Power Conditioner- OK to use as a master power switch?

Infiltration12 · #1 04-18-2010, 10:51 PM

Hey guys, I've been wondering this for a while. Will it harm my gear that is plugged into my power conditioner if I leave all of the power switches in the "on" position and turn them on with the main switch on the power conditioner? I've heard it is hard on amps, but I've never heard anything about doing this with other gear.

Right now I leave all switches off when not in use, and when I go to power up I just go down my rack flipping the switches: Power Conditioner, tuner, Graphic EQ, amp.

JimmyM · #2 04-19-2010, 01:46 AM

i used to do it when i was using hybrids and ss heads, but i would never do it with a tube amp. other gear, though, is fine.

bongomania · #3 04-19-2010, 02:15 AM

In addition to tube amps, there is one other big issue: if you power all your gear on at the same time, it will send a loud "pop" through your speakers. This pop may be strong enough to actually damage/blow your speakers, and it certainly makes people jump in alarm when they hear it onstage. The solution is to make sure the power amp (or amp head) switch is NOT always in the "on" position", so your power conditioner only switches on all the rest of your gear. Then you individually switch the amp on, and there's no damaging "pop".

**mikeddd** · #4 04-19-2010, 03:44 AM

I agree w/Bongomania. Aside from the fact that it scares the crap out of people, that pop can easily blow drivers and possibly damage amps.

This is the same reason that power amps in a PA get turned on last and turned off first. I also zero out all the faders on a mixing console before powering it up. Better safe than sorry.

Infiltration12 · #5 04-19-2010, 09:03 AM

Alright, thanks guys. I probably will still stick with switching each switch one by one. It makes me feel like I'm powering up something extremely powerful or doing a pre-flight check or something

projectMalamute · #6 04-19-2010, 09:16 AM

You can purchase devices which look like a normal rack mount power strip but when switched on powers up each outlet one at a time with a short delay, and when switched off powers down each outlet in reverse order. I ended up with one that was in a rack with a bunch of other crap I bought a while back, I'm not sure how much I would pay for such a thing but it is handy.

Sten · #7 04-21-2010, 07:56 AM

Check the new Peavey IPR1600 poweramp, it should do a soft shutdown even when power is removed from it. I don't think you will have a risk of damaging anything besides the speakers when you shitch them off from the power strip. Or you can just swtich of the amp or poweramp and then use the strip switch to shut down the rest.

Jayhawk · #8 04-21-2010, 08:43 AM

I always mute my head before I power down so I don't have the pop issue when I power up using the strip. Some heads have a delay when you flip the switch on as well. Like Jimmy has already said, I think it's fine to do with ss and hybrid heads, but not tube.

Bob Lee (QSC) · #9 04-22-2010, 10:42 AM

If your amp has a turn-on delay and instantaneous turn-off, then go ahead. It'll save wear and tear on your gear's power switches. In fact, it's probably cheaper to replace an outlet strip when its power switch wears out than to replace a switch in the amp or other piece of equipment.