Hi James;
Here's that explanation of high instantaneous current vs. average current from last month. This makes the reasoning behind a Torus a lot more clear.
cwr
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From: Christopher W Russell
Sent: March 17, 2009 10:52 AM
To: James Tanner
Subject: Torus questions
Hi Bill;
Sorry for the confusion, I should have been more clear: The short-term current peaks that I referred to in my previous answer were actually short-term RMS current levels. That was confusing because the current waveform to the power supply of a large amplifier is quite non-linear. The DC power-supply actually only recharges the filter capacitors over a small portion of the waveform, at the peaks of the AC Voltage sinewave. With an undistorted sinewave, the peak-to-average ratio is 1.414:1, so an RMS current of 15A calculates to peaks of 15A RMS X 1.414 = 21.21A pk. However, when charging the filter caps in a DC power-supply, the peak-to-average ratio of the distorted current waveform can be as high as 3:1 or 4:1. Thus, a 15-Amp RMS current from the wall-socket to a power amplifier can easily translate to 50 or more Amperes of peak current being asked for over parts of the waveform.
When that happens, the wiring in the house and in the power lines restricts those peaks, due to resistance in the lines, and drops them by as much as 20%. The Torus Power Conditioner solves that problem by supplying the peak current from its huge magnetic energy-storage capacity. The house wiring 'sees' only the 1.414:1 peak-to-average ratio of a relatively undistorted current sinewave, while the Torus Power-Conditioner supplies the full 50-Amp peaks without restriction. That allows the dynamic energy in the music to come through much more powerfully, eliminating any mushiness or loss of focus in the reproduction.
Thus, when talking about a 7B SST2 amplifier drawing 36 Amperes RMS, that can easily translate to instantaneous peaks of 125 Amps or more over parts of the waveform. The larger the amplifier, the greater the need for these high charging currents. The ideal solution would be to use a Torus Power transformer inside the amplifier, but we shall address that concept in a later article.