New Dedicated 20A Circuit Wiring Questions

@erik_squires  I also got the Furman PST-8 Digital on Amazon for $199, the one with IEC so I can use my Anticables Pwr Cord. I went with the SS 6B Pro due to it's EVS (as the PST-8), 2 pack price. The 2 subs will have to be happy with that- 

OP:

 

Please note those strips do NOT include SMP or LiFT.  Furman makes hundreds of products and not all include those two features.  It's fine if you don't mind that.

Best,

Erik

@erik_squires  Thanks for the link on surge protectors/filters for my REL subs. I ended up, hopefully, finding a good deal, a 2-pack: Furman SS 6B Pro 

@mijostyn  @erik_squires       Finding a meter and learn how to use it would be costly in time for me. it takes me days to buy anything because I have to see all available, reviews, comparisons, etc. then read, watch videos  how to use it. It's not fun to be me when I'd rather get this mess together first and see,

Thought more grounds would be better, didn’t realize what the floating ground business was. I plan to try rewiring without using any of the grounding I added to the non-grounded chassis components.   

Will leave all disconnected chassis ground wires that I added to components ( mentioned below in below discussion) nearby to more easily reconnect to test if I hear hum that wasn’t there before.

See EQ below, Recommendation is EQ to receive its power from PreAmp. Would this be due for floating GND? I have open filtered outlets left on Furman PST?

Last paragraph under TT, the motor housing mount to lead puck I grounded before, will not this time. But the motor, 2 wall warts, condor & Roadrunner are not actually attached in any way except by motor/platter belt(non conductive), so thought maybe wouldn’t hurt to keep that ground?

Will run all 3 wall warts (ww) and CD to Furman PST sharing the 2 ultra-sonic filtered outlets using Y splitters. Therefore 2 ww to one outlet, 1 ww & CD to other outlet. Leaving me 4 unused filtered outlets unless EQ is added.

VPI PRIME TT

  The TT has GND nut. Added a 14 awg from TT bottom spindle nut to TT GND nut (per rec’s by a number of owners who say spindle never grounded). Plan to GND TT (as mentioned) to ground bar. TT Power plugs = 2 wall warts connecting to Furman PST-8 Digital Power station “ultra sonic” receptacles.

  NOTE: PreAmp manual suggests grounding TT to PreAmp but if Hum develops to remove it. No plan to do this.

  My TT has been upgraded with the Total Eclipse Package, from Sota Turntables. It includes:  new Motor, Condor PSU, and Roadrunner (RR) tachometer. The Condor and RR each have separate “wall warts” and no grounding screws or wire from their small chassis or the motor housing. All 3 units interconnect with each other. The Condor also has ~1/4” contained power cable which couples and screws tight to the motor housing.

  Previously, I ran a GND wire between the Condor & RR component boxes then onto the GND bar. Will not this time.

  The new belt driven Sota motor within the original VPI housing is external to TT. The motors stainless steel housing has 4 rubber feet to inhibit crawl when running. I previously removed feet and pinned the housing to a 5” diameter x 1” thick puck of pure lead (to increase its weight).

  Previously, I grounded this motor housing/lead junction to the ground bar. Plan not to ground this time.

CONTROL (PRE) AMP (Yamaha)

 The Power Amplifiers manual suggests running its GND to the Preamps GND. Plan to ground Amp to PreAmp terminal and onward to ground bar as before. PreAmps Power cord to Furman PST-8D.

AMP (Yamaha)

 Amp GND to PreAmp (as before, per owner manual). Power cord to Furman PST-8D.

EQ

 No GND screw or wire. Will not run chassis GND this time. Per EQ Manual rec’s, will plug Power Cord into switched connect on PreAmp.

CD

 No GND screw or wire. Will not run chassis GND this time. Power Cord to Furman PST “ultra-sonic” filtered receptacle

DAC

 No GND screw or wire.Will not run chassis ground this time. Power cord “wall wart” to Furman PST “ultra-sonic” filter

 I have Ground/Lift Switch set to GND.

 From Manual:

 Ground/Lift switch:  When Grounded the Dacmagic Plus is connected to the earth connection of the PC directly. When Lifted the ground connection is made via a network designed to break any hum loops that may be caused by the source equipment.

We advise using the Grounded setting unless audible hum is experienced.

 

@robes What you have there is a real mess. First of all, try it out. If there is no hum then you are good to go. Many components have chassis ground connected to the negative signal jacks. So for instance, if you have an amplifier that passes ground to the negative signal wire (the shields) it will ground everything that does not float it's ground (ground not connected to negative side like balanced units.) In which case you are forming multiple ground loops which you might have to break if you have a hum. If you want to know what you are dealing with you have to have a meter and check continuity between the chassis and the negative side of an RCA jack.

@erik_squires I was not aware of that option, thanks. Probably not in the budget this time around, but I will give it some thought. 

@terry9 Dr Trevor Cox is Bookmarked.

After recent exchanges in another Thread, it looks like I have a tip to take a step closer to being in front of a Great Phonostage. If has been suggested I am deficient in this experience, which I must agree is possibly correct.

I have experienced a selection of what my forum ego will refer to as really really good ones.

 

@pindac

Sure. Oversimplifying a bit, an isolation transformer works by routing the power from the wall through an inductor, and back to the wall (primary). The inductor then energizes a secondary coil which mirrors the phase and frequency and power of the primary. Thus a huge surge in the primary is routed back into the wall, and the inductor smooths that out while transmitting the transient signal (much attenuated) to the secondary.

Everything gets smoothed out: surges, noise from switching power supplies, back EMF from motors, radio interference. When the electrical inspector came to certify my isolation transformers, he said that he had never seen cleaner power, and he used to work at a power generating station.

Primary connection is best if it comes from its own line from the panel. Secondary should output to your room. Ground should be AT LEAST as big as the biggest wire - this is important because if an inductor is taken out of a circuit, it tends to punch the same current through whatever barrier changed things. This 'inductive kick' as it is sometimes called, can run to 1000 volts. It is important that if anything goes wrong, the path to ground can handle the maximum current that the transformer handles.

So much for the technicalities. How does it sound? Smoother. Cleaner. Clearer. More resolving. A layer of nasty edge came off the sound. It was like replacing a good phono stage with a great one.

If you are building a dedicated room, you might want to do as I did, and optimize the dimensions. There's lots of snake oil out there from the usual suspects, and even industry insiders from the old days, but the real work has been done at the University of Salford, School of Acoustics, by the great Cox. It's all neatly tabulated in a published paper. And it works - at least, it worked for me - but the builder wasn't too thrilled to be working to 3mm tolerances.

@terry9 I am out of touch with the ideas behind a Isolation Tranx, the purpose of one seems to have evaded my memory, but in the past have acquired two.

One Purchase was able to be used with my Power Amp's and the later Purchase being quite capable of using with the entire system.

Due to changes being planned to the home, I never got these installed.

I am now working towards having dedicated electrical feed for Audio  run into my yet to be built Audio Room.

A feed can also be one that has the Isolation Tranx incorporated.

I can then work the best option out to be maintained as the audio system power feed and also do A/B demo's as a experience for visitors, especially those who bring their own audio items along.  

Can you remind me of the benefits expected to be attained from using the Iso' Tranx.

 

I use isolation transformers sited in a utility room. That’s because they can hum when working. Protect better, sure. Cleaner power, sure. Cost more, sure.

Difference in my ESL system was about the same as doubling the cost of a major component. YMMV.

@zlone - The recommendation is to put them on the same leg to minimize possibility of a ground loop when the legs aren't balanced.

If you are going through that much trouble though, run 220V with 12/3 and put an EquiTech step down transformer in your room.

Sorry for the hijack, but while we are discussing this, I am running two 12/2 lines for a new room, remind me, should they both be on the same leg or different in the fuse box?

Also, since they are going to the same place, is there any thinking about separation of the two runs? Wild thought, what would happen if I twisted them together?

 

I don’t think any of these commercial devices really protect against a lightning strike

There was a poster here on A’gon recently who shared a picture of lightning striking his stereo and living room, it blew the roof right off the home. In this case of a direct lightning to room strike you are correct.

However, 95% of damage to equipment from power surges is a lot less severe than this case and can be mitigated with appropriate protection. I’ve lost plenty of equipment to damage which falls far short of that room opening incident, but never to anything on a Furman or Trip Lite or APC in the 4 years I’ve been in SC.

If, like me, you do live in an area where thunderstorms are frequent you also owe it to yourself to investigate the Internet and put a barrier between any incoming coax and your equipment.

I happen to have a similar situation where my sub is pretty far from my conditioner.  I use Tripp Lites there.  Good noise reduction and pretty good surge protection.  For more on non-audiophile surge protectors see here.

@robes Wrote:

I looked that thread over and don’t see what or where you cannot use Romex, Maybe you could tell me page 1 or 2, by who?

Page 11 See sec: Non-Metallic Sheath. In my opinion, if you have 12/2 Romex with plastic box there is no need to have an isolated ground receptacle.

I’ve read allot of threads and feel that nothing is wrong here just "always" can be much better with more money-

I concur!

Mike

 

@ditusa  I'm not using MC Galvanized Steel Metal Clad Cable. A metal conduit is not required to meet code in this situation. I'm using a Hubbell hospital grade outlet, heavy duty, nothing special about it. I have a PVC 1 gang box HD. The Hubbell yolk is isolated from making contact with a metal box (I have no metal box), so it's isolated despite that, probably didn't need it for that reason but it's far superior in all aspects compared to a $2.00. I could have done things better but this is what I'm stuck with now & will be better then before which wasn't bad.

I looked that thread over and don't see what or where you cannot use Romex, Maybe you could tell me page 1 or 2, by who? it isn't the isolated GND as with using the clad/conduits, but better than the house wired circuits, only serves the stereo that's all. I've read allot of threads and feel that nothing is wrong here just "always" can be much better with more money-

 

The Wago connectors I am investigating and will most likely use, as they are Pure Copper Contacts, which will be quite a saving against Plugs and Walwart  with Pure Copper are also available for use in the US.

https://www.wago.com/us/certificates#:~:text=Not%20only%20is%20WAGO%20qualified,approved%20according%20to%20strict%20standards.

 

@mijostyn I think I maybe falling through the cracks with my dated system. In reference to ("Floating ground means disconnecting the AC line ground from the device.")

I have my dedicated 20A line 12/2. I have a 3 prong power line into that outlet, to which the other end will plug into likely the Furman PST-8 Dig power strip. This is all 3 prong lines leading to the power strip. All the stereo components plugging into that strip are 2 prong (lines w/o 3rd GND wire) power cords from each component. I have all those "plugged in components" chassis grounds  run to a ground bar as described above (1st post 2nd to last paragraph). A single #12 ground wire from center of that bar runs back to the green ground screw at power outlet (pigtailed with the dedicated #12 GND wire) which is common to the AC third prog there.

NOTE: There were 1 or 2 components that had no screw or GND wire for a GND to run. On those, I removed covers and screwed a wire to the chassis so all components are grounded to the GND bar.

Guess I'm not sure if a floating GND with my 2 prong components would/could work in my case?

@robes, This just came to mind see here! FYI, Romex cannot be used
with isolated ground receptacles. 😎

Mike

The Thread In the Link

 Has an interesting user report on the Swiss Fuse Box.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/fuse-box-delivers-perfect-protection-and-superior-sound   

I don’t think any of these commercial devices really protect against a lightning strike. But filtering is good so long as the filter doesn’t unduly increase the output impedance of the AC source.

OP:

For series mode devices, like Furman SMP and Zerosurge, the surge protection IS the major part of the noise filtering.  The central component is a low pass filter that starts ~ 3 kHz.  Well above 60 Hz line level, and well below EMI/RFI filters that start often around 100 kHz. 

That low pass filter slows down surges and allows the additional clamping circuits time to engage if needed.  So, there's no Furman I'd recommend for noise filtering that didn't also have SMP. 

I'm not pushing the P-1800 PF R, just letting you know, it's usually on sale somewhere. I found mine, $425. back in 2021.

here it is at Amazon, which I always like because you can return stuff

furman p-1800 pf r, Amazon, $440. plus tax, free delivery

It has a section specifically spaced for 3 transformers, and 5 other outlets normal spacing.

@robes  Floating ground means disconnecting the AC line ground from the device. This assumes the device is being grounded by a unit attached to it, By floating the ground (this is what "Cheaters" are for) you are breaking the loop causing the hum. Ground loop problems frequently occur between preamp and amps. The Parasound JC1s actually have a switch that floats the ground for you. 

You have to remember that everything is connected together at your breaker box. You really can not isolate one piece of equipment from another. In actuality, well designed regulated power supplies in high quality equipment isolates the audio circuits from mains power for you. Most of this is lay instinct which is usually false.

@erik_squires I never remember that I also have 2 REL T/7i subs that have 200W output amps each, necessitating individual power sources due to placement & available near outlets. They are both (I think) on separate circuits and 17' apart. Off hand, just wondering if by chance, you know of anything similar to the Furman electronics (prefer without a power surge) that would only be used to cleanup the circuits each is plugged into. Would only be used for each sub only, plug the sub into it then into wall circuit?

@erik_squires  I didn't even think about using my ZeroSurge for the dirty side, hopefully I would have in the next few years. I also had no idea that I could use a splitter. Guess the splitter wouldn't have to be a crazy expensive item since it should be accepting clean AC just as any of the other stock components with wired in power cords. 

  So, beginning to see a solution here. I pickup the Furman PST-8 Dig to replace my new power strip (that is nothing but outlets) & the ZeroSurge. I then plug my AntiCables Level 3 power cord between 20A outlet and Furman.  My analog system and CD player should be in good hands with it's wall warts plugged into the PST-8.

I can then use the replaced ZeroSurge & no-frills power strip for my VCR, BLU-Ray & TV on the undedicated house wall circuit that supplied all of it before. This would have to be much better then the previous setup-

OP:  You are correct about wall warts taking up space, fortunately we don't have to be very careful about them, and can use short splitters or extenders. 

OP:

Zerosurge and Furman's SMP use similar technology and have similar guidelines. Furman's LiFT adds additional filtering, but due to series mode protection, both offer excellent noise reduction that goes down to around 3 kHz.  The also both offer low over/undervoltage protection.

No reason to stack them.

Use one for a clean zone and the other for the dirty zone.

I use a Furman Elite, but it adds features like switched outlets and separate filter banks, so that's one way to go if you only want to have a single conditioner.

Other audiophile units also offer separate banks.  No idea how well they work.

Mistakes made with Electricity supplies will have similar outcomes where ever the person is located. 

Code is in place to comply with the supply made avaiable

 

Just to say I would not take the advice given here as gospel, not the least reason being that some of it is conflicting and confusing.  I would consult a competent electrician to be sure you are conforming to code, and in addition an audio-savvy EE, like Paul Speltz, who has thought through the issues associated with AC for audio.  I have known Paul since well before he started "Anti-Cables", and I still live by several of his suggestions for power supply layout.

The bit above about why you chose 20A vs 15A circuits (having to do with more constant voltage) is a crock. If the voltage delivered to your home is inconstant, it will be exactly as inconstant whether you use a 20A circuit or a 15A circuit.  Whoever told you that amperage makes a difference to voltage may have been thinking that if you are right at the edge of stressing the current draw from a 15A circuit (which should never happen), at that point, the voltage would start to drop. More likely you would start blowing circuit breakers before much V drop occurred. Otherwise, if you are well within the limit of 15A current draw, you don't need 20A lines for constant voltage.

Thanks everyone for your replies, very informative and I'm still working at taking in all the links supplied and reads. A few things I can readily respond to now follow:

@lewm  @mijostyn The ZeroSurge is a surge protector and the isolated ground goes back to main panel where the line originated from, the 20A breaker. Not sure what is meant by floating a ground around? My electrician said to keep the ZeroSurge despite the Home surge yet, it's likely overkill.

I thought of plugging Pre-Amp into the Amp for it's power but a number of people say "cleanest" power is with the fewest connections between components (go to power source 1st if you can). This does seem logical.

 

@ditusa  Thanks so much for that link, really helps clear things up on IG's and just what I have going-

@erik_squires @elliottbnewcombjr I think this may be my best bet, a Furman SMP/LIFT but that is a big monster & I would need to have it near my stereo (not at my "cleanest most sterile zone"). The manual for it says not to have another surge in line (I have the ZeroSurge already),I would have to loose the ZeroSurge but wish the Furman came without the surge, just the filtering aspect that would address the " 3 wall warts". From comments, rec's & reading I think I need to put all my stereo power draws on the strip (including the wall warts) and keep all my chassis grounds from those components on the isolated ground within the dedicated line (for a number of reasons including ground loops). The Furman P-1800 PF-R seems another option but twice the price and worried  that 2 TT wall warts and 1 DAC wart wouldn't fit leaving enough open outlets. I find the spacing of outlets on power strips usually too close, where-as 1 wall wart overlaps the next outlet rendering it useless.

  Really only want 1 power strip here that I can plug everything into, I've ruled out using my available wall power circuits due to GND Looping and poorer AC source, figure things have to be better if remove all from wall ac & go to dedicated line & ground. Thinking scrap the ZeroSurge go to Furman best choice I have so far-

I also read where a 20A over a 15A circuit is better for more dependent constant voltage to the system as a reason for 20 over 15A. Likely no voltage regulator necessary on a sub audiophile grade system as mine, true or not, it's done.

@squared80 An electrician & Power company upgraded the homes service to 200A, the new service has all new breakers and lines to the power pole. I assume the electrician new how to add the new line in phase since he moved all circuits into the new 200A service. I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible & fewest connections to power with concern over RF, & EMI. I'm sure the quality of my power source is also a factor that I have here in NW Montana on the western slope of the Swan Range ~ 3400 ft elevation in the woods. Power lines go down all the time due to tree falls, weather & such.

Your are making things worse by adding things. Make sure the 20A circuit is in phase, but otherwise, plug your equipment directly into the outlet or at the most, a single power strip.

Also, Pindac lives in UK, and Raul lives in Mexico. Electricity codes are different in different countries.

Oh, yeah, let's not forget the value of power factor correction for high current delivery, or that if your voltage is variable a voltage regulator delivers better than any straight wire.

Wow! What a potpourri of opinions! (I have always wanted to use that word in a sentence. Not sure of the spelling.)

IMO. 15 amp is plenty, 20 amp is overkill. Two 15 amp separate circuits, in two convenient locations is smarter IMO.

1.0 amp slo-blo Fuse of my McIntosh mx110z Tube Tuner/Preamp.

3.2 amp slo-blo Fuse of my Fisher 500C Tube Receiver

6.3 amp Fuse of my Cayin A88T integrated amp

...... fuses of other stuff, nowhere near 15 amps.

An exaggeration, but I bet I can plug my Furman P-1800 PF-R into my refrigerator and it will store/deliver clean power in it’s capacitors, providing up to 45 amps of instantaneous bursts. It’s rated for 15 amps (as are most if not all of what you plug into your 20 amp circuits).

Keep in mind, except for standby, only one source device is drawing power at any given time.

IF you have very inefficient speakers, and very powerful amps, several 15 amp separate circuits would be my choice.

Only two refrigerators.

From what I gather it is now code in some states to have a whole home surge protection on the main breaker box. When you upgrade your box the electrician is required to put it on. A company called Seimens makes a popular model. 
This is good because it’s a first line of defense for all of the electronics in your home. Even kitchen appliances have sensitive circuit boards now. 
my question is.

Has anyone noticed the negative effects to their audio system?

If so, What did you do to correct it. I believe even Fremmer had this issue due to his backup generator. I plug my amp and preamp directly to the wall. It has the best sound to me. 

You have a whole house surge protector, the Zerosurg is an unnecessary road block

 

WHSPs are designed to protect things which normally can’t be surge protected. This includes:

• House wiring, which can start an in-wall fire
• Fire alarms
• Major appliances
• GFCI receptacles
• Automated switches and outlets

Two reasons why you would add surge strips for sensitive devices is length from surge protector and clamping voltage. For safety and reliability reasons WHSP’s often have a relatively high clamping voltage, around 600-700 V / leg. Furman with SMP and Zerosurge have significantly lower clamping voltages and no activation time, around 200V or less.

Additional power protection offered by both is long term over voltage and under voltage shut-off. Situations when a typical MOV wouldn’t even trip but could still be damaging. For instance, if the V was ~145.  Outside of equipment spec but also too low to trip the surge devices.

I find that readers are often biased about this based on where they live. If you live in areas prone to lightning storms you feel much more strongly about additional surge protection because of experience. Personally I’ve lost a laptop during a thunderstorm that I forgot was plugged directly into the wall, despite having a Siemens panel and whole house protector installed. OTOH, none of my sensitive equipment or ~ dozen wifi enabled switches were damaged.

For me, knowing that surge damage, even from a small surge, is additive AND never wanting to pack up my amp for repair is enough. :)

As said, I am to build a Structure dedicated to Audio and Home Entertainment and add Electric Power to it, where the Audio Power Supply is to be considered. 

The initial power feed is already in place, as it a spur coming from the Homes Electric Fuse Board, terminated near the site for the outside of the home room.

I have much of the Structural materials for the room already owned. . 

I am taking advise on the Electrics Design for my audio purposes, other Electicl needs will be done under approved code. 

The structure being separate to the home allows for a different design, produced to code, but not typically seen in a home. 

Hard Wiring to a Device and into a German Produced Wago Connection is one such proposal from a friend,. As a method I get Solid Copper Terminations at a very fair price. 

I can also buy the same PC Triple C Wire Gauge Furutech use in their Cables. 

Such Wire Can be used from Device to Wago > Wago to Distribution Board. 

In terms of Safety, I can't foresee any support at hand encouraging elimination of a  13A fuse somewhere in the supply or at any place the design for the devices has a 13A fuse. The 13A fuse seems mandatory? 

I even have a Substantial Isolation Transformer that can also be tried out. It is owned for many years and has never been used

When it comes to Electricity, I have been as cautious as I know how to be. I do like professionals to have the major control over what is best, as safety is vital. 

You have a whole house surge protector, the Zerosurg is an unnecessary road block. You already have a "star" grounding situation at the power strip. The problems come when the signal wires pass ground from one piece of equipment to another, so you can "float" the ground to any piece that hums. Amplifiers draw the most power and it is useful for them to have their own line. You may have to float the ground to the amp as it usually will get grounded by the preamp. You can check continuity with a meter. It all depends. If you do not have a hum you are all set. If you do you systematically float grounds until it stops. Good Luck!

I have been using a 4 wire awg 10 Copper wire  Cryo treated.

in a 4 wire setup  the breaker is silver coated copper from Siemens Germany 

I tried to get industrial warehouses only ifyou can still find them they don’t oxydize like copper. there are 2 grounds ,one common , the other a insulated isolated ground ,going to its own mini muz bar then grounded to completely isolate from anything else ,which a common ground does. Go toVH audio he sells line ,surge power correction devices under $1k you hook directly to that dedicated circuit 

to better your circuit still.

Here are my thoughts:

You have 2 options IMHO to wall warts:

1. Buy low noise supplies from iFi or linear equivalents
2. Keep them outside your cleanest most sterile zone.

It’s worth getting a small Furman strip with SMP and LiFT just for the wall warts.

I should point out that besides using series mode design, and additional linear filtering the Wired tests show Furman wiht SMP has among the lowest clamping voltages of any surge protected system, including Zerosurge. That and the usual useful features are why I think this is often a better deal. Furman makes many many products so if you are looking for reduced noise and excellent surge protection make sure it has SMP and LiFT.

A much bigger contributor to noise however is often a laptop or PC power supply, which should be kept outside the clean zone and USB and audio signals should be galvanically isolated. Many DAC’s use isolated USB inputs already but not all of them do.

Isolated (Technical) Ground vs. Safety & Building Ground see here pages 43-45.

Mike

An isolated ground may be beneficial from a noise point of view. I am not really sure about that, but I do it too. However, I recently learned that it also can pose a danger, because if there is a fault in the Audio system, the circuit does not run through your circuit breaker. Normally, one is protected from a hot to ground short circuit by the circuit breaker, which trips and cuts the power. Since the isolated ground connection does not run through your main electrical box, there is no circuit breaker to trip. Therefore., you can have a piece of gear that gets hot, electrically. When you touch that piece of gear, you can get a fatal shock. so we all ought to be careful about that.

Dear @robes  : I'm strictly simple on this subject and knowing the electrical power critical importance so what have Iin my system?

 

A dedicated 40A line with a dedicated true phisical ground and from here comes 3  industrial Tripplite ( 2,400 watts capacity each one.) regulators/noise reduction ( 80db )/surge protection/ internal 3 separates circuits and the like.

Twoof themhandled my two subs and monoblok amplifiers and the preamp/CD/TTen the third Tripplite. These Tripplite arebullet proof because I take out all input fuses in my electronics so there is no margen to fail.

The dedicated ground isconnected only to the preamp where all the electronics uses the grounded preamp.

No single trouble at all with no single noise or RFI/EMI and the like.

 

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

It is said to be a good idea to isolate digital components from the rest of the system, but this can be accomplished via your existing ZeroSurg thing, whatever that is. It is also a good idea to isolate the turntable from other components, because the motor of the turntable can put noise back on the AC line. I hesitate to wade through your long description of your AC pathways, because I am not an electrician, let alone an EE.  But I can tell you that Paul Speltz of Anti-Cables IS an EE and is also a very nice and totally honest guy.  I suggest you talk to Paul about the two issues I mention here.  For audio, he might be a better source of information than your friend in the data business.  I am surprised you didn't ask about "balanced power".  That's a thing these days.

Your Post is come, but when building an Audio System the usage of Electricity is a Big Consideration, if taking the sound quality of the System seriously. 

Some who are much more learned than I,  and whom I have discussed the Subject of Electricity with, are of the thought the Electricity is the Source in front of all other Sources.

The quality of the electricity feed is critical to the down stream devices.

In relation to general practices a Cable Fuse and Plug might be the treatment put in place.

The treatments can extend to being quite substantial and very costly.

Here is a description of an experience had:

A Quartz Speed Controller as a Prototype was to be demo'd on a System close to £200K in value.

The systems Loom and Power Conditioner Treatment was close to £20K.

The TT to be attached to the Prototype was first demo'd using the Loom and Conditioner.

The TT was then plugged direct to the Walwart with the Prototype, the demo' of this method rose far above the demo' with £20K of equipment in use.

I have been planning a Standalone Audio Listening Space for a period of time.

Electrics have been top priority and a friend who is a Consultant, designing Power for Data Centres is my mentor.

I already have a dedicated Earthed Power Spur run to a outside of the home distribution point.

The design is also to be compatible with Photovltaics. 

We are talking about all audio devices having their own radial supply.

Eliminating Plugs is the next, removal of Walwart and IEC, but having pure copper for all terminations. 

This is where the design is at present, having a room separate from the home, does allow for a design that is very safe, buy could be

not exactly ideal for in home use. 

I hope there is something in my description to help with your inquiry.