Your experience mirrors mine, glad you also experienced an improvement!
Dedicated power circuits
I’m having some electrical work done including a whole house
generator, surge suppressor, and a new panel box. I am also going to have two dedicated power lines run for my stereo. I’ve read a lot on here about how this is a really nice upgrade and would greatly appreciate any advice to help me along on my project. Right now the plan is two 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire. One for my amp and one for my preamp and sources. My equipment is a McIntosh MC 452, a C47 right now but a C22 in the future, Rega P8, Rose hifi 150b, McIntosh MR 74 tuner and Aerial 7t speakers. I’m also replacing my panel box with a new one. It’s a brand from a company that’s out of business and the quality and safety is suspect plus there are no new breakers available.
So starting with the breakers, then the wire and finally the receptacles what should I be looking for? The electrician that just left here is planning on the new panel being a Cutler Hammer brand. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Per post 1596 Ccomment 1. Yes, this is where I find metal encased inwall wire to be a benefit. It is very good at rejecting EMI from surrounding wiring. I know that is not the intent of your comment. But its the point that EMI radiation is a real issue. Mostly with EMI getting into signal or speaker cables. But I am cautious of it with branch circuit to branch circuit as well. I also find any isolation transformer has to be located strategically to not interfere with the equipment it is powering. That is why I prefer a wallmount in the adjacent room. Per comment 2. I do not find the sine wave distortion from audio equipment PS to be problematic if you run dedicated line. That is partly why I strongly recommend multiple circuits. I do not like a single branch with the assumption it is ridding ground loops. PS to PS noise can become an issue on a single branch carrying all the equipment. My comment about the issues being in the equipment itself is exactly that. For Example, a 4 year old set of $60K monoblocks with buzz at the tweeter. Owner gets the amps updated and all the buzz is gone. A brand new $22K phono stage with radio coming out the speakers. I insert 2 other phono stages and the radio is gone. I did a lot of other test to validate the issue was the phono stage. $15K SET tube amps with bench tested measured voltage bleeding from the PS to ground creating ground issues. I see gear itself with issues. Not the power feeding it. People don't want to believe their expensive purchases have defects. But that is many times where "Issue" are traced too. Updating your power is not about solving issues. Its all about extracting the maximum performance from what you have. If you have hum and buzz, its most likely the equipment, not the electrical supply. If you have a hazy veil, soft uncontrolled bass, fatiguing sibilance, it very well may be the electrical infrastructure. |
@kingrex Wrote:
I completely agree! That was one of the reason why I ran four dedicated 20 amp branch circuits for audio and not one. 😎 Mike |
- 88 posts total