Re: Dedicated Lines

Hi Jel; I had a dedicated system put in a year ago by an electrician. They ran a heavy stranded mainline from the main breaker box to a sub-main box (10 ga. is fine, but I had 6 ga., so they used it). My sub-main is on an outer wall. Then from the sub-main box with 4 breakers, they ran stranded wire in pvc tubes to 12 ga. Romex and to 4 duplex Hubbell receptacles. I wanted one duplex outlet for digital (transport + DAC), one for analog (pre-amp + acc.), and one for amp(s), and I had an extra duplex for misc. use.

If you're going directly from your main breaker box to duplex receptacles, you'd probably be limited to Romex for safety reasons. Also, unless you have more than breaker available, you'll probably be limited by space in the main box to attache the wires. IMO, at a minimum you want 3 duplex receptacles. Installing a sub-main (as I did) increases cost and complexity, but greatly increases flexibility. My whole dedicated AC system, including additional ground, was about $850.

BTW, it was all worth it as noise floor dropped dramatically and clarity improved dramatically. After the up-grade, I had to go to good quality custom power cords to get rid of increased brightness (the sound of the OEM cords apparently). Good Luck. Craig

I will share one of my greatest and most deep rooted philosophies of hi-end music reproduction. We ask our equipment to take moving electrons that our power company so kindly delivers to our home and transform those moving electrons into moving diaphrams that will elicit an emotional response that will erase the crap of the day and prepare us for a better tomorrow. Some of us more simply expect it to get our foot tapping. In either case it's asking alot and I hope you can understand that ANYTHING you do to improve the delivery of the power will improve the performance of the system. If you can swing it, spend the approximate $3k it'll take to rewire your home from the street with the best wire you can find that is applicable to the job. I promise you will not believe your ears!

Hello Tfta. What kind of wire do you recommend?? Thanks, Jel

I am a big believer in dedicated lines! ... The more the better, but the biggest difference will be with the 1st. I have three: one for the front end and one for EACH of my large Krell amps. (one 20 amp and two 30 amp lines)
As far as your question about one for digital and one for the preamp: I am sure that it wouldn't be a bad idea, but I found that the inexpensive PAC Idos, which separates the digital grunge from the analog equipment, really works.

I ran 12g lines to duplexes, 1 for each amp and 1 that a power supply went in to. Noticeable improvement in virtually all aspects of the sound and dramatically decreased noise floor. This is a huge bang for the buck.

There are already numerous if not multitudes of posts on this subject; please use the search engine to locate them because there is a lot of good material already posted & you won't want to miss it.

I spent around $60 to install 2 dedicated 20 amp breakers and 10 g.Romex to hospital grade outlets.One outlet is for the amp only and the other is for the Preamp and the power conditioner which I plug my T.T. and CDP into.
I consider this a major upgrade sound wise.The noise floor dropped and the improvement in detail and transparency is incredible! I would think it would cost $2-$3 K for this magnitude of improvement!