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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 2 responses by cwlondon

cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Psychic

I would be more than happy to send CDs to you or anyone else who could hold my hand through this project.

I have been posting on Agon for a while now and I am not afraid to search the archives, but somehow this whole AC thing just baffles me.

Thanks for all the ideas.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Thanks everyone so far --

I have now seen some of the beefy industrial transformers on the web, and here is one quick question:

If I have a dedicated line leading to a new panel, then leading to as few as 2 Alpert Porter Wall outlets in my listening/living room, would I then plug the transformer into the Albert Porter wall outlets?

If so, could I counstruct a box around the transformers which might also function as a platform for the Levinson power amp?

This way, the cord to the transformer could be as short as possible from the wall, and the amp could be plugged directly into its platform which hides the transformer?

Hmmmmm....then we need to replace the outlets in the transformer with more Porter outlets?

WIth the amp plugged directly into the transformer, then another heavy duty power cord with an attached power strip could go inside the rack to power all the lower powered components?

Thanks for all ideas and advice and psychic still ready to pay an advisory fee in cash or CDs for a more involved consultation.
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