What's involved in dedicated lines

First thing I would do is make sure you have enough money in your checking account, Then find a qualifed electrician and get an estimate on doing it right. You really can benefit from dedicated lines, it would be tough to reach your zenith without them.

thanks, but what would the electrician actually need to do? How much do I need in my checking acct?

I think I can be a bit more helpful on this issue. I had an electrician install 7 dedicated lines to my listening room. Basically, you have a number of decisions:

(1) You can either run all of the lines from the main panel......or you can run a big cable (6AWG) from the main panel to a subpanel close to your listening room. If you have space on the main panel and the run is relatively short....I'd recommend runs from the main panel. Unfortunately, I couldn't do this so I had a subpanel put in above my listening room....and runs from the subpanel. Try to put the runs on the side of the main panel that don't have large appliances like refrigerator.

(2) Decide on audiophile grade wire (Virtual dynamics $6/ft, JPS $18/ft, Belkin quite a bit less)......or solid copper Romex. After much discussion and obsessing, I went with 10g solid copper Romex.

(3) Decide on outlets. Your choices are Wattgate, Hubbell, PS Audio, Porter Ports, Lutron, etc. I won't get into this here except to say that I decided on Wattgates.

(4) Make all the runs approx the same length. We can all argue about whether all the wire should be run in the same direction. Can't hurt but your electrician will look at you like you are nuts.....(which mine did).

(5) Don't let them use any staples....all plastic holders for the wire.

(6) If you are running monoblocks, I recommend having some lines run on A phase and some on B phase. Running the monoblocks on opposite phase might provide some cancellation of low level noise and grunge. This is controversial and some will disagree....but I'd read the article below by Jon Scull before you make your decision. I basically experimented with several things and liked the option of trying some things with in phase power and some with out of phase power. Here's the article:

http://www.stereophile.com/finetunes/200/index.html

The fine tunes series by Jon Scull answers lots of the power questions. You also should do searches here and on audioasylum. Problem is that lots of the advice conflicts.

Now, for costs. Well, as I mentioned, I had a 6 guage cable run from the main power to a subpanel in my attic with 7 breakers. I then had 7 lines run......6 to my stereo and home theater setup....and one to my projector. They snaked the wire through some difficult walls including the walls that my electrostatic surround speakers are on for the step-up transformers. Had 2 electricians on site for about 10 hours.

Total cost - $1400. I have no idea whether this is high or low or just right. But the sonics in my system have improved tremendously. I also am using power conditioners from Running Springs Audio after considering just about everything including BPT, ExactPower, Equi=Tech, Richard Gray, etc. I think they are superb: http://www.runningspringsaudio.com .

Best of luck with your project!

harry