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How many dedicated lines are enough?

Until a day ago I thought two dedicated lines with 30 amp breakers, 10 guage solid core Romex was all I needed, plus a couple of Shunyata power conditioners and power cords and a few HiFI supreme fuses.

I isolate my Depth sub and Audio Aero cd player on a separate dedicated line with both plugged into a Hydra two.

The turntable, Pre/phono nand tiny 2 watt power amp were plugged into a Hydra 8 on the other line,same phase of the panel of course.

Just for something to try ,I set up a third dedicated line ,this time with a 20 amp breaker, same Romex for my 2 watt power amp.
The amp has a HiFi Supreme fuse and old vintage RCA rectifier, but other than that it's stock.The amp uses a Shunyata Annaconda Helix power cord and it's plugged into a Shunyata Venom recptacle at the end of the dedicated line.

The results were more than positive, perhaps just getting the amp out of the power conditioner, hydra 8 was the answer.I used to think the amp sounded better in the Hydra 2,but since we're only dealing with 2 watts I didn't think that there would be much difference, so my plan was to filter and isolate the CD player the way that I did and plug the amp into the Hydra 8, keeping it all analog.

I am curious if others have had similar results using numerous dedicated lines and further isolating the components?

So far for me,the cd player needs to be on it's own line,then the amp, and then a third line for everythingelse seems to be the best solution.

I did try everything plugged into the Hydra 8 on one dedicated line and didn't like it .
lacee
eniac26
97 posts
 
Hrrmm, three dedicated lines? I thought I was good to go with two dedicated 20amp lines. One for front end only and the other for just the Amp. I guess I never considered further subdividing the current config. Damn, always one step behind I am.

My only problem with putting in another line is that I think my setup sounds better when plugged into my two pricey power conditioners. This new configuration would force me to purchase a third pricy power conditioner and cord to go with it.

For those who went from 2 lines to 3 or more, would you say there was $4k worth of benefit gained in SQ while doing so?
lacee OP
811 posts
 
Well I can say that running a third line for the amp was the way to go in my case, and I don't need another power conditioner to plug the amp in.

And I am a big proponent of power conditioners and also used a couple of Furman balanced power units.Sold the IT20 kept the 15 for my separate HT system.

I was running my amp on a separate dedicated line into a Hydra 2.
Everythingelse was into a Hydra 8 on the second dedicated line.

There was a noticeable improvement in sound when I took the cd player out of the Hydra 8,and switched positions with the power amp now going into the Hydra 8, the cd player into the Hydra 2 and the other line.

I know, sounds like musical chairs, but really that's what it is.

The sound was better this way, and for me, I felt a two watt amp wouldn't suffer by being put on the same line and into the Hydra 8.

Then on a whim on a rainy day, I decided to try isolating the 2 watt amp on its own 20 amp line.

Lots of folks would scoff at that idea, and call it overkill.
I was pretty much in that camp, until I actually tried it.

Yes the sound of the whole system improved again.
The sound now has more focus, less opaque, and more bounce, but it's easier to describe it as just better.
And yet I thought it was better before the last change.

And that proves the point that until you try something, you'll never really know if it will work or not.

No matter how much you think it just won't make difference, until you do the heavey lifting, it's just speculation and not based on anything but beliefs.

A lot of beliefs can be built up or torn down when you stop thinking and start doing.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
I just have the one. It's a 40A, 240V that's split up through a subpanel and most often fed through step-down transformers.
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