This is my first post. I've been following this forum for the past month and am very impressed with the congeniality and quality of technical knowledge. I am very new to home theater but audio and I are old friends. My main focus right now is to put together a home theater system in the next month or so. I believe the 1050 to be an excellent candidate for reciever. One thing that kept me from placing an order immediately was the supply voltage disclaimer. Outlaw specifies a 120 volt source supply. I reside in San Diego. Due to recent power shortages our power company has stated that they may reduce voltage at times of high useage. Though they haven't done this yet, they are leaving this open as an option. My question is: How will this affect the 1050? Though, this question might be applicable to any of the Outlaw electronics.

I may be over-reacting, but I'd be curious to know what a sustained voltage dip like that would to do a lot of things -- electric motors (dryers, washers, dishwashers, air conditioner fans), compressors in air conditioners, television tubes, computer power supplies, ovens, ... (I just had a talk late last week with an equipment manufacturer about his heating coil ratings and what a difference the actual voltage provided makes.) As for the 1050 itself, I'd suspect a reduction in max power from the amp section (assuming the amp draw remains contant, losing volts will reduce watts). I don't know what the lower voltage would do to the electronics, if it would do anything.

I'll have to quiz one of the EE's at the office tomorrow -- we do mechanical and electrical engineering for buildings (I'm just mechanical), so I suspect that one of our EE's can offer some quick thoughts on how a power company could implement something like that and what it would do to the end user equipment. I'll be very interested in seeing what other feedback this thread gets.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

If it ends up being a problem, I suppose you could always invest in a line conditioner/surge protector/battery backup kind of thing. Something that will give you a nice steady output regardless of transients on the input.

Interesting idea OW, I assume your referring to a computer UPS type backup system. I suspect that one that would keep a ht supplied with 1KW or more would be out of my price range. I would settle for a conditioner that would gracefully power down the system and/or not allow me to power it up if the minimum voltage criteria is not met. Thank you both for your input. I went ahead and ordered a 1050. I intend to get a normal surge supressor to start and look into a conditioner for the future. I've got an Adcom conditioner on my dedicated stereo system and neatly helped solve an RF interference problem I had. My amp and preamp go into standby mode for about a minute if there is a brief power interuption or glitch.

FWIW, aren't most power grids in this country 110 volts? I have no idea what really comes out of my power outlets but have never had a problem *knock* *knock* with any of Outlaw's stuff.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Talked to Scott at the help desk. He assured me that the 1050 has a regulated power supply and that it would readily accommodate the normal voltage fluctuations of public power companies with no change in performance. If the voltage got really low a humming might be noticable.