Paperw8, the amp I mentioned in my example draws 500W from the wall at full power.
If you dig around on this forum, you will find that the idea that the stereo sounds better late at night is a fairly common experience. IOW you are right that other loads on the AC line do indeed affect the sound of many stereos.
Kijanki is correct in his comments about the double duty I mentioned: the cord has to manage to supply power for the filament circuit of the amp as well as its DC supplies. He is incorrect on the 90% figure we see in his previous post however. But it is still a lot of current- about 45% of the total draw. The high frequency content, despite being once per 60Hz cycle, comes from the fact that the pulse is narrow and square. Anyway you look at it that requires some bandwidth to not current limit.
Finally, with regard to the posts you are trading with Al, if you have ever heard of a first-order crossover in a speaker, that is a filter that is as simple as they get. A first-order crossover is of course 6db/octave. I don't think I have ever heard of a 3db/octave filter, but such a filter would actually need *more* parts to make it happen.
If you want a simple rule of thumb, double a voltage, that's a 6db increase. Double the power, that's a 3 db increase. The 3db figure of power doubling is why small, incremental increases in amplifier power have been known in the past as 'gold plated decibels'. This term has also been used in the radio broadcast industry.
If you dig around on this forum, you will find that the idea that the stereo sounds better late at night is a fairly common experience. IOW you are right that other loads on the AC line do indeed affect the sound of many stereos.
Kijanki is correct in his comments about the double duty I mentioned: the cord has to manage to supply power for the filament circuit of the amp as well as its DC supplies. He is incorrect on the 90% figure we see in his previous post however. But it is still a lot of current- about 45% of the total draw. The high frequency content, despite being once per 60Hz cycle, comes from the fact that the pulse is narrow and square. Anyway you look at it that requires some bandwidth to not current limit.
Finally, with regard to the posts you are trading with Al, if you have ever heard of a first-order crossover in a speaker, that is a filter that is as simple as they get. A first-order crossover is of course 6db/octave. I don't think I have ever heard of a 3db/octave filter, but such a filter would actually need *more* parts to make it happen.
If you want a simple rule of thumb, double a voltage, that's a 6db increase. Double the power, that's a 3 db increase. The 3db figure of power doubling is why small, incremental increases in amplifier power have been known in the past as 'gold plated decibels'. This term has also been used in the radio broadcast industry.