I moved my system to the basement. It's listed under the systems as "mewsickbuff's unfinished basement system." There’s only one electrical outlet presently. I’ve made an appointment with an electrician to have 2 more outlets installed. I’ve requested each outlet be wired separately and not piggy backed. Since it’s in the basement the outlets will need to be GFCI. I’ve read a little about Furutech and Hubbell outlets. Are there others? I’d like to know what I need to ask and expect out of the electrician. Thanks.
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
@theaudioampyou’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?
+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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
@cakyolwhen you say "connect ALL components to a SINGLE but adequately rated outlet" do you mean something like this?
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.
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 (???)
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.
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.
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 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:
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.
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