Given that the electrician was aware of the fact that dedicated circuits are common among audiophiles, he shouldn't have "laughed" at your question. That suggests someone who is opinionated and dismissive of the opinions of others. So I would take what he says with a grain of salt. I suspect that the value of dedicated circuits as an add on to existing wiring is highly dependent upon the details of a particular application. In some situations, it may not be a cost effective exercise. In others, it will be. I'd consider the age of the existing wiring, what else may be on the circuit, the quality of the local power supply, etc., and how much running new wiring would cost. In my case, the cost of running dedicated circuits to a dedicated listening room was well under 1K, so I went for it. I expect to stay in this house for a long time, so why not?
Dedicated 20 amp circuit - Electrician laughed!
I brought my electrician out to my house today to show him where I would like to install a dedicated 20a circuit for my system. He laughed and said that's the stupidest thing he's heard and laughs when people talk about it. It said, if you're going to do it, you have to have it separately grounded (shoving a new 8 foot rod into the ground) but even then, he sees no way there can be an audible improvement.
Now, he's not just an electrician though. He rebuilds tube amps on the side and tears apart amps and such all the time so he's quite well versed in audio electronics and how they operate.
He basically said anyone who thinks they hear a difference is fooling themselves.
Personally, I'm still not sure, I'm no engineer, my room's not perfect, and I can't spend hours on end critical listening... But, he does kinda pull me farther to the "snake oil" side and the "suggestive hearing" side (aka, you hear an improvement because you want to hear it).
I'm not taking a side here but I thought it was interesting how definitive he was that this not only WILL not make a difference but ALMOST CANNOT make a difference.
Now, he's not just an electrician though. He rebuilds tube amps on the side and tears apart amps and such all the time so he's quite well versed in audio electronics and how they operate.
He basically said anyone who thinks they hear a difference is fooling themselves.
Personally, I'm still not sure, I'm no engineer, my room's not perfect, and I can't spend hours on end critical listening... But, he does kinda pull me farther to the "snake oil" side and the "suggestive hearing" side (aka, you hear an improvement because you want to hear it).
I'm not taking a side here but I thought it was interesting how definitive he was that this not only WILL not make a difference but ALMOST CANNOT make a difference.