as are the TV, cable box and LPS; everything else is plugged into the P15, with the subs alone in HC sockets.
Oppo 203 with beefed up power supply (digital only)
Lampizator Golden Gate 2/3 dac (three tubes)
VAC Master preamp (separate PSU, no phono); uses two ECC88’s
ATC SCM 50ASLT active powered speakers (-6 dB at 38 Hz)
JL Audio e-110 subs (-3 dB at 23 Hz, -10 dB at 18 Hz)
Single freq test tones pull most energy. I would not worry. You are draining caps in amp and P15 faster. Multiwave highest settings might last a few more seconds prior to shut down
I just found out my P15 was completely shut down. Last night everything was fine when I turned off the system to standby. I turned it off and on from the back of P15 and the system was on again. So, I did not blow a fuse. Does anyone know what could have happened?
See if the iec backed out or wall outlet male plug is on the fine line of insertion. I have had my Dragon HC do this at both places. And more than ove. The cable weight works them out gradually.
It is a mystery since the male plug at wall is secure; the thunderstorm overnight did it, I guess. Anyway, there is forecast of thunderstorm tonight too. Let’s see how tomorrow morning goes. Everything is working so far, and the music is back.
A follow up: The low bass shutdown happened again for the first time since the OP. It happened first with low bass music during a scene in a TV program (file), then repeatedly playing Passacaglia on PS Audio’s bass album. Not that the volume was terribly loud, but turning it down a bit “solved” it at that moment. Then it later struck me to use the P15’s high current outlets for the subs, and the subs only. With that the Passacaglia played through well at the initial volume setting. So that seems like a good solution. If it hadn’t worked, or rears up again, then my the idea will be to switch the subs to the Wyred conditioner.
The high current outlets are really only of useful for cold starts of amps and a P15. My P20 even if on all the time and I try to power up preamp with .3 second delay of mono amp dc triggers will still bring it down to protection mode. The high current outlet time delays only work well after shut down. So I end up using smp power knobs. The single P-20 does quite well with music preproduction and handlingup to 1.2KW music program peaks. There are only a few selections that are dynamic enough where a P20 doesn’t keep up. However home theater is another story where multiple explosions mainly war movies Pearl Harbor or scifi stuff like Interstellar will dry up its capacitor banks.
Your P15 has one screen that will tell you how close you are to capacity. I had to unplug my Martin Logan 212 subs from the P15 because they were overloading it.
