[jandrews]

Hi, strange questions, but .....I'm moving into a building with very low power to the units.  I will have a 40 amp service to my unit...which is far lower than code for the city I'm in .  I'm having a full electrical rework and update done now to the apartment which will be able to accommodate 100 amps ...when the building upgrades its service.  That is supposed to happen in the next year or two.   But in the meantime, I'll have all new electrical but only 40 amps to play with.
I won't have a lot of power hungry appliances except for a stackable washing machine/dryer, and the occasional A/C use.

My question is which of my AVA amps will consume the least power at idle and when being used moderately?

1) SET 120
2) NP1
3) Ultravalve


I'm assuming it's the NP1.   Does anyone know the approximate specs on power consumption for these amplifiers?

thank you
Jason

[poseidonsvoice]

Jason,

You can measure this yourself using one of these: https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU?th=1

My educated guess would be:

Most Power Hungry: Ultravalve (since it is tube, and filaments alone draw large current and hence power consumption).
The SET 120 and NP 1 would be much below that, but hard to say exactly which one without some empiric measurements. I would guess either one would be fine but the NP1 would edge it out since the SET120 does have some Class A output power before transitioning to Class B.

So highest to lowest:

Ultravalve
SET120
NP1

Best,
Anand.

[jandrews]

Thanks
Great suggestion !

[TomBo]

Jason, I run 50 amps in total at my cabin in the woods (my downsized retirement place that have some pics posted on the AVA Circle) ...never had any problems ...have not triggered a breaker yet with either the SET 120 Control Amp or my legacy Fet Valve gear ... I do run everything through a relatively cheap (but very good) power bar/voltage cleaner (less than $75.00) and did replace that electrical outlet with a "hospital grade" one ...around $25.00 for that. Great results. My ears and smile confirm that ... Tom

[SoaringBear]

My AVA 600R hybrid amp runs warm because of tubes and uses only 1 amp.