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 1 response by hilde45

There’s so much real expertise here, I’ll only add one thing about my own situation — If I find a way to test my outlet and see that it is noisy, I plan to make it dedicated (if price is reasonable). Why? Couple reasons.

One, as MillerC. said (at some point, maybe not here), one can learn to listen with more attention and acuity; a better line creates good conditions in which one can hear more. If one doesn’t do that — because they can’t hear a difference *now* -- then one has blocked that path of growth.

Second, I’ve gone to some trouble already to deal with power — a conditioner, good speaker wire, power cables for my gear, etc. I’ve not gone crazy but I’ve not stuck with stock cords. That approach — not to accept any lowest-common-denominator elements in my system — seems logical to extend to the breaker box IF (and this is a real, genuine "if") there is evidence that there is noise or other reasons to doubt the line. If there’s not, I’m happy to let that go.