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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 4 responses by fleschler

fleschler
1,933 posts
 

@millercarbon I know you have taken more extreme measures in obtaining as perfect sound as you can out of your system. However, why is it that the finest audio system I’ve heard (as dozens of audio critics have concurred) was at audio shows plugged into hotel power circuits with no special grounding, breakers, etc.? The $1.4 million set-up had $400,000 in cabling alone but I didn’t see any special power features (or acoustical treatments).

My own attempts at resolving electrical and acoustical issues have been expensive but inferior (10 gauge wire, separate audio only dedicated power panel, Bryston BIT 20, SR Blue outlets, SR Blue fuses, 20 amp breakers, PPT products, separate lighting HVAC on other subpanel). Sometimes, a great system can sound great without any special power treatment, but it has to be really high end SOTA to do that.
fleschler
1,933 posts
 
I decided on using 10 awg wire on a 20 amp circuit from a dedicated subpanel rather than 8 awg because it fit into my SR blue outlet.  It feeds all my equipment with a Bryston Bit20 isolation transformer (my amps go into another box and then into the same outlet).  Maybe 8 awg is better but I did not want to deal with it's size.
fleschler
1,933 posts
 
I own and managed 72 homes in the San Fernando Valley.  The only homes that did not have conduit or romex with standard breakers were built prior to 1930s.  I had four built in 1886, one in 1914 and six in 1926.  All were upgraded to romex and breakers.  It would be very odd here to see a 50's home with fuses here.

fleschler
1,933 posts
 
That was very likely as our old homes were converted as late as 1964.

Geofkaitt-again, stupid comment. "I had four built" is colloquial for owned older homes, not indicating I specifically constructed them or had them constructed for me. Why bother with the statement that is obviously untrue but commonly understood (that's rhetorical-does not require an answer).
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