Installing Dedicated Power Lines -- Need Advice


My general contractor is hiring a licensed electrician to install dedicated 20A lines for my audio system as part of a whole-apartment rewire and gut renovation.  While I'm sure the electrician is very capable, I'm also pretty sure he doesn't know anything about audio systems either.  Can any of you recommend a consultant or electrician who specializes in audio electrical I can hire to advise my electrician on how to best set up these lines?

Thanks!
dkidknow
Thanks very much Millercarbon for your thoughtful and detailed response.  I now understand I'll have both outlets on one circuit.  One clarification-- does plugging in different components to different outlets on the same circuit create ground loops or just plugging into two different circuits? 

Point taken on plugging the amp into the power conditioner and thanks for the Decware suggestion.  My dealer who sold me the Line Magnetic amp also carries Shindo and is suggesting I get a Shindo Mr. T.  It is, as you suggested, a bit more than twice the price of the Decware.  I will take my time with the conditioner and power cable part of this since I'll be plugging into a really new system with new speakers in the new apartment and want to wait until I'm in the new place before making any decisions.

Since the walls (hopefully) will only be open once, I am considering wiring the whole audio circuit with JPS Power AC In-Wall 10 gauge wire.  

Whart, thanks for your suggestions.  Since we are gutting the entire apartment, permits have been pulled for everything, plus landmarks approval, etc.  Expediting this project has been no small feat! I'm confident our GC will only use a good electrician.  We are in a prewar building in Manhattan, so downside is the same creaky electric infrastructure you had in Brooklyn, but upside is buried cables not particularly susceptible to surge and outages.
A ground loop is nothing more than the current has different paths to ground. This always happens, because even on one circuit there are lots of things plugged in. What you want to avoid is different electrical potentials. As long as they are all the same, or very close to the same, then no problem. 

This is why often times people are able to get away with running off more than one line. You could run a separate dedicated line to every component, each with its own conditioner (or not) and have no problem as long as they all have equal ground potential. Where the hum and noise comes in is when it is different. How different? When will it be a problem? Only way of knowing, do it and find out. So these things are more good housekeeping or good practice than guarantees.  

The one good thing about a dealer is you can bring the thing home and try it. Only problem, I have heard enough of these things to guarantee just about any of them will sound to you like a big improvement. It is only after going to the trouble of comparing a bunch of them that you will be able to figure out if one is better than another for the money. Do that enough times and then you are able to look at something like the Decware and go, yeah totally worth it. But you kind of have to go through it.   

Look at the neverending amplifier thread to see just how endless that kind of thing can be. 

Don't know what the JPS Power wire costs, or what your budget is. But I can tell you this. Look at my system. Read the details. Notice I am not recommending you use cryogenically treated wire, 240V step down, etc, etc. Why is that? Because it doesn't work? 

No. It totally works. But I have learned over the years there are lots of things that are way more bang for your buck. If it was me now (and I was paying electricians and having to follow code like you are) I would use ordinary 10 gauge, Synergistic Orange outlet, and spend the rest on HFT, ECT, PHT, Orange Fuses, Townshend Pods and Podiums, F1, stuff like that.  

The day you stick an Orange Fuse in your amp, or put it on Pods, or put your speakers on Podiums, or put HFT on your speakers, you will know what I'm talking about.
@millercarbon I'm interested in the Decware unit. I agree it will probably be a good value. He says one thing I need help with, though.

Decware: "Some people will wonder how this approach compares to a power re-generator so it pays to know that a power re-generator is a large power amplifier. It simply plays a 50/60 cycle note (sine wave) instead of music. It is, nevertheless, an amplifier whose performance is affected by incoming power quality just like anything else therefor it would make sense to plug a power re-generator in the Zen Line Conditioner."

My understanding was that if one buy a regenerator, they're done. That thing takes whatever power is in the wall and by regenerating power in a clean way, also cleans it up. That's what I take the P.S. Audio products to be claiming. Did I miss something? If one goes the regenerator route, do they also need a conditioner? 

If one goes the regenerator route, do they also need a conditioner?
No, you don't need both. A regenerator takes imperfect AC from the mains and generates the signal into a new clean sine-wave without noise and distortion. It's creating a new AC signal.
Conditioners usually apply filtering to the incoming AC to remove noise and grunge. It then passes this signal through to it's output.



@lowrider Thanks. So the statement on the Decware site is flat out false? Or maybe some regenerators work differently and need a conditioner?

@millercarbon Since you recommended the Decware unit, perhaps you know what Decware is saying that both lowrider and I are missing?