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. 
dtximages

Showing 2 responses by cakyol

How much power do you need from the mains to justify a 20 amp circuit ? That would be equivalent to approximately 2200 Watts. Will you have that much power consumption ?

Unless you are coming VERY close to that number above, you will NOT hear any difference. The only advantage would be eliminating any possible ground loops if you plug every device you have into this one circuit. But then again, unless you really require that much power, you could gain the same advantage from just a standard 15 amp mains plug.

Extra power never hurts but will obviously cost.

heaudio123
Dont waste your breath here too much.  Too many know it alls but very few real engineers.  Cheers!!