PS Audio vs. Monster - cleaning up the power

Sidssp. What is star grounding? I have two dedicated 20 amp lines with a common ground back to the panel. I already have a Juice Bar and would buy used Monster. Just can't swing the $s for the PP600 right now. For now I'll plug the amp (Musical Fidelity M3 integrated) directly into the wall using a Virtual Dynamics cryoed Audition PC.

Star grounding is a grounding technique that connects all the ground wires to a single point and than connects that point to the ground. The resulting topology looks like a star and hence the name star grounding.

Ground loop hum is caused by the relative voltage differences at the ground levels between different components. So if you plug you power amp into one outlet and plug your preamp to a different outlet, it is possible that the ground wires in the two outlets will have different resistances and therefore a voltage difference is developed between the two amps. When the outlets are new, the difference in resistance may be small and you may not notice much noise. But as time goes by, oxidation will develop on the contact points of the outlet, the bare wires, and the circuit breakers; and the noise will get worst.

If you plug both amps to the same outlet, the relative resistance is measured only between the two power cables of the two amps which is much less than going through the outlet, the wires in the wall, and the circuit breaker, and back.

I am not sure what you mean by "two 20 amp lines with a common ground back to the panel". But if I were you, I will plug the Juice Bar to one 20 amp line and than plug everything to the Juice Bar.

I hope this help.

Sidssp. What my electrician ran was a 10 ga underground cable that has 2 hot leads, 2 commons and a single ground. This goes into a junction box from which there are two 3 wire lines to the powerports. Thus, there is a common ground (I guess this qualifies as a star as you describe it) back to my fuse box. I will plug the amp into one of the lines, the front end into the other.

Sounds like you should be ok. Do you experience any hum problem?

Sidssp. None. I can crank the gain up pretty high (we're talking 275 wpc) without hum. I'm just trying to get the power as clean as I can at a reasonable price. The dedicated lines definitely helped. They run off a 30 amp breaker from my main panel into a separate fuse box with 20 amp ceramic fuses. Everything is pretty good, but I'm thinking a Monster HTS 5000 will clean up both power and video. I'll give a used one a try and plug the amp into the wall until I can get a 20 amp Ultimate Outlet to put in the circuit.