Will portable generator power harm amplifier or subwoofer?

Gardenstater

I'm currently without power for god knows how long because JCP&L is horrible at giving any info regarding estimated times for power restoration. Really want to listen to the stereo but this is a Harbor Freight 3200W generator and is definitely not the clean power Inverter type. Does anybody have any advice on whether this could harm my Crown D150 or my Martin Logan Sub? Thanks.

audioluvr

Should be fine as long as you keep your voltage steady

Gardenstater

I know this type of generator doesn't produce a true sine wave and I'm not really sure how steady the voltage is. I can check that with my Kill A Watt. I can connect the amps up to my UPS, but the tightest the settings can be made for the battery backup to intervene are 136V and 88V. I can also set the Noise Sensitivity to high (currently on medium), so that the battery will be more likely to intervene if the signal is noisy.

PS:It seems to be running around 121V consistently and also it isn't triggering the battery so far on the High setting. Still a bit nervous though. I could always listen with headphones and keep the amps safe. I know ......!@#$%

PPS: It started spazzing out too much on the High sensitivity setting and I had to put it back on Medium. I had 30 switchings to battery in a short period of time, perhaps when the refrigerator came on. I might be able to listen on High with the amps plugged in if I disconnect the fridge for a while.

erniejade

I dj a kids gig and they had me on a generator and bounce house. The generator was powerful enough but, it had a spike. I lost my mixer, amp, , mic. All went up in smoke. Everything was on a Furman and i thought had protection.

Furman has a guarantee equipment won't be dammage from power spikes or they would cover like $10k. When i called to make the claim, they asked if the furman cut off, i said yes it is inoperable. They said the Furman did its job and they won't covered anything. They told me the electricity has to exit somewhere and without even looking, they can tell it had to exit via the xlr. Thats why my amp, mixer and mic fried but the speakers were ok. When i took them in to see if they were worth fixing, they said it was the xlrs that were fried.

Anyway you should be ok as long as you don't have a spike.


On generator's, i have found Honda to be the most stable.

monepolk

Doesn't sound like much of a guarantee.

invalid

I wouldn't risk it without an inverter on board the generator.

invalid

Those portable generators can spike when they start to run out of gas.

audioluvr

Again the generator you are running is a true sine wave generator. Being Harbor Freight may not be the most reliable but I ran an old Kohler 4K for 12 hours during my first barn party (didn't have power there yet) cranking my Carver M1.5t amp Carver C-2 pre while running lights and a couple of crock pots. Never had any problems with any of it but I watched the volts to make sure they never dropped below 110v AC.

xschop

On Gens, when Voltage spikes for whatever reason, Amps drop instantaneously.

motorstereo

Even on dc inverter generators my emi meter tells me the electricity supplied is very dirty compared to what the power company supplies. My Mac gear stayed off as I wouldn't risk putting good equipment in harms way.

Gardenstater

I'm still chicken to *experiment* on powering the amps from this. As it stands right now I am listening on my Grado SR 80 headphones (which are no slouches) being fed directly from the USB DAC/headphone amplifier. Unfortunately the foam ear cups have rotted from extreme age and I am making makeshifts right now, from Armacell Pipe Insulation and tape.

msg

Not much keeps the likes of us from tunes!

Gardenstater

I think the bass is actually improved from the open cell foam cups that were OEM.

PS: Bass is DEFINITELY even tighter I guess due to more pressurization with the closed cell. Also FAR more comfortable. No long term fatigue anymore. I'm not going to the dark side though....after the power is restored I'm going back to my 7B's

mhardy6647

If you want to use a generator to make AC for your amp (or whatever's) power supply to turn to DC -- use a good ("inverter") generator. The Honda inverter generators are excellent. Quiet, economical, reliable, and they produce high quality (low distortion!) AC. They are not inexpensive but you get what you pay for.

This is the one we have. If one uses a generator for emergency household power, a generator like this is basically a "must have" IF your house has any sensitive microprocessor controlled gizmos in it that you care about (e.g., lots of modern heater "boilers", appliances, etc.) .




Don't forget -- solar panel arrays or arrays of batteries ('dry' or rechargeables) can give high voltage (if required) DC of very high quality, with fair amounts of current. Again, not necessarily cheap, but good.

The one nice thing about AC, of course, is that one may use a transformer to convert one voltage to another.

Gardenstater

Yep indeed. Like I said at the beginning I don't have the inverter type generator that generates cleaner power. It's all about money unfortunately. Those suggestions all sound good though.

Gardenstater

The Humble Pie Generator (Predator 3200/4000) keeping the food from spoiling and the human entertained, nestled in for the coming rainstorm with corrugated plastic and sink cutouts for weights. The exhaust is killing my Bell Pepper plant (not shown) so it really needs a couple elbows and a vertical chimney stack to get those exhaust fumes up up and away a bit. Need to figure something out in the future.