Single plug dedicated circuit?

@erik_squires  , I respect your stated opinion and you will get no argument from me, as I don't have enough understanding of the subject matter to argue about it (which is another way of saying that I am clueless).  And I do recall a thread I started related to this subject in which you & I did discuss the Furman, and that was informative (for me).

My opinion:

• Make sure your ground is in good working order.
• Run a sub panel from your main panel. This will give you big thick wires and minimal voltage drop due to load.
• Use a voltage regulator in your audio room. This will minimize the effects of the outside voltages swinging due to power company fluctuations as well as other household loads like the oven, AC, etc. and it will add some amount of inherent noise blocking due to inductance of the autoformer.
• Use RF/EMI blocking conditioners for all of your sources. Furman with LiFT/SMP or Zerosurge, all have excellent low frequency (relative) noise filtering.

I say this not just from listening, but from watching my home VAC swing no matter where I live.  By far the largest measurable improvements have come from the voltage regulator.

@erik_squires  , as I have stated and will continue to repeat, my grasp of electrical and electronics is limited.  This is the thread that got me thinking along those lines.  (With my limited ability to understand, I cannot help but think that a separate service for the audio system would isolate it from everything else in the house.)

I think what gets me with the Audiophile/power discussion is that it wants to go everywhere all at once with no single principle to adhere to.

The ideal AC circuit:

• Does not waver in voltage
• Is free of noise
• Is a perfect 60 Hz signal

The problem is that the power coming in from the transformer and the demands of your home and the homes around you are noisy. OK, I get it. But the last thing you want is a wide-band perfect conductor. Ideally you want filters that remove as much noise as possible and some way to keep the voltage stable regardless of the load.

Well, you can’t have stable power because the incoming voltages are always fluctuating. A giant gauge wire will reduce the sag during musical playback but it can’t do a thing to change what he power company sends you.

RF pollution happening at the neutral ground bar(s), and if so, wouldn’t a whole separate meter and panel remove this factor?

Only if you believe there’s something that is injecting that in from your home AND that there’s somehow a magical RF filter that prevents it from getting back into your other panel. Where do you think that energy goes, and why does it not come right back in?

IMHO, you are better off using a surge protector like Furman wiht Lift/SMP or Zerosurge that have inherent filtering down below RF.

Now if you do believe there's some bad pool of RF energy in your neutral, then a great ground field is the way to minimize it.

@erik_squires 

I'm not sure what any of you think you gain by having an extra meter and panel.

I don't make any claims to being an electrician or having much of an understanding of electrical theory, but from what what I have read on other threads here on A'Gon on this subject, isn't some of the RF pollution happening at the neutral ground bar(s), and if so, wouldn't a whole separate meter and panel remove this factor?

I’m not sure what any of you think you gain by having an extra meter and panel.

The panels aren’t magical noise filters nor do they somehow improve the power delivery.

About the best you can do is run a sub panel from your main panel to your stereo room for the thick wiring, but that still leaves you vulnerable to noise and hash at the main or from the power line. The power line itself is not beauty of a noise-free source either.

I have a power regulator at my stereo, which switches every 5 V difference, keeping my VAC at my stereo between 116 and 122 VAC all the damn time. Even with everything off it is switching to keep the voltage right.  Would this be better running a thick wire all the way to outside? Only a little, in as much as the voltage drop caused by the stereo load would be minimized but there’s a lot of voltage variation at the transformer, and no amount of palladium plated, platinum core wire the size of my thigh is going to fix that.

The ultimate subpanel would have it’s own line run from outside and its own ground. But that wouldn’t be Kosher.

What with all the dedicated circuit threads and with what I have been recently doing with my own, I was thinking that the ultimate & best would be to have a separate service (meter, panel, etc.) put in for just the listening room. This will not happen for me in this life time.

@emergingsoul , up until quite recently I was running three dedicated circuits for my system (which is currently four pieces). I had read a couple of threads here on A’Gon suggesting that one circuit was actually a better way to achieve the desired sonic result, so about a week ago I put everything on one duplex and turned the other two breakers off. (All three are on the same leg; that leg has one other breaker on it from a previous set of dedicated lines I ran, and it is currently unused and off; that leg also has the washing machine on it, which is never in use when I listen.)

I was not predisposed to thinking one would sound better than the other, although I was hoping I would like the sound of three lines better, seeing as how I had recently added three more dedicated lines. To begin with, I did not hear much, if any, difference (that is the way my ears/hearing works and why I hate doing A/B comparisons); however I felt that with only one line vocals sounded a tad softer and rounder and there was a bit more sparkle to the existing sparkle (and I am not using ’sparkle’ in a derogatory way). But after more sessions, I truly believe I am finding my listening experiences to be more enjoyable now. As an example, last night I put on the MFSL SACD "Pearl" (Janis Joplin) which has never done much at all for me. Besides "Me & Bobby McGee" there isn’t much that has really grabbed me, and I always thought of it as a rather flat & wooden sounding recording, and if my oldest sister hadn’t bought the LP when it came out, I probably wouldn’t own the two digital remasters of it that I do own. Last night it was blowing me away with the amount of detail I was picking up within a sound stage that I had never heard being that big before.

Anyway, I digress and I am sorry for the "Pearl" side story I went off on, as there could be other factors that contributed to that revelation. And back to the 1 vs multiple dedicated lines, it must be noted that the was I routed my latest three lines was not to the specifications that Jea has previously listed. I can remedy that, but for now, it is feeling like a project I don’t quite have the energy for yet. Therefore, I am (for now) sticking to just one of my three lines.

Oh well . . . ramble on. . . .

+1 fuzztone

+1 lowrider57

As you stated, a dedicated line can be contaminated at the service panel even if it’s on a different leg than other AC devices. The problem with a subpanel is that it’s tapped off the main panel. The ultimate subpanel would have it’s own line run from outside and its own ground. But that wouldn't be Kosher. 

So the only thing of real value here is a 10 gauge wire to ensure there's plenty of unimpeded impulse power for all the frequency demands. Even if you run a hair dryer it's still gonna spread throughout the panel and contaminate component. Maybe a sub panel would be a lot better. Or maybe buying a new dog as long as he doesn't bark all the time.

Well… maybe I am missing something. But a dedicated circuit is just that… no additional outlets… that is the point. Now, it is terminated in a duplex receptacle… and you can choose to only use one of the outlets.

I have two dedicated lines… one which has my power conditioner plugged in (with all my non-amp audio equipment), and one for my amp. In the first case I use my mono blocks sometime and use both outlets and sometimes I use my stereo amp and only use one outlet.

But the point of a dedicated line is that, first, there are no other outlets connected to it that might add noise (think about a hair drier), and second the circuit does not wander all over the house acting like an antenna picking up noise.

By the same logic all devices "contaminate" each other in the service box and then the grid. Best have each source in different states than the amp.