Earzona
Figuring you own a home, open up your braker box and look at the name on it, GE, ITT, Pacific Electric, Cuttler Hammer, etc, (also see if you have any blanks or unused spaces on it if not, youll merely need a thing called wafer breakers instead of std ones), get a general idea of how far it is from the box to the place you want/need to put the outlets, then stop by one of the Adult Toy stores in your area, Lowes, Home Depot, Builders Square, etc... and ask them what all you'll need to install your power lines. Your material list costs will come to under $150 I'd bet. Front to back, incld spec grade outlets. Surely less than $200 and why I said put in 3 if possible. AS One never knows.
Heres the argument as I see it on all this power line abbra ka dabbra magic, snake oil, and factual contention.
The further up the food chain you go with high end audio usually, the products become more articulate and sensitive to many changes. Upstream component changes, cabling, isolation changes, etc. its on the same lines as relocating speakers even at times some minor changes there will affect the overall depiction of the sound.
As power is the one common denominator to all of a system, and not a lot of people are entirely up to speed on electricity, & electrical services in general, it remains for many a dark subject and one which theyd as soon not mess about with or invest more time and money to improve upon. I mean in that regard, its working fine enough. Always has, and as Ive bought better stuff the sound has also improved, so all that talk about cables and adding still more junk to the incoming power lines must just be more bull.
Parenthetically speaking, its almost like those who say the shorter signal path is the best, and use only a CDP with volume controls directly feeding their amp. Well you throw in a very very good preamp into that mix and those people likely will change their tone . As did I. In fact I was a commercial & industrial electrician and when I heard all this rhetoric on incoming power I scoffed at it almost abusively, but felt I had to see for myself. I did and it isnt hype.
Nope. It aint. So Id ask those who quantify these areas as total loss of investment to qualify themselves a bit more by asking them if they have ever done such things, to what extent, and on what sorts of gear?
If ya aint ever jumped out of a perfectly good airplane just for fun, or I suppose any other reason, ya simply DO NOT KNOW!
HERES THE FACTS do you need dedicated power lines?
NOPE.
WILL THEY HELP YOUR GEAR PERFORM BETTER?
YEP. The better question is HOW WILL THEY HELP?
BLACKNESS OF BACKGROUND IN THE PRESENTATION, AND LESS AFFECTED FROM THE REST OF THE HOMES GIZMOS dimmer, chargers, appliances etc. Thus adding another level of smoother operation, and greater resolution by subtraction.
NEED POWER CABLES?
Nope. Better put, Will Better power cables help?
Yep. Again, eg., HOW .
Again, eg. See above.
NEED POWER LINE CONDITIONING OR FILTERING?
Nope.
Beneficial? Way More often than not.
HOW? THIS AREA GETS A BIT MORE COMPLICATED depending again on the system and how or where one is applied, but most often a much greater impact is felt here, and aking to the addition of better cabling. The idea of how much better remains in the ears of the beholder however. Id say at least, a noticeable one.
There are numerous analogies I could submit I guess, but the best might be this, until youve actually been to the Lourve Museum in Paris and seen a Rembrandt or da Vinci in person, until youve been to St Peters Bascilica in the Vatican City and seen the various works of the master sculptors first hand, swam with the sharks off the coast of Mexico, or stood atop a living volcano, checking all that out on the Discovery channel or Learning channel, just isnt the same. It aint.
I suspect another argument would be IS IT ALL WORTH IT, POWER CORDS, DEDICATED CKTS, POWER FILTERING?
. And my answer would follow along these lines Why did you buy what you bought instead of lesser expensive gear? They would both have made good sounds. Whyd you do mono blocks instead of a stereo amp? Whyd you spend $10K on speakers instead of $6K?
Do you put regular unleaded gas in your Porsche, Vette, Lexus, or Infinity, and outfit it with recaps?
Why do birthday cakes have icing on them, they dont kneed it, do they?
The icing, the finishing touches for a fine system or to make a very good system spectacular, are these peripherals. Isolation, room acoustics, power line acutramen, cabling, etc.
Years ago when I first was pointed to this site I found over and over again, these words as it pertains to ones audio rig Everything matters and everything makes a difference. The sole caveat to that is, your ears and your system components are the only limitations to perceived gains. If the rig isnt resolving enough to exhibit noticeable minor gains, or your ears arent capable, or the rooms acoustics disallow such things due to uncontrolled bass resonances & reflections, well theres that. Look to them first.
But if it is, and you are, and you dont look into such things, then you simply wont know what the full voice of your system can really be. True too, youll spend less. Have some more time on your hands. Be less audiophobic and still have a decent deal going on for yourself.
Always will there be those questions for the audio nut. Always will there be too, the incidental point of diminishing returns wherein the gains become smaller, the differences yet slighter, and the costs dramatically increased.
For the money, within reason, addressing power line issues (known or unknown) via ded ckts, ($100 $500) is very cost effective. Power cabling too is a valid beneficial aspect to investigate for oneself. Power conditioning again, is quite system dependant though not as acute as perhaps, matching a 2wpc ch SET amp to High sensitivity speakers. Will all that make your Halos sound like Cords? Probably not. Will it make your speakers sound like Rockports? Id doubt that too.
Will it add refinement, involvement, give you more of that they are here rather than you are there business, and add more life into the musical presentation? Id bet more than a fair amount on it and did . And yes in my own very modest home, and about as modest gear, it sure did! Think about that for a second if an old nearly totally blind guy wit severely encumbered means, and an immense abhorrence to new concepts, can do such things and further realize improvements on even a modest level, its quite possible for anyone to do them and very likely surpass my own levels quite easily.
To get some inkling of what a ded ckt will do before you actually put one in, (leaving off the gear only) turn on all else in that room and the adjacent areas then flip off the breakers until you find the one (s) feeding it unplug all else from the ckt, and turn off the lights if any are attached then reengage the breaker and listen to your gear for a while, its only a small sip of whatll happen, as a ded ckt has nothing else running on it no other splices, joints etc, but forget that if you have flouescent lighting attached to that line as the transformers are in play on the neutral and ground.
Call the Cable Co .. throw in some Hospital grade outlets for $8 ea, or as suggested some Porter Ports for $36 and go from there. Try some of the cheaper more popular filters and if not pleased simply resell them. Thats almost exactly what Ive and others have done so we could see for ourselves.
Very good luck
