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House Wiring Does Make a Difference!

I just finished rewiring the audio/visual system onto it's own breaker with a continuous run of dedicated 8-gauge wire run from the electrical panel closest to the street (we have two panels). This gets it off of the old 15 amp breaker with old wiring from the old panel that is shared with much of the house, including the HVAC blower motor.

The run is 121 feet to a 30-amp locking recepticle located inside of my entertainment center cabinet. (My surge protector is rated for 30 amps with a 30 amp plug and 10-gauge wiring and has standard wall outlets on it.) From there it goes about 2 feet to two 20-amp hospital grade (green dot) outlets located just outside the cabinet, still using 8-gauge wire. (I purchased 125 feet of wire.) The ground wire is continuous to the three outlets with no breaks.

I also put in six audio (RCA) connectors that will allow me to access the Oppo 95 directly (for my tube amp that sits outside of the cabinet) as well as the CD-R inputs and outputs. Not only does this allow access to the Yamaha, it allows me to bi-amp if I so desire.

Sooo, what is the difference???

The Yamaha SACD has always seemed a bit gritty/digital signature, especially compared to the Oppo 95. This took the grit/grain/roughness out of the Yamaha and now it sounds more like the Oppo. This actually makes a lot of sense when one considers all that goes into the Oppo 95/105/205 power supply when compared to other brands/models.

I was listening to Abbey Road "She's so Heavy" and I always thought the voices sounded a bit rough and strained when they alternately come in "She's so heavy," but the roughness and strain are gone and this really smoothed out.

I still haven't listened to the Oppo yet with the new wiring.

"Don't It Always Seem To Go, That You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone...?"

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toddalin OP
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NOS Leviton 8300 from ebay ($~$6 each). I don’t know if the current 8300s are quite the same.

 

The recepticles are "back-fed"and there are two holes for each terminal (4 holes per side) with a jumper between the terminals. I used the deep boxes to allow more room to turn the wires. The case has a common ground.

 

The 8-gauge wire is multi-strand with 7 strands each. Strip the wire back, and separate it into a bundle of 3 and a bundle of 4 and push the two bundles into the two holes, where they easily fit (and could probably be multi-strand 6-gauge wire), and tighten down the side screws to secure the bundles.

 

Leave the jumper in place and from there, you can use the other two holes, again splitting the bundle to jump to the next recepticle. Code allows using these jumpers to pass the current.

 

The solid ground wire is a smaller gauge and can pass through the ground terminal lug on to the next recepticle without problem.

 

This is the NOS version, similar to what I have. Look at the back and you will see what I mean.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393467965612?hash=item5b9c84b0ac:g:Cy4AAOSw4aJhADjO

 

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