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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 1 response by markgw

markgw
10 posts
 
The Electrician would have a point if reproducing music was equivalent to running an electric fan... A steady continuous current draw. The flaw in his argument can be summed up in one word. "Transients". A transient response is the factor that defines the excitement and immediacy of music... The attack of a snare or blast of brass, the power and agility of an amplifier to faithfully reproduce a notes colour or character at low frequency. A transient spike requires a current spike, ergo, restricting current restricts transients. If your thing is listening to sin wave signals through your system, then it's not an issue. If you listen to music, then open up the current supply as much as possible. That is why replacing at least the bottleneck of the jug cord your amp came with, even with a budget, glorified jug cord, can make a significant difference.
I don't see the necessity of driving in a 2nd earth rod but running a 20A cable and fuse for your system should be a relatively cheap exercise and well worth a punt.
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