Circuit breakers and dirty power

Hi Scott; As you propose, putting in the dedicated outlets is the best thing you can do to clean up your power supply. No other household appliances, eg refrig., lights, TV, heat, etc. will be on the dedicated line, and you should have a dramatically lowered noise floor that will be noticeable in your music.

I put in a cryo'ed breaker ($40.), from Virtual Dynamics, in my main breaker panel, but I can't say whether it made much difference or not as I made other changes at the same time.

If interested, Virtual Dynamics sells all sorts of cryo'ed AC products including wire-- VD also puts the wire on a Cable Cooker for awhile. I ran their 10/4 awg BX wire ($3.50/ft.) from my main breaker box to a sub-main, and found it to be a big improvement over an old Zaner 6/3 awg that it replaced. I can't actually say whether it was the new wire, cryo treatment, or cable cooking that caused the improvement as they come as a "package".

I'm in the process of phase 2 of upgrading my ded. AC system to include: cryo'ed wire to outlets, cryo'ed breakers, and cryo'ed Hubbell 5362 outlets. If you order a cryo'ed breaker, you have to specify your breaker box brand. It's my sense that the cryo treatment of AC products is pretty beneficial to music quality/character based on comparison(s) with different non-cryo'ed wires in the past. Do a search under "cryo" fro a lot more info. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig

I would recommend several dedicated 20 amp circuits and cryogenically treated outlets. See below:

Here is some information from several of my posts on Audiogon (another similar topic).

“I have experimented over the last year with various wires to use for dedicated 20-amp circuits. I have the following wire in use in no special order:
1) 10 gage Romex
2) 10 gage UV
3) Belden 83802
4) Virtual Dynamics 10 gage BX Cryogenically treated with Cryo’d circuit breaker. *

I have not tried the following but I’m sure it works, 10 gage solid THHN (white/black/green) manually (electric drill) spiral twist and snake through conduit.

To my ears on my revealing system I hear NO difference between (1-4)! I think simply using a dedicated circuit with 10 gage copper makes the biggest difference.

* There might be other positive factors to using cryogenically treated wiring besides sonics. It might lower the operating temperature of equipment.

I have also experimented with many outlets regular/cryogenically treated. My last purchase was the Acme silver plated/Cryo'd outlet which finally settled in and sounds good.

At the present time my favorite outlets are as follows: Hubbell 5362, Hubbell 8300, Wattgate 381, all three sound very good, I think I like the Hubbell 5362 just a bit more (a smoother more musical, dynamic presentation)
but I rank all three together. A person could buy three Hubbell's fully treated by Alan for the cost of one Wattgate 381!

Next in line I would rank the Acme silver plated/Cryo'd and the FIM (cryo'd) which I had Alan cryo/cable-cook.

The best looking put together, solid, built to last outlet I have seen and have in my possession is the Hubbell".

Larry, I agree with you about the 5362. I bought a bunch of Hubbell and Pass&Seymour chocolate and vanilla ones if anybody wants any cheap. The Hubbell may be slightly sturdier than the P&S, or the Hubbell/Bryant, but ALL Hubbells and P&S's have great clamping strength, which is a big part of their performance........ The improvements in lowered noisefloor and more open top octave from using a shield-drained and all-Teflon dielectric line (like the 83803 (12AWG) and 83806 (9AWG) are usually quite noticeable...just like in a PC similarly manufactured. But there are SO many variables in systems, ambient noise, tweeter and hearing rolls, etc......... I'm still a dis-believer re cryogenic treatment of conductive materials. My belief is that the cryogenic process may SLIGHTLY affect the stabilization of the DIELECTRICS involved, hastening burn-in. But there are better ways to accomplish this for some dielectrics that can withstand ceratin other processes that are easier to perform.....Re circuit breakers I'd suggest that "exercising" them a few times with contact cleaner is more important than cryo. JMO. Cheers.

just don't use a GFI breaker electrically they're very noisy.
The quietest mains connection can be had by using a subpanel with an Edison fuse, vs. a circuit breaker.
The switching transients from the water heater may possibly be adequately isolated by running the audio rig on a DEDICATED CIRCUIT. If that doesn't completely stop the noise then you'll need Audio Prism Quiet Line, or some other transorb such an a GE V130LA20B M.O.V. installed across the line. Many line conditioners incorporate MOV's integral to the design.

Thanks to all who responded. I am not sure of the model # of the Hubbles that I have. I ordered them at work through a Mcmaster Carr catalog. I will look them up Monday again to see which they are. I know they are orange with no model # printed on them. Again, thanks