Electrical Power Outlet advice

Check with Chris at VH Audio. He carries Furutech, Oyaide. 

The GFCI outlet protects the entire circuit.  So you can put a GFCI outlet in a triple box and then put 2 hospital grade outlets beside it.  Use the hospital grade for your stereo equipment.

Jerry

You can put a combined CAFCI/GFCI breaker in the panel. That eliminates the need to use a GFCI outlet in the basement. Since almost all branch circuits must be CAFCI protected (NEC 2020 I think), upgrading it to also have GFCI to it adds like $5 to the cost which is a lot less than the upcharge for a GFCI outlet ($20 or more).  It's less convenient though, but how often do you trip a GFCI outlet really?. While he’s in there consider adding a whole house surge suppressor as well. Again, only required for new construction but recommended.

You are also probably required to use tamper resistant (TR) outlets in homes. Lots of boutique outlets do not meet this need, but there are several hospital grade TR outlets as well as Commercial grade/Residential (not just residential) with TR features. Here is a Hospital grade and TR outlet, below:

Sorry, to be more clear:

Commercial outlets don't; have TR

Residential outlets do but they're flimsy

Commercial/Residential outlets have TR. These are what I use in most places.  Combined with a hospital grade plug they are plenty tight.

"Raised" 2 generations w/o TR. Boo to the nanny state.

You are stuck with your local code.

I use panel breakers Never tripped except for during tests.

Install GFCI breakers instead of GFCI plugs. I like Hubbell outlets. 😎

Mike

I used this in all 5 outlets on dedicated lines into my office/listening room. 

I like Hubbell 5362 duplex outlets

I like Hubbell IG4550A duplex outlets, very tight grip.

Mike 

I have no first hand experience with this new Leviton receptacle, but I saw it awhile back ,Leviton GFTR2-IGO ,its a polycarbonate (not nylon) 20 amp isolated ground ,tamper resistant GFCI, I personally don’t believe in the need for GFI,s indoors but this plug checks all your boxes, best!

You are always better off to connect ALL components to a SINGLE but adequately rated outlet to eliminate ground loops.  The star connection of this configuration minimizes the ground loop possibility, which may cause humming & buzzing in some situations.

My  electrician is a Audiophile ,I followed his lead.

i hav3 Copper gold outlets ,

awg 10 copper wiring in a 30 amp  breaker , and the 4 wire 

dual ground 1 is common the other a insulated is located ground on its own strip in the breaker box ,then grounded to a 4 ft Copper Rod  and the Breaker is a Siemens from Germany solid Silver which was $60 , the stock copper breakers are $12.

night and night better sound ,very black back ground.

This is a solid performer that’s reasonably priced:

Pangea Audio Premier XL NEMA 5-20P AC Power Receptacle

Audio Advisor sells it. It is well made & grips better than any other outlet I’ve owned

How far you go will depend on your audio system upgrade aspirations. If possible. it would be good to get the grounding sorted while you can too, but be prepared for revealing sound reproduction issues you have not experienced before.

If you want to go the full distance, install a dedicated grounding system with copper tape and rods drilled and grouted into bedrock, outside your room. Place Bentonite clay beneath the mat and keep damp to maintain low resitivity. For peace of mind, get your electrician to do a resistivity test. The lower the Ohm number, the better it is conducting to ground. Appreciate that this may not be physically and financially justified now, but you may wish you had done it later (???)   

Buy American. The stuff from China is utter garbage.

You are better off to have an overcurrent circuit [20A] and multiple outlets closely connected that spread outlets on multiple circuits. That being said, a 12ga / 20A circuit at full current drops a tiny fraction of a dB in power capability. Most audiophools have not a clue about HiFi A/C power requirements. See ieLogical CableSnakeOil A/C Wiring. Music has next to  Z E R O  temporal synchronicity with mains Hz. Current peaks are supplied by the amplifier power supply capacitors.

Depending where you live a surge suppressor is a probably waste. In all probability, it will fail when needed most. Good ones C O $$$$$$$$$$$ T !!

DO NOT additional grounds rods. It can reduce the effectivity of what little protection against a lightning strike they provide. It will cost B I G $$$$$$$$$ to engineer and install something more effective than NEC requirements.

These are a lot of different paths to take. It seems there’s a higher consensus for the GFCI circuit breaker, eliminating the need for multiple individual GFCI outlets. I need at least 3 new outlets. One for Primare power amp, and 2 for Synergistic research FEQx4 which needs 2 plugs.

@cakyol when you say "connect ALL components to a SINGLE but adequately rated outlet" do you mean something like this?

@mewsickbuff 

Yes, pretty much.

Op  you can protect up to 5 regular oullets behind a single GFI.

If you run .ore than one circuit  make sure the wire in the wall is the same length  and the breakers are on the same leg of the power coming in. Hubbell  hospital  grade  plugs are better  than regular  plugs and furutech  plugs  are far better than the Hubbell  plugs  the gold or the rhodium  receptacle s sound different.  The rhodium  is more transparent  and the gold Ihas more musicality.  You will not regret  the top of the line plugs. 

Don't run more than one circuit. The induction into two circuits is not identical and the delta may be enough to induce ground noise between interconnected components, particularly if phono is involved.

@retiredfarmer 

please detail how you determined the sonic deltas between the terminal platings.

Try two of them you will know if you have a high resolution  system 

First I'd have to eliminate the myriad things which affect sonic impressions:

power line variance, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, voice coil temperature, CBLF inconsistencies, etc.

I've been at this game for more than ½c. and experienced the mentioned deltas without doing anything more that replugging the connectors or listening at a different time of day or getting a better night's sleep.

In my experience most people who claim to have a high resolution say though because of what they have spent, while their speakers, room, and even electronics are incapable of said resolution. YMMV

@theaudioamp 

I don’t see your system shown under your UserID. It would be great to see your reference system and venue.

@ieales I ran 2 circuits.   All the 2 channel stuff on one and everything non-audio on the other.  Internet gear. lamp. TV etc.

That's the way we wired studios. Some studios went all the way to the street with separate panels for the lights, air/con, coffee makers, etc. and 100% separate for the audio.

In my systems, the audio and entertainment are 100% separate and only one powered at a time.

+1 Carlsbad, you dont need two but we as a general rule would always run two as the labor is essentially going to be the same with a little extra for wire and the recepto.You can use it for non audio and you have back up circuit, you never can tell what might happen or what you might add to the room. Whatever you do dont add a 30 amp circuit with giant oversized wire, all these components are designed to be run on 20 amp or even 15 amp household AC. After I completed my new set up with its 20 amp home run I fired everything up and put my amp clamp on the cable from the wall to the Torus power conditioner. At idle with everything burning its 1.3 amps  and at ear splitting volumes it’s maybe double that in short peaks.amp Breaker’s normally will trip at about 80% of the stated value, Your never going to exceed that unless somethings wrong in which case you need that breaker. Best!

Furutech, Leviton, Hubbell outlets...how would you all rate each as far as 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and why? Definitely going with hospital grade outlets. Leaning towards a 20 amp double pole GFCI circuit breaker in the panel box.

@theaudioamp you’re a lucky person to have heard so many other people’s systems. Can you estimate how many you’ve heard that falsely claim high resolution? As far as I’ve read everyone has made excellent recommendations for power outlets. Do you have any?

Furutech, Leviton Hospital, Hubbel hospital: 1:1:1

About 200+ systems over the years. 90% poor probably more.

+1 @retiredfarmer / IRT your comment about using high quality Furutech connectors as well as your assessment on gold & rhodium sound signatures. 

Really  funny when one person  goes by two different  names on here. Makes them just as phoney as what they write. Lol enjoy you dollar forty nine system.  

Breaker’s normally will trip at about 80% of the stated value

Breakers run for several of seconds at several multiples of the rated value. Trip at rated current is likely a defective breaker. 

How long depends on the Trip Curve. See Understanding Trip Curves - c3controls

Interesting article thanks Ieales I also needed to post a correction ,There is a typo in my post the 1.3 stated amperage draw of my system is actually 4.3 amps , which is close to exactly what the stated wattage of the pieces added up then converted to amperage should be. 

Keep the basement outlet as is and run a dedicated line just for audio equipment.

+1 @bikeboy52

GFCI outlets are designed to be daisy chained to non-GFCI outlets. The biggest issue is really cost and convenience. When your GFCI trips, where is the most conenient location to reset it? Your panel or the outlet?

Now your breakers shoudl be CAFCI, so if you are required to use GFCI, this should be combined CAFCI + GFCI breaker. :) I don’t think you are forced to use CAFCI breakers with new circuits, but they are safer.

Also, if you are going to do that then for the love of the Goddess of Aesthetics, match the outlet shape! Get decorator square outlets too. :)