I have a question about equipment power hookup. I have one dedicaed 20 amp circuit in the equipment closet (I know I should have added more). In fact I was having the electrician back next weekend to add two more 20 amp dedicated outlets. But I then plugged in the 990 and 7500 into the Monster HTS 5100 MKII PowerCenter and was amazed at what I saw. The 7500 is driving 3 Polk LC-265i and two LC-80i speakers. If I am reading the Power Center correctly it is showing 120.5 incoming volts and only 1.3 amps being used. Do you think this is correct. When everything is turned off it shows 0.5 amps and when I turn on the 7500 it moves to 1.1 or 1.2 amps. Should I cancel the electrian?

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showcase/closeup.php?userid=69564&pic=258_38_big.jpg

Yeah, from what I've heard, a 20 amp circuit should be more than fine for your setup...even if you replaced the 7500 with a 7700, it should be fine.

The amps do not draw the max rated power except under extreme loads, which most of us would probably never experience without having definite hearing loss...or perhaps some broken windows.

I had the similar concern in that I purchased a 990/7700 and a monster powercenter. I am no electrician however my understanding is that all monster equipment is rated to a max of approximately 1800 watts which corresponds to the max rating of a 20 amp circuit. I think the 7500/7700 put out 1800 watts MAX. I suspect you would max out the amp/wattage rating only if you played music/movies very loud and had some high dynamic peaks. This was a big concern to me so If I have a wrong understand of how this works hopefully someone will correct me.

In order to get ready, electrically, for my HT setup I had electrician install two new dedicated 20 amp circuits. Not needed.

I run everythingm including my 60 inch Sony HDEF TV thru a Monster power center. At extremely loud levels I will occasionally see a maximum of around 5.1 amp draw and that's with the TV on...and everything running thru the power center. I bought the one with the amp readout as well as volts.

So you're OK. Relax. enjoy and turn it up.

Thanks everyone for the confirmation. After talking to several people at work they also agree. I will call today to cancel the electrician.

nfaguys: It seems like there are a lot of us who assume a couple of 20 amps would be needed. I would have no problem putting them in up front while the basement was being finished (I forgot), but it looks like it is not worth it or needed.

Chris: Sorry I didn;t see to re-comment. I guess I overdid it, but running two was as easy as one.
Where they are located I put two 20s which are dedicated in a 3-gang box. The third receptacle is for the circuit that was already there. Boy do I have power to spare. You are right. Not needed.

Darn, I ran FOUR dedicated 20 amp lines for my equipment

you can load a circuit to 80% of its rating continously,
so a 15amp circuit can be loaded to 12 amps and so forth
its not a bad idea to have your video on one circuit and the audio on another, this is not due to power loads but harmonics that are introduced to the neutral caused by appliances under load