davidrab Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Anybody out there use power amps that turn on with audio sensing inputs? When not sensing audio (and therefore turned off) is the power consumption near zero?How about using an IO extender to turn on an amps external trigger when audio is needed in a zone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 You know the C4 amp has audio sense, right?Actually, it sounds like you're looking something to power on based on audio sense. As I'm sure you're aware the C4 amp is always on, and from what I understand it's quite power hungry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidrab Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 Yea, there is one 8 zone C4 amp in the system now but the rest of the zones have separate 2 channelpower amps. Instead of keeping those separate amps on all time, I'm looking at things to turn them offuntil they are needed.I think I read that the 4 zone amp is pretty efficient at idle so that may be a choice (but I'd like to do something cheaper). Among other things I'm also thinking about is a switched outlet on the power stripfor the rest of the amps but I'd rather control them individually. Dataprobe makes a powerstrip thatuses contact closures for controlling each of it's 8 outlets and I was thinking of using that with spare relayson IO extenders to power amps only as they are needed. We've been told that the programming for thatisn't all that easy. In the end I'm not sure we'll do anything but it would be nice not to have those amps powered and doing nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 You could plug them in to C4 outlet switches couldn't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidrab Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 You could plug them in to C4 outlet switches couldn't you?Yea, as I look at it, that's probably the way to go. It would require 4 (as there are 7 amps) but I guess that's still cheaper than some of the other alternatives. I just remember the installer saying that they tried that on an install and that it wasn'tfun or it didn't work right or something. I would have thought that the programming would be something like "when audio is selected for the zone, turn on the outlet on theoutlet switch". I'll have to look at that a little more.Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 The delay may be annoying with that... turn on one and then a small delay then send the power on command to the amp (if there is one).Ive never tried or used one of these but this could work for you in conjunction with a bunch of IR buds:http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13147 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Anybody out there use power amps that turn on with audio sensing inputs?A lot of Rotel amps do this. Been doing it succesfully for a couple of years.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tebery Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 If your looking for something inexpensive, I use these in my pool house:http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-812Not bad for $160. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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