Dedicated lines- need break in?

What does that even mean? 

All audio systems are continuum, just like all interactive forces. They never stop breaking in.

Sine waves in your ac lines are all going to the panel via wires which motors and ballast from lights and harmonics from unfiltered computers will cause the most potential problems. The best thing you can do is to balance the loads at the panel and keep your sensitive electronics isolated on separate circuits if possible. If I was to do it right I would have all my audio and video gear fed from a powerwall after the panel. It is basically a large house battery than is more stable than your local power company.

Thanks for the tip, Rwwear. Yes, I am using heavy duty cords (Orange) and turn them off during night and when no one is around. It might take a bit longer but a lot safer.

Be careful running heaters on long extension cords unless they are very heavy duty. A friend burned down his recording studio by leaving a heater running overnight on a lightweight extension cord. It was under a rug which caught fire.

Bill, I did install the 'audio grade' face plates along with duplexes.
I am sure your comment is tongue in cheek as usual. I happen to buy two duplexes and the audio grade housing and the 'composite' face plate about a year and half ago when I really wanted to install the dedicated lines during my house remodeling, but somehow project schedule and budget made this one of the last priority, so I had this Oyaide stuff laying around.... The housing, plate and duplexes sure do look great though. The Al mounting plate, black composite face plate and burgundy duplexes goes well with Ralph Lauren Silver Metallic paint ;-)

Shellie, I got two 50 ft extension cords and hooked up fan/heaters with both intending to run 24/7 (well, almost) , heaters/fans in my garage. So may be I will be able to go a little longer than a week, may be later hook up my TV or something for a while on this 20 amp lines to let it keep breaking in. Meanwhile I will continue to listen to my old 15 amp lines.

Jea48, I did connect one pair to regular 15 amp line (prior to the new 2x20 amp dedicated lines install) for a day or two- just to power source and preamp, not amp. Sound was virtually unchanged, if a tad bit warmer. BTW, Thanks for the link on the cable break-in phenomena. The opinions and experiments by some the big cable cos were interesting and informative read. The mechanism described there in makes a lot of sense. I did not know Sarajan used to write reviews for Soundstage.

Why would a dedicated line-15 or 20 amp- sound (significantly) better than regular shared lines? The usual reason given: 'noises' bled thru from other equipment on same lines/circuits corrupts audio signal. What freq spectrum this corruption impact? Low, mid, high or all across the band?

Audiofeil,
Why do you allways have to be such a Richard?

Nilthepill,

Glad to hear the electrician terminated the safety equipment grounding conductors in the same panel the branch circuits are fed from.

As for the sound you are now hearing, if I understand you correctly, you were not using the R1 recepts on the old existing 15 amp circuit. Is that correct?
>>>>>>>>

Food for thought.... even plain old NM-B cable, (romex is an example of NM-B cable), has a dielectric of thermoplastic (PVC) insulation covered with a nylon jacket.
http://www.soundstage.com/yfiles/yfiles200005.htm

Make sure you install audio grade faceplates on the duplexes or the dedicated lines will be a waste of time and money.

Happy new hear.

Nilthepill,
Give that new line more then just one more week- give it a month and you'll be surprised how much different it will sound from today (still it may not be your cup of tea). As a side, you'd be surprised just how strong a signature that expensive duplex is having on the overall sound of your system. Try searching this site for a comprehensive review of duplexes (I cannot remember it's author but it turned me onto the power of AC duplexes).

Happy new year!

I think Musicslug's got a great idea, but no doubt the magic crystal crowd will make up some obscurity to protest the results.

Oh. Wait. You DO have a have a clever little clock in the system, right? If not, all bets are off.

Anyway, if you want to believe, you will - - - drink deeeeply of the kool-aid and you will believe......

Too open a mind and trash falls in. Be a realist. It seems to me that it takes a very closed mind to believe every tweak and oddball belief that is spread about with a very large shovel by people who lack any understanding of how electricity works. Not believing in Voodoo doesn't automatically make someone have a closed mind.

Jea48 wrote:

"isolated grounds.?

Do you mean connected to an earth ground other than the main earth ground of the main electrical service? "

No It is connected to same ground at the panel. The electrician said isolated means isolated from other grounds down stream of main panel.

The phase change did make the lines ultra quiet. Among few pluses to the sound at first listen: Increased liveliness, dynamics and jump factor, minimum grain, more focus. Minuses: slightly smaller images, less warmer than before (I had almost zero unnatural highs)

Well, Thanks for all the responses. Both for break-in and not. Thanks for the fun guys. Like I said I expected this to be considered by many a stupid question of the day ;-) I researched the archive and did not find anything about dedicated power lines break-in so I thought worth asking your experiences. Of course, I tend to believe credible answers are the ones from those who have dedicated lines installed and went thru 'learning/listening" experiences first hand.

I do believe in cable break-in (for reasonable amount of time) and thought the brand new wires probably need run in time.

Oh well, I still have my 15 amp regular outlets to fall back to get my original perfect sound back. I will let new lines burn in though for a week or so, just to find out (for $$$ total costat least I should give it a try- those Oyaide outlets and front machined Alum plate ain't cheap , nor the lines install cost)

I will report back.

Keep the responses coming. Happy New year to all.

From a closed mind comes nothing new no matter how much that mind wishes to believe it knows all. The closed mind can only parrot what it has been taught. Is it any wonder then that the closed mind eschews original exploration that could lead to self discovery and knowledge in favor of the same old staid and tired theories; the observations of others?

Some things just aren't true no matter how much you want it to be.

Well, Schipo, the devi's advocate, (which I enjoy playing too from time to time.) I really didn't want to define all the ways the above system could improve over a couple of weeks. But from lots of experience with this phenomena with my own personal systems and with several friends systems, I know that it happens. I used the word "sweeten" not in a sugary sense but that things would get better as the cables/wire/outlets/components all broke in. (I've helped friends (besides myself) run the wiring and I heard what their systems sounded like both before dedicated lines, then the same afternoon the dedicated lines were run, and a couple of weeks later after the outlets and wiring "broke" in.) I can only state that I'm not used to embellishing the truth of my audio experiences and the results were quite worth the bother of running the extra lines across my friend's and my own basements to enhance our systems. In fact, so worthwhile have I found it in my own system, every piece of audio equipment I own has its own dedicated line. I think I'm up to about 25 lines now. I'm sure the above system will sound "sweet" when everything has settled for a couple of weeks.
If you have never tried it yourself, don't knock it. However I can readily understand other's scepticism as to the effect of "breaking in" wire or other components. I just know it does occur,(and have at least 30 years of experience to back it up) and like many others who have posted after me, would not make any other changes until the system has settled in.

I think Rwwear sums it up in a nutsheel..

If you think they need to break in, they will.

Lak I could not agree with your last post more then I do- Bravo.

I do not care to argue or debate with anyone.
I’m simply going to answer Nilthepill’s question based upon my opinion that comes from trial and error and my own experimentation. Readers can believe what ever they want.
Yes, AC lines need time to break-in and should sound better or different with use but I don’t know the scientific reason why.
The AC wire you use is directional and I tested my wire (out of the wall first) for which direction sounded best.
Different brands of AC wire can / might cause your equipment to sound slightly different. The same holds true for wire gauge.
Putting your circuit breakers on a different phase could help improve your situation.
For AC power break-in I have found that 7 to10 days of 24/7 usually does the trick. Even running an electric fan from the outlets using the two different circuits when not listening to your system will work.

Excellent idea Musicslug! Now to decide what piece of music the OP will use.

[quote]I didn't get 20a for I do not want much more power draw than I already have[quote/]

Your system won't draw more power because it's on a 20amp circuit. It will only use what it needs. If it needed more it would trip the breaker on the 15amp service.

Have two sets of lines installed and do an A-B comparison.

why not see it as a golden opportunity to do an experiment: get the best field recording set up you can and make a recording from a designated spot, with all the levels noted. do the same in a couple weeks, duplicating all the details, and see if you can detect any difference. if the difference is detectable to the human ear, there's a pretty decent chance you'll be able to hear it on a (good quality) recording. fwiw.

After getting 2 dedicated 15a lines I will admit after 100 hrs they sounded much better and at 200 hrs really good. I didn't get 20a for I do not want much more power draw than I already have. I also added a 2.4 kva balanced isolation transformer to 1 line. Just a little better than with out it. Can't figure out why but to some degree it's similar to speaker cables - ic's and power cords I guess. That has been my personal experience.

I see as per usual some who profess that no difference exists between cables are again entering into a discussion regarding the "subjective" difference between cables (in this case cables running in-wall). Surprise surprise the ones who hear no difference in wires hear no difference in dedicated circuit break-in.

Yes dedicated circuits break in and over a several week period. I usually wait at least one month to allow any change in my system to settle down before making another change or before fine tuning my last change. This allows time to reflect, prevents costly mistakes by not addressing a still moving target, and to enjoy my system instead of constant fussing and that's a good thing :)

Cables should have been connected to a cable baker and ran 24/7 for 1 week then gently massaged with magic sound inforcer and then sprayed with Mapleshade EMI/RFI line reducer then coiled and recoiled to line up the electrons to north/south bias they are directional you know, (follow the arrows)and then the ends should be treated with sonic connector juice and an audiophile silver treatment only then installed and calibrated by a ISF electrical professional while listening to a "cable-burn-in" enhancement CD or Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture for a dynamic installation:) I'd say give it 2 weeks to get broken in... if no improvement start over and run wire the other direction;)

Those molecules have to learn how to play 60 hertz.

P.T. Barnum is proved right every single day.

Tiguwagu
I did not know how golden your ears were I stand at your alter..I am sure if a dedicated line were installed into your system with you knowing it and you fired it up you would have no idea until told. Then and only then would the famous placebo effect take place with jaw dropping sound..oh yes sweeten sound after a week or two breakin.

I am in the camp that your new dedicated power lines will need some time to break in to sound there best. Nothing different than power cords.
Figure about 2-3 weeks at 24/7 .

Read clearly: "A FEW THINK THEY DO Not"!

As for power cord vs. dedicated line: apples and oranges; different subject for another time(not what the poster asking) .

As for naysayer's, have real life experience before playing devils advocate....

If I were you then I would not talk so fast. Because if you read what Stan wrote? He said I quote "A FEW THINK THEY DO" Meaning the sound of a Strad compared to a Modern violin how few and how many believe they sound better or just the same? My question is that time again when listener's are chosen to determine the sound of power cords and wire's connecting a System. They fail miserably to tell which is which,and that SIR is a real life experience .

"The laws of physics are extrapolations from reality, not reality itself which is inevitably far more complex than the laws. The laws of mechanics don't predict that Stradivarius violins should sound better than modern violins either but few think they do not."

Bravo, Stan!

As for naysayer's, have real life experience before playing devils advocate....

Finally had 2X 20 amp dedicated lines installed with Oyaide outlets with isolated grounds.
12-29-09 Nilthepill

isolated grounds.?

Do you mean connected to an earth ground other than the main earth ground of the main electrical service?

The laws of physics are extrapolations from reality, not reality itself which is inevitably far more complex than the laws. The laws of mechanics don't predict that Stradivarius violins should sound better than modern violins either but few think they do not.

They will sound good right from the start, but will sweeten after a couple of weeks.

I am going to play Devils advocate and ask. Where in Kirchhoff's circuit laws do you find, after a couple of weeks "the sound will sweeten"?

Yes, your new lines will have to break in. They will sound good right from the start, but will sweeten after a couple of weeks. It is hard to tell though, since it is usually hard to "switch" back to the old hook up system.

I cannot imagine that a dedicated line would need any break in period time. I know their are going to be people answering with jaw dropping sound quality that will come your way with a longer breakin period.