High priced power cords and power conditioners????

Jmcgrogan2 what does the isolated ground mean on your dedicated lines? You've got the white and black and the green safety ground going back to your main breaker box. Does it mean that the green safety ground has it's own earth ground?

Thanks
Steve

The route I recommend, based on searching the archives here and at Audio Asylum, is to install upgraded outlets first then evaluate the power cords. I am getting incredible results with ACME cryo outlets and Elrod power cords. I have a couple of APC battery backup devices daisy chained together that I plug my digital source into, this was a recommendation from a cable designer, I like the results, but have not compared it any other conditioning devices. I have not done the dedicated lines yet, it sounds like you really liked that upgrade. I have been a little intimidated by the effort involved to accomplish this.

In my opinion you should upgrade the p/c first before the conditioner otherwise you will dilute the benefits of the conditioner. Airborne rf would still get into your system through the p/c rendering your conditioner meaningless.

Steve, it basically means that the ground plug is isolated from the conductor box (house ground) all the way to the breaker box. 10-3 Romex actually has 4 conductors. Hot, neutral, 2 grounds, one ground for electrical circuit, one ground for box. In theory it's to isolate any EMF or RMI noise that's being picked up by the house ground. Is it overkill? Probably. My electrician buddy says it is. However the PS Audio Power Ports I bought for him to install had this option, so I used it. The ground for the ground prong doesn't touch the metal plate. There isn't much difference money wise between regular 10-2 (hot,neutral, ground) and 10-3, so why not. Could I tell the difference between a dedicated circuit and a dedicated isolated circuit? Who knows? It only cost me $250 for the dedicated, isolated upgrade, and I can definitely hear the difference from before. However since I got the isolated ground at the same time as the dedicated line, I can't say for sure whether the isolation has anything to do with the new performance.

I hope this was helpful, I'm no electrician, but that's the best explanation I can come up with. I do KNOW that the 10-3 Romex he used had 4 conductors.

Regards,
John

IF I purchase better AC cords first, then won't the characteristics of the power cord (sonics) change when I look for a power conditioner? Is there a synergy that I need to be aware of? Since I have not used one yet, I do not know. The other obviuos first is the cryo treated outlets.