What are we trying to accomplish here?
I repeat: Be smart here, give this paper to a licensed electrician and let him do the work.
Please know that all items in this paper have been tested over 20+ years to identify definite and significant audible results. Among those people that have done this upgrade, no one has said merely “yes it’s better”; virtually all feedback is disbelief! Most people say “this is the sound I have always wanted in my system! Why isn’t anyone talking about this?”.
The main goal is thicker wall wire to the audio system. This may seem too simple but please read on.
People very often tell me “I have 20-amp dedicated lines” and assume they have done everything they need to do. By US electrical code definitions, a “20-amp dedicated line” will have 12-gauge wire in the wall. So, while you may have a “dedicated line”, 12-gauge wire is absolutely insufficient for high end audio systems. We are recommending 10-gauge or thicker wire here. It is the subject and goal of this paper. The gauge of the wire is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the fact that the line is “dedicated”.
The subject of this paper works on the theory that the varying musical demands of your amplifier with its very big internal power supply are actually modulating the incoming power line, divorced from the utility (power company) by some amount of resistance (ohms). Even at 10-15 feet from the wall outlet to the breaker panel, 12- or 14-gauge wall wiring has too much resistance for audio purposes. The noise coming from your utility is often lower than you suspect, and the gauge of the wire is far more important because the amplifier itself is modulating the actual line it is plugged into. The amplifier demands current directly up and down moment to moment as determined by the music. This happens at audio frequencies that are of course above and below the 60 cycles from the power company. These demands are impressed on the line wavering the incoming voltage and so the amp is re-ingesting its own noise. It is also making the line dirty for itself AND the preamp, DAC, server, etc. This is possible because the wall wiring back to the breaker panel has some degree of resistance depending on the length of the run and the wire gauge (12-gauge or sometimes even 14-gauge).
Power conditioners and certain power cord designs help because they make an effort to “shunt” this noise (short it out and kill it) and consume the unwanted frequencies. These are dumped as waste heat.
But the other problem with 12-gauge wire is the amplifier starving for current moment to moment with the music. Not only are dynamics reduced, but starving the amplifier power supply causes blur and loss of detail across the audio spectrum especially in the precious mids and highs. A better answer is to reduce the resistance back to the breaker panel making it difficult for the amp to modulate the power at all, and at the same time and importantly, getting maximum moment-to-moment power for the amplifier power supply.
So, there are two benefits to reducing the resistance back to the breaker panel:
- stop the amp from fluctuating or modulating the wall power,
- provide the amp with maximum current (amperage) moment to moment as the music is playing providing an extraordinary increase in clarity.
Please Note: The single biggest goal of this paper is to install 10-gauge wiring up to 15-25 ft feet and 8-gauge beyond 25-35 feet, and then 6-gauge wire beyond 35 ft feet. In a recent test I have a detailed report from an audiophile who followed the paper exactly. He installed two 6-gauge lines and three 8 gauge lines from the Eaton CH sub panel at 35 feet. He tested his 200-watt class A/B amplifier into both the 6-gauge and 8-gauge lines. He reported that the 6-gauge line delivered better bass solidity, deeper extension, better dynamics and improved clarity. Everything else in this paper is there to be sure you get the maximum result.
Apply Silver Paste
In this next step, our objective is to further reduce the electrical resistance between the amplifiers and the breaker panel. Here we advise using special silver paste at key connection points. But read the details below, because you don’t want to use the paste on every connection.
These silver (actual Ag, not just color) pastes are called “grease” but are rather thick. Be wary of any others you find that are actually somewhat fluid. I have reports of migration of at least one audiophile silver grease that, because of voltage potential across the Line and Neutral, the paste attempts to physically migrate and close the gap between the hot and the ground. In one local attempt it burned up an outlet. MG Chemicals products are probably the thickest but do be careful in your judgement. It is almost crumbly and less likely to migrate upon inspection years later when used at distances between the poles of 1.5” or more. It does not seem to oxidize over time. There are reports of “audiophile” silver pastes that do oxidize and so the oxidized silver becomes worse than not applying silver at all.
- If you are building power cords DO NOT try to use this stuff on plugs on each end of power cords. Again, the silver paste can migrate because of the voltages if the poles are too close together as they would be on a power cord plug.
- Used on each side a wall receptacle is probably OK. Do so at your own risk.
- The silver paste is OK in the breaker panel on the breakers and wire to the breakers.
- DO NOT use the silver paste on interconnects, or speaker cables or any signal cables. While putting it on signal cables seems like a good thing, the paste is impossible to control and it smears around in use because it never really dries. The result is a partial or complete short across signal hot and ground. I added this comment based on one audiophile who tried it on his interconnects, got no sound in one channel, weak distorted sound in the other, and spent hours washing his RCA plugs and cleaning his input/output jacks on his components. I don’t t think it can be completely cleaned out and he should have replaced the jacks and plugs. In other words just don’t do it.
- It is better to clean your interconnects and jacks once or twice per year (highly recommended). You can Google “interconnect cleaning” and “XLR input cleaning” and see procedures and chemicals to deoxidize the jacks on your equipment. Consult your equipment manufacturer for their recommendations also.
Main Point:
You will use the conductive paste at every AC power connection that is made starting by removing the breakers and applying it to the inside of the clip on the back of the breaker. No need to apply it to the busbar connection especially since these are always electrically live and fatally dangerous!! The breaker clip will transfer the paste to the live busbar.
- I recommend new breakers if they are older than one year or so (they are cheap compared to the cost of your audio system). If you get the original equipment circuit breakers (like Square D, Siemens, etc.), from an electrical supply house (not Home Depot or Lowes), you will likely get silver-tungsten contacts inside the breaker. Cheap off-shore replacement breakers may have copper contacts which have higher resistance and will oxidize over time raising the resistance further defeating what we are trying to do here. Research with your local electrical supply for your brand of breaker panel and ask them to look up the breaker contact material to confirm it is silver or silver tungsten.
- You will also use the silver paste on the wires where they enter into the screw terminals both at the breakers and the wall outlets. A thin film is all that is needed on all these connections and the silver actually performs better as a thin film. (more…is NOT better here).
- The silver paste tends to get on the fingers and then everywhere else so be sure to clean up with Goo Gone or some such solvent since the silver paste is like liquid wire. It can be a finger- shock hazard if you are sloppy with it, so be sure to clean up any excess or smeared film with a solvent like Goo Gone EVEN IF YOU CAN’T SEE IT!
- Note: Your electrician will have a non-corrosion paste that he always uses to preserve and prevent oxidation on an aluminum or copper connecFon but does not reduce the resistance of the connection anywhere near as well as the silver paste. The non-corrosion paste’s intent is to slow oxidation over time and nothing more. The electrician will say “oh I already have some stuff I use”. Let’s be very clear here: The electrician’s paste is not suitable for our purposes. The silver or a silver-loaded copper compounds are the only choices.
Now back to AC wiring!
Wire Gauge
I recommend at least two 20-amp 120 volt circuits run on 10 gauge wire up to 25 feet, 8 gauge wire from 25 to 35 feet, and 6 gauge wire from 35 to 60 feet. 6 gauge or 8-gauge may require a jump down to 10 gauge in a junction box somewhere near the wall outlets for the wire to fit into most wall outlets. Audiophile wall outlets may accept a bigger gauge. I have a report that Furutech outlets can accept 8 gauge and maybe 6 gauge. Please check other brands to confirm.
Breakers
Remember that 30-amp breakers do not pass any more power or have lower resistance. They simply kick off at 30 amps instead of at 20 amps. A 30-amp breaker could actually be more dangerous possibly causing a fire in the event of a true short circuit (very rare but that’s what the breakers protect against).
Install:
- one dedicated circuit for all front-end equipment, and
- one circuit for each amplifier and
- one circuit for one (or two) subwoofers. (subwoofers are even worse than amplifiers at making the power lines dirty).
Try to find good outlets (something like the PS Audio Power Port, or Furutech, or Wattgate models. Generic commercial grade outlets are not a good substitute. Low- and medium-priced audiophile outlets are a good investment since they are heavier copper, better plated and really grip the blades of your power cord plug.
Sub Panels
If the distance between the wall outlets and the breaker panel is very far, like 60- 75 feet, one might consider a subpanel close to the listening room. A subpanel is a must at 80R-150R. I recommend the Eaton CH series panels using copper buss bars with silver plating. The internal power paths are highly conductive, again, with less resistance. In keeping with the purpose of the paper, ask the electrician to uprate the wire gauge between the main panel and the sub panel. 2-gauge should be minimum with 1-gauge or even 2/0-gauge being considered above 80 feet. Again, let’s remind the electrician we are not wiring for high current draw, we are wiring for the lowest possible resistance. The electrician will better understand our goals if we say the performance of our equipment will dramatically improve if we have the lowest possible resistance back to the breaker panel, even if we are not pull much continuous current.
Grounding
Also consider 2 or 3 ground rods 6 -10 feet apart fed together running back to your main breaker panel. Try to put the ground rods into the dampest place in the soil if possible. With some modern codes, the house ground to the re-bar that is embedded in the concrete foundation and concrete floors of the house. Your electrician will know the best procedures in your area.
AC Phase
For 120-volt circuits: MAKE SURE ALL EXISTING AND NEW CIRCUITS THAT YOU USE ARE ON THE SAME ELECTRICAL PHASE. I have had several direct experiences with an audio system connected on the opposite house electrical phases and the dual 120 volt feed from the electrical grid seems to make a good antenna to pick up RF. Connecting your system to only one electrical phase seems to prevent any RF issues that can damage equipment in areas with high RF. (No… you have no way to know if you are in a microwave path, or TV/radio transmission path, so just do it!) Usually, every other breaker in the stack is the same phase. In other words, starting at the top (first) breaker in the left column you will have “A” phase. The next breaker down (second) will be “B” phase, and then the next (third) will be “A” phase again, etc. So the two (or more) dedicated lines should be spaced every other breaker apart to be on the same phase. Another way to say this: On the left hand side of the panel, all of the odd numbered breakers on one side will be on one of the phases, all of the even numbered breakers will be on the other phase. Then on the right side of the panel the opposite may be true meaning the first breaker on the leR is on the same phase as the second breaker on the right, etc. On either side every other breaker will be on the same phase. Some newer panels may have one phase all on the left, and the other phase all on the right. If you don’t know and don’t know how to test, have an electrician help or do the work.
Warning!! Fatal voltages are exposed here. Decide if you are competent with an AC voltmeter and if you will not be dangerous to yourself and accept the sole responsibility for this decision.
If you have experience with an AC voltmeter measuring wall power and you feel you are competent then you can test between any two wall outlets to prove they are on the same phase by testing for AC voltage across the two shorter slots in the respective wall outlets (the longer slot is always the neutral, the shorter slot is always the “hot” or “line”). Measuring between the two outlets probing their respective “hot” (short slots) you should have a reading near zero volts and maybe floating around several millivolts (mv). Use an extension cord on one outlet to get near the other outlet to let your meter leads reach if necessary. Remember, the long slot is neutral, the short slots are hot or “line”. If your reading is 220-240 volts between the two short slots on the two outlets then the two outlets are on separate circuits on the opposite phases and should be corrected. This is done by moving one of the breakers to another position in the breaker panel so both outlets are now on the same phase. If you are not competent with a voltmeter, ask you electrician to determine the phase of your wall outlets. You accept responsibility to decide to do this test and know it can be lethal. Get your electrician to do it!
Tight Connections
Also, it is a good idea to ask your electrician to go around the breaker panel when he is done and tighten all of the set-screws that clamp the wires. This is especially important on the heaviest cables that feed the panel since these large feed cables are aluminum so tightening the large screw even a liNle bit refreshes the metal contact to the aluminum wire. These screws will be LIVE and lethal! They cannot be turned off so ask the electrician if he has the proper voltage-rated insulated tools to do this and if he is comfortable doing so. It is his decision and responsibility. Electricians will often do this any time they service a panel. Caution!! Lethal voltages are exposed here. DO NOT pick up the tools you own with the plastic or rubber grips and think you can do this yourself. Your tools are not voltage rated for this procedure, and it is fatally dangerous if you make a mistake, so DO NOT be tempted. Let an experienced, qualified, licensed, insured, electrician do this.
Incoming Noise
I use a meter made by Greenwave at $135 (https://greenwavefilters.com/product/emi-meter/) to get some scale of the electrical noise coming from the utility. Electrical noise can vary WIDELY across the country, affected by cell towers, radio and TVs stations etc. It can be very high frequency not only conducted on the copper wire but also following the outside of the wire like an antenna. The only way to know if electrical noise is present is to measure it. Use the meter during the day, evening, and late evening. Especially if your system sounds different in the evening. Use the meter direct into the wall outlets of your system with nothing plugged into any of the outlets. If audio gear is plugged in, then the reading will be lower because the audio gear is absorbing the noise. The reading that way will be meaningless. The noise is expressed in millivolts (mv). The mv reading is low below 50-100 mv, high around 400-500 mv and very high above 1000 mv up to 2000 mv which is the top range of the meter. I strongly suggest you use your ears to judge any power treatment. The meter is a guide. I advise not to chase small increments like 50mv compared to 40mv as you may not hear anything. Look for bigger changes and be sure to use your ears. You can measure power conditioners with nothing plugged into them but be aware certain components in some conditioners can show higher readings because of reflections between the power conditioner and the meter. The higher measurement from the conditioner may not be of concern. Again, use your ears with and without the conditioner. If the sound is better with the conditioner, trust that result.
Line Conditioners
I don’t generally recommend line conditioners for amplifiers when the system is done as described above. It is generally better to go straight into the wall. Again, use the Greenwave meter as additional information here. If you do use a line conditioner on an amp look for a claim of NO CURRENT or WATTAGE LIMITS so that it is likely a straight-through design with any filtering elements ACROSS the line. If it does have a wattage or current rating then it would indicate some sort of treatment in SERIES with the line which is almost never good for amplifiers and may even choke off lower power gear like front ends depending on the design of the condiFoner. Some conditioners claim to have no current limiting. I suspect a claim of no current restriction is a relative claim meaning the current restriction is very small and it could be true for our purposes. Let me say here to use your ears in all cases. I do recommend conditioning for all front-end equipment. For front ends which tend to draw little power compared to the amp, you might pursue a well-designed conditioner but be observant about power limiting. (consider all of the foregoing as theory, and in the end use your ears).
If you must run only one wall power line, plug the amp direct into the wall and then the front end into your line conditioner. It is infinitely better to install at least two lines (which must be on the same phase) because the amplifier will modulate the wall power fluctuating by the demands of the music and actually make noise on an otherwise quiet wall power line. Plug the amp directly into one and a line conditioner into the other which you will then plug your front end into. We have experience with the Audioquest 5000. I found the “high current” outlet best for DACs. I have less experience connecting things like servers to the dielectric outlets 5 and 6.
Our experience is to connect the DAC into the “high current” outlets intended for amplifiers. It gave us the best balance between transient current delivery and noise filtering. For the DAC, the other outlets seemed to restrict the current too much making the sound lackluster. Again, I often prefer the amps straight in the wall and do try line conditioners on the front end judging by ear. In any case, try to audition line conditioners before you buy. The AQ Niagaras are not the only choice; we have not tried others so do compare other brands.
Conditioning is probably most important for DACs and digital sources because of the digital clocks running at “insane” accuracies. Bad power can easily make the DAC clock jitter worse in addition to adding ground noise to the analog circuitry and signal cable connections.
240 Volt Connections in a 120 Volt Country
Some high-end amps can be switched over and run on 240 volts and I recommend it. If you absolutely cannot change your wall wiring to a heavier gauge, and your amp allows it, you may be able to use the existing wiring to convert to 240 volt then using a 240 volt outlet and a 240 volt plug on your power cord. Ask your electrician if you can convert an existing 120 volt line to 240 volt. Be sure the amp has the feature that enables it to be changed to 240 volts and be sure the changeover is done correctly. Transformer primaries and the transformer core will run slightly more efficiently yielding lower impedance so the internal DC amp supply might appear slightly “stiffer” to the amp’s audio circuits (always a good thing). Because the amp is now running at twice the voltage, the amperage (current) the wall wiring “looks” twice as thick to the amp as it does at 120 volt (ohms law). Now the amp will make even less audio noise on the line and it then rejects its own line noise better as per the goal of this paper. The 240 volt outlet can be a standard 15 amp (240 volt rated), with 10 ga. wire up to 60 feet then 8 gauge beyond that.
For the 240-volt lines, the electrician may, or may not know about a NEMA receptacle and plug number that is the same size and form as our common Edison duplex 120 volt receptacle but the wide blade of the plug is on the opposite side as the 120 volt duplex. Hubble or commercial Leviton works fine for 240 volt, and the 6-20 series looks less industrial in your home.
It is NEMA plug number 6-20P www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=6756 and NEMA receptacle number 6-20R or 6-15/20R http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=6756
Here is the NEMA chart. www.stayonline.com/reference-nema-straight-blade.aspx
“Stayonline” is a good source ( www.stayonline.com/default.aspx)but your electrician may like a local supplier.
*REMEMBER: BE SURE TO CHANGE OVER THE AMP INTERNALLY IF YOU DECIDE TO RUN 220 VOLT !*
Twisting the Wire
Twisting the Romex or individual wires almost completely rejects high frequency noise which consists of induced electrical fields from radio/TV stations, cell towers, microwave relay antennas, etc. Nearby low frequency noise from nearby AC wiring is also rejected. Conversely, the wiring being twisted will not emit a field or induce nearby wiring. Ask the electrician to twist the flat Romex cable one twist every 6-12 inches or so. He can do this by stretching out the length of the intended run and tying each end to something like a broom handle. Pull the wire taught and twist. I have done this using a big drill with a 1/2” chuck. The twist will be uneven which is a good thing attenuating a wider band of noise. Yes, it is tedious but critical to do so. If the lines are running in parallel each line should be alternately twisted relative to the one next to it and ideally the twists of two lines should be at different intervals meaning twist one line at 6 or 7 inches the another at 10-12 inches and another at 8-9 inches, etc . This prevents any coherent coupling between them.
Keep the lines away from each other by minimum 4 inches. It is perfectly OK to cross them at a right angle.
If you are running individual wires in conduit then twist the black (hot) and the neutral for each circuit. Multiple circuits can be run in the same conduit. I prefer PVC conduit if your local code allows so there is no inductive coupling to the (steel) conduit. Do not include the mechanical ground in the twist. Just run a lighter gauge insulated green ground wire for each circuit laid loose in the conduit.
In a recent untended test between twisted vs non-twisted wiring, two customers used the same electrician. The electrician was asked to twist the wire as described. It was discovered he did not do that step. He was required to come back and do it over, twisting the wire as described. Independently, both customers could not believe the difference in the sound. With TV/radio stations, microwave transmission towers and now 5g cell towers everywhere, these fields affect our equipment more now than we know. The most susceptible may be the highly accurate clocks in all DACs but these fields do affect all equipment, their signal paths and signal grounds.
Communicating with Your Electrician
If your electrician has any concerns about all of this, be aware he is always planning for CONTINUOUS current draw and rates everything and splits up the loads between each of the house phases, like the air conditioning, the electric dryer and electric hot water tank for the available amperage. Please explain to him that we are designing for incredibly short peak current pulses and we need the resistance from the wall outlets back to the utility as low as possible for the best amplifier and overall system performance. The continuous draw might be 4 -10 amps and is negligible from the electrician’s standpoint. Larger wire does not violate any codes in the US as far as we know but you and your electrician are responsible to be sure this is true in your state, county, and city. In summary, we ask the electrician to understand we want the lowest possible resistance between the wall outlets and the breaker panel. It is all about incredibly short-term current demands that are typical of music. These very high peaks can’t be measured with a conventional ammeter. Also, these very high, very short-term current peaks can be well above the rating of a 20-amp breaker. These peaks are so fast the breaker does not even see them and therefore they do not trip the breaker.
Summary
Here is the way to think about the goals and descriptions of this paper: The goal and ongoing process in our hobby is to find the choke points in our systems and upgrade them. The electrical power should be the first consideration in our systems and hence it is most often the first “choke point”. The system can never sound better than the worst power it is fed. There are two considerations: (1) increasing the wire size to improve the current starving and power modulation (noise), caused by the amplifier itself as previously described. (2) The noise coming from your utility and the surrounding airborne RF noise needs to be suppressed by twisting the wiring as previously described. Well-designed power conditioners are almost always a benefit.
Again, use your ears to decide.
Power conditioners fix some of the noise created by the previously described “amp starving” but it is better not to starve the amp and create the noise in the first place because amp starving often creates worse noise on the system that is measurably and audibly worse than anything that might be sent by your utility.
In many cases depending on the oxidation of your existing wall power connections, age of the breakers, but ESPECIALLY the length and gauge of the wall wiring, the above wall power changes in your home system are often a bigger improvement than any component that you can buy, especially with big solid-state amps that have long runs back to the breaker panel. But even people with tubes report improvements if not huge improvements.
Without exception over the last 20+ years, comments from those that have done the above heavy gauge wire wall power mods say there is audible improvement in dynamics while making the sound even more detailed, yet much more relaxed with dark backgrounds leaving only the notes and music. I was very surprised the first time I did this house power mod. I expected the bass and dynamics to improve which they did. I did not expect the mid-range and the highs to clean up and become far more coherent as much as they did. The improvements were at least as much as a “great” new component. The improved clarity is always surprising and obviously well worth the effort.