I wanted to go with stranded but found that both the ones I wanted to use had been discontinued and was unable to fine a good replacement. They were Diamond Handiwire and one by Carol. I bought some standard Romex 10 Ga.. but have had delays in installation so if anyone knows of a good stranded 10 ga currently avalable at a decent price I would like to know also. |
Twist the wires (two plus ground) together for a noise canceling effect and run in conduit.
Make sure you have more wire then you need because by twisting the wire together it reduces the length. Place all three strands into the end of an electric drill chuck and run the drill slowly. A helper make the job easier. |
OK. So sounds like making a twisted pair of solid core still beats stranded. Good news.
Lak: the drill chuck idea is a good one. I had not thought about it. What spacing per twist should I be aiming for? 1 twist every 2 inches? Does it make a difference in sound if I use starnded cable for the ground wire only?
Thank you! |
Lewinskih01,
I'm not sure that it really matters if you use solid or stranded wire for any of the wiring as long as it's 10 gauge, I have not been able to hear a difference.
I'd say the spacing should be between 2 to 3 inches but it's been six years since I've twisted wire. Make sure you buy longer wire then what you actually need because as I mentioned before the twisting consumes wire. |
Lewinskih01,
I agree with Lak that twisting the wire (I used 10 gauge solid core for ground, neutral and positive) is a good thing to do. In my case, the twists are 1" apart and then the wire is run through flexible steel conduit to the outlets. The other thing to try and do is to keep each of the dedicated runs less than 50 feet in length - shorter is better as this also helps with reducing effects of RFI/EMF. |
thanks Babybear.
My twisted runs will be about 25 feet long, so well under the 50 feet you recommend. Good news!
Tell me more about the flexible steel conduit: what's the purpose? Just conduit or RFI/EMI shielding as well? Do you have the counduit grounded? |
The conduit is again useful for helping to reduce the effects of RFI/EMF. Check my system page for a little more info on what I did. |
Isn't "Greenfield Conduit" solid core wire already twisted in the metal jacket? Black-White-Green all insulated. |
The flexible metal conduit is also called "Greenfield". Its purpose is to protect the wires inside. It also provides shielding from RFI. Greenfield needs to be deburred after cutting to length, in order to remove sharp burrs that could nick the wires. You also need to use the proper connectors. You could use type MC cable (metal clad cable) that comes with the twisted wires already installed. Even that needs to be cut carefully so as not to damage the wires inside, and you need to install insulating bushings on the ends to protect the wires from the sharp edges of the metal jacket. My advice is to hire an electrician to get it done right. |
Babybear,
That is a GREAT system! Very nice job on the room and power supply.
I can get something similar to the Greenfield flexible conduit around here. I guess I want to run 2 parallel conduits, one for each dedicated line. Does the conduit need to be connected to ground to maximize the RFI/EMI shielding effect?
Gbart: I've taken note of deburring. Thanks for the tip! Is the purpose of the insulating bushings to electrically insulate the conduit from the box, or to protect the cable from getting nipped by burrs?
Keep it coming! |
I have tried both Romex and Analysis Plus running from an Isoclean dedicated panel to the outlets. There is definitely a difference in sound. My belief is that the amount of difference is based on the overall combination of system components. That may also mean that there are multiple ways to achieve the same result. |
Stenersr,
So you liked Analysis Plus better than Romex? Is the former stranded? |
In some respects yes...it is a little bit more difuse or less edgy than Romex. That is the impression before either of them are broken in.
But then again, some equipment benefits from that characteristic and others do not need it. This required a little more thought into where I wanted AP capble vs Romex pulled. To have some flexibility, there was an AP cable run to one of the dual gang box and Romex run to the other. |
Lewinskih01,
Thanks very much.
I am not an electrician, so I couldn't tell you if the conduit is connected to ground or not - I do know that the conduit runs to metal outlet boxes (not the plastic type) and I do use isolated ground outlets. |
I don't why it was so, but I prefer the 10 guage solid core Romex to the ten guage stranded Carol(water proof) wires that I had been using.
I had a couple of dedicated lines using the carol, an elctrician/audio friend suggested to use the solid core wire so I did just one line this way so I could compare.
Regardless of what gear was on what cable(Iswitched back and forth, source on solid, amps on strand and then switched to source on stranded etc)the solid core had the edge in not being edgy at all but in speed and clarity.
The stranded was dull and slow in comparison. |
