advice on dedicated line

Thanks, all. This is very helpful. My amp is 50wpc, so I am thinking 2 lines. Lowrider57 (or anyone else who cares to answer): would I get a separate surge protector for each outlet, and can you recommend a good, moderately priced one? Also any more suggestions for good outlets? Elizabeth, I have another question on ground wires, but that will have to wait a bit because I am heading out now to go audition some speakers. :). Thanks again, everyone, for your excellent guidance. M.

Wonderful advice all, thank you. One follow up question on the issue of the ground wire. I read this on the Martin Logan site.

"The key to reducing hum and noise is to have the electrician wire only a single ground from the audio / home theater system to the electrical service panel (see figure 2). If you are installing a dedicated or multiple dedicated lines in the Home Theater it is critical that all outlets that will be attached to the A/V system be wired with the same single ground wire, and run directly to the service panel. 'Hot and neutral' wires are attached directly to the service panels dedicated power line. Do not attach anything other than the Audio and Video system to this special dedicated line. Be sure to plan for enough outlets for the electronics, speakers, sub-woofers, video and video accessories as well as the location of each outlet (subwoofers in the rear, etc). Lighting, fans and anything not directly related to the A/V system, should be attached to a separate circuit with it's own ground, connected to the service panel."

Does this mean that even if I have 2 20 amp lines, I just want one ground for them both? Or does each line have its own ground wire?

This is really a foreign language to me, so thanks again for translating!

Margot

Thanks, Al! This makes more sense to me, and I am glad to have the advice of an electrical engineer. cheers, Margot

What an education! Thanks, everyone. Even with pros and cons, I confess I am tempted by the simpler route of one 10 gauge 20 amp line with the Porter -port. Would it be workable for me to get 6 outlets instead if 4 in case I ever wanted to plug in a small fm receiver to listen to the news? Or is that pushing my luck?

Also I am assuming that if I just one 20 amp line the points Elizabeth initially raised (circuits on same leg, nothing adding to more than 120) are not things I need to worry about.

In fact, with the single 20 amp line is there anything special I need to tell the electrician other than I want 10 gauge wire, to put the line on the least noisy side of the box, that I want nothing but my audio on this line, and to be careful with the ground wire? Is there anything else I would need to specify?

Thanks again very much. I would be lost without you folks!

Margot

Thanks again, all. I've reread this, and if I get Al's point, I might be better off with 2 20 amp circuits; but if I end up with grounding issues then I can put everything on one circuit and then I'll be at the baseline of where I would have been if I just started with one. So two is a way to optimize my results...but of course I have to get an electrician who will do this all carefully. And I guess if I hit resistance with the electrician, I can always drop back to one line and this will still be better than what I have currently.

A lot of moving parts!

A few other questions:
-I'm gathering from Al's post above that I should I get around to upgrading power cords, longer is better? Is this also true of interconnects?

-Is it enough to tell the electrician I want 10 gauge wire? Or do I need to supply him or her with it? If so, where would I get #10-2 NMB? (I assume this is what I want.)

I confess that I had a dream last night that I burned down my house!

Thanks again, everyone.

Margot

One other question occurs to me, just so I understand:

If I had a turntable that would most likely go on the dedicated line with the amplifier, unless the amplifier was Class D? In that case, the CDp, DAC, and Class D amp would be on one line, and the turntable would be on the other? (And then of course there is Al's point about experimentation to see if they all sound better on one line anyway, etc.) Is this generally the right idea? Thanks...

MANY THANKS to all of you for your careful and detailed advice. I think I am ready to call an electrician!

cheers,

Margot