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Least Controversial, Reasonably Priced AC Upgrades

Hello Everyone

At last, the light is appearing at the end of my house renovation tunnel, and -- fingers crossed -- I may actually be listening to music in my new living room before 2005.

Having spent every last penny on marriage, family, Subzero refrigerators etc, I am trying for the first time to upgrade the wiring a bit and protect the equipment against surges.

Despite my enthusiasm for this site and a pretty decent system, I remain firmly in the dark ages on power conditioners, high end power cords, outlets, surge protectors etc.

The place where we are we are moving in the country apparently has frequent power outages, especially in winter when falling branches down the lines.

I have read many heated debates about power conditioners etc with some of you saying that they actually WORSEN the sound, that I would like to start with a simple:

dedicated line?
Albert Porters wall outlets?
a chunky power strip inside my new 6' component rack on casters?
a surge protector (Monster Cable?) to protect all of the above in my newly flaky electical district?

Again, simple, effective, not wildly expensive please.

The idea is to have a moveable rack of equipment on casters that I can wheel from the corner of the room to my listening chair for easy access, which will be tethered to the wall by one power cord only and with long interconnects to the amp which will be located by the speakers.

The rest of the spaghetti mess will stay neatly inside the rack, concealed by a ventilated door.

Thank you in advance for all ideas and suggestions.
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by cincy_bob

cincy_bob
270 posts
 
I am late to this thread, but I could sure use some advice from some of the experts here who know infinitely more about electric than I do. I am in the final stages of planning an electrical upgrade and new built-in component rack for my listening room. I am planning to have a new devoted electric panel installed for my system with separate devoted circuits run with 10-gauge wire for each audio component. I have a few questions regarding this:

1. My electrician has suggested that the best way to feed power to my audio system might be to split the main electrical feed that comes into my house immediately after the meter and before the line enters the main panel. This would allow the installation of a second main panel that would be devoted to the audio system. He seemed to think that there might be some advantages of tapping into the power line before the electric enters the panel that contains all the other household circuits (HVAC system, refrigerators, lighting, etc.). Is this idea better or worse than the suggestion earlier in this thread regarding the installation of a subpanel (which, as I understand it, obtains its power feed through the main panel as opposed to a direct feed).

2. My listening room is located a fairly long distance away from my main electric panel. If the new devoted panel were to be located alongside my existing panel where the electric service enters my house, I would need roughly 40 to 50 foot runs of electrical wiring to reach the various outlets in my listening room. Given this, would it be best to locate an electric panel closer to my listening room?

3. I am currently using separate devoted PS Audio high current Ultimate Outlets to condition the power for each of my audio components. These are the only AC conditioning devices I am currently using for my system. Does a 5 KVA isolation transformer offer advantages over the Ultimate Outlets?

Thanks for your patience with my questions. While my electrician certainly has the know-how to implement just about any suggestion, he has no experience with electrical concerns and issues affecting audio equipment. So, despite my lack of knowledge in this area, the only way I can achieve an optimal design is by gathering information from threads such as this one ane presenting the information to the guy who is qualified to do the work...
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