AC Power 101


I thank anyone in advance for taking the time to answer a part or whole of this set of questions. I am new to looking at my AC power and probably moving within a year or so and therefore do not want to do anything too expensive to the house wiring. I think that my situation is pretty good now but want to have the cleanest power possible for my situation. Following the threads it seems best to start with the quality of power coming in before employing power conditioners or regenerators.

I live in the country and have my own separate transformer to my home. Does this help? The power comes into an 8 year old Square D 200 amp service to a new addition to the home. The circuit that the stereo is on has only 10 wall outlets on it and nothing else, There are 4 lamps besides the stereo plugged into these. The run from the panel to the stereo is about 40 feet with the stereo being the furthest thing on the run. The circuit is the top circuit in the breaker panel, I think the wire is copper but with some aluminum in the box, in that the electrician said the connections there should be tightened yearly. There is a 240 Jacuzzi circuit in the box, but all the other motors in the home are on a separate service panel entirely that services the main part of the home. Now the questions:
Given all this, do I have a fairly close to a dedicated circuit and the potential for fairly naturally clean power?
Would I benefit from replacing the outlets, and with what? Are there other things I can do that would benefit such as using a different breaker on that circuit? Does a device such a Brick Wall take the place of my current surge protector Panamax and do any of these cover replace cost like Panamax does. I have had two lightening hits in 30 years at this location so the Panamax replace has come in handy. I assume however clean my power is that it is still important to isolate each component from each other. If this is so what is a cost pleasant way to do this without restricting power or otherwise degrading sound?
Best Holiday wishes
Joe
128x128gammajo
I don't believe in naturally clean power. Unless you are running a windmill or solar panels and are completely off the grid. Even then, the appliances in your home, RF from cell phones, wireless networks, etc. is polluting your power from within your home.

Brick walls are not that great. They do something, but their sonic effects offset any filtering they may do.

Buy a decent power conditioner made for audio equipment that has a fuse or circuit breaker for surges.

Clean power to your whole system is more important than isolation. But I would recommend eventually having both.

I hope this helps.

Mike
Tweek Geek
Yes, it helps that you are out in the country and have a step down transformer dedicated to your house. It will act like an isolation transformer. Being far from city or industry is good.

It is also great that you have a circuit separate from the rest of the house (sans jacuzzi). This is equivalent to a separate subpanel and you can control whether the jacuzzi is on while you are listening. It is good that you have the top breaker and that only a few lights are on the circuit besides your stereo. Is this circuit a 3 wire (hot, common and ground)? If so, you are very close to a dedicated situation.

Are you having any problems with ground loop hum? Do light dim when appliances come on in other parts of the house? Is there objectionable background hiss? If not, what makes you think you need to go further? I would leave it alone for another year until you move.