need help on a bizarre power load problem in my stereo room

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

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The stereo system that I have in my stereo room is:

Emotiva XDA 1, M- Audio M3-8 active speakers (220W per speaker) , both about 2 years old, and a Sony DVD player, model DVP-NS50P (2005, lightly used by prev. owner, got it free since June) connected via the Digital co-ax port to the Emotiva

In the past 2 months, almost every time when I switch on the light in that room, or in the bathroom next to the stereo room, or the room next to the stereo room, there is a 1 second pause of the sound coming out of the speaker.

So initially I thought it's a power load problem. But I use that stereo room really late (I'm a night owl), it's past 2 am, so there is noone else in the street that is using much electricity, and my whole house has almost no other electricity usage during that time frame.

Today, I grab my other DVD player, a panasonic DVD player, using Toslink to the Emotiva. As I play the songs, I switch the lights on / off many times, there is NO pause.

I then switch back to the Sony, switch the same lights on / off a no. of times, it keep pausing, it doesn't do it every single time, but most of the time

So it looks like the problem is not a power load problem, but that Sony DVD player.

Now I did notice the Sony does skip a few seconds of the song on rare occasion, but I don't know if it's related.

To cut to the chase, is this a power load problem? Or is the pause problem caused by the Sony somehow?

P.S. as we all know, the electricity demand on a DVD player is very little, so I can't see how a light switch can cause it, although the light that I use in the bathroom, and all the other rooms are all 250W to 500W halogen.
 
Is the light on the same breaker? It could be a voltage dip and whatever device was pausing was sensitive to this. Maybe try a battery backup if you have one in the house and see if it trips.

When I turn on my receiver, it also triggers an external amp (DC 12V trigger) and one of the battery backups on my AV stuff ALWAYS triggers for a couple seconds when this happens. It does the chirping sound for a couple seconds.
 
They probably is on the same breaker. But because it doesn't happen to the older panasonic, but to the Sony, someone told me that could be due to a heavy transformer inside the Sony.

As long as this is a DVD dependent problem, I'll cool w/ it, as I didn't pay for either DVD player.
 
Yes. Most-likely the short-term power draw when you turn on those luminaries, especially if they are halogen. Builders have been cheating for some time on that but it is still code compliant... connecting the on/off switch from a receptacle to the luminaries in the same room. I decoupled my luminaries from my receptacles and put them on their own breaker when I added more circuits to my main room for A/V. A battery backup/UPS is the easiest solution as it will boost to 110v when it detects a droop. I installed 13 cans that use 60w halogen lamps, so I wanted to make sure using the lights wouldn't fault my amplifiers, which each have their own 20 amp circuit. I have six 20 amp circuits going to one room, one for luminaries, 2 for amps, one for A/V equipment, and 2 for subs.

Checking to see if the luminaries are on the same circuit as the A/V equipment is easy... just grab a flash light, trip the breaker, and start flipping switches. :D
 
They are definitely on the same sub-feeder. But why does this only happen to the Sony DVD but not the Panasonic? I mean, if it really is because of a heavy transformer inside the Sony, then i won't care. As a UPS costs more than a DVD player.

But if flipping the light switch all these years affect my active speaker or my DAC, then I'll get a UPS. However, some say you can't use UPS on speaker, as it restrict the base boost
 
Happy Hopping said:
They are definitely on the same sub-feeder. But why does this only happen to the Sony DVD but not the Panasonic? I mean, if it really is because of a heavy transformer inside the Sony, then i won't care. As a UPS costs more than a DVD player.

But if flipping the light switch all these years affect my active speaker or my DAC, then I'll get a UPS. However, some say you can't use UPS on speaker, as it restrict the base boost
Click to expand...

Panasonic probably has higher rated capacitors so can cope with a momentary power dip. You could try adding a capacitor to the light so it doesn't cause a draw down on the circuit.

My whole home theater system is on a ups except for the powered sub, that's plugged in elsewhere as I didn't deem it necessary to have a graceful shut down in event of power loss and didn't want it sucking battery power during an outage since it's always on. Nothing to do with sound, but I could see it potentially being an issue if you had a really high wattage setup and had it cranked up. Usually the receiver will have capacitors to cover big spikes but if the ups can't recharge them quickly enough you'll potentially lose bass power.
 
but that just it. The wattage uses the the Emotiva XDA-1 DAC is very small. The wattage on a CD player, as we all know, is also very small.

My workout is at night, so there is other consumption of electricity in the other part of the house nor at the rest of the district. So the question is, does a 225W M-Audio M3-8 power speaker causes this?

I play that pair of speaker at 60dB.

Now, there is also something else really unusual, what I'm about to say sounds like a Xmas ghost story:

1 ft. next to this Sony DVP-NS50P, is a gymnastic rack called Vita Vibe, it's at the same level as the CD player. From June. to now, in 8 to 9 different occasions, sometimes when I hang a tank shirt on that Vita Vibe, the CD player moentarily stopped. Or when I swing a tank top just in front of the CD player, it also momentarily stopped. I just can't explained this

The remote control was sitting on the stack of music CD, noone has touched it. And there shouldn't be any signal sending to the Cd player via infrared. It almost as if there is some sort of infrared signal being interrupted by the swinging of the tank top shirt.
 
so not weak capacitors? You mean it's not the Sony doing this? and to fix it, just a UPS?
 
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