More questions about dedicated lines


We are moving to a new house built in 2007  and I am fortunate enough to be able to move a wall to create a room with golden ratios. I will need to run some new electric and it gives me the opportunity to run dedicated lines.  I have spent countless hours rummaging through the 7k discussions on this topic and have a decent idea of what is needed.  My plans are to have four runs of Romex 10/2, one each for each monoblock VAC signature 200's, my digital, and my Audiokinesis swarm which has not be set up yet.  I estimate the runs to be conservatively 45 feet including up and down distances. All runs will be of equal length ending in SR  outlets. They will be separate from each other and all other lines and no metal staples will be used.  When I told him I my goal was to have the best sound he offered a suggestion that I hadn't come across in my electrical education here on the gon.  He suggested placing what sounded like a commercial power regenerator with a large battery bank as the first step out of the breaker box and running lines from this.  The other options were to run from a preexisting sub panel that has the pool pump and a few lights on it, but nothing else.  Third is straight out the breaker box.  He wanted to put the runs closest to the utility line in, stating that there will be less noise upstream than downstream, but this puts these lines next to a big double breaker (cant' remember what it is but is sure to be noisey).  He understands that I want all lines on the same phase, or line,leg.  My questions are: Of the three options, which would be best?  Is there anything else needed to minimize the risk of ground loop hum if I use separate hot, return, and gound for each line and not share ground neutrals and keep all lines separated from themselves and other lines.  If going through a subpanel with little on it, how do I manage to keep all runs on the same phase without unbalancing the breaker? A third tangential question-Is it best to use metal or plastic housing boxes for the receptacle? The question of durability of the plastic fatiguing and breaking following repeated plugging and unplugging has been mentioned but I didn't see an answer.  Finally, a huge thank you to jea and almarg for their voluminous responses in all the prior electrical discussions-I got an education.  Sadly, I still don't speak electricalese.
orthomead
@ orthomead


Just curious,


Where is the main electrical panel located? Example, garage, laundry room, mechanical room, on the outside of the house. Manufacturer of panel? Electrical panel main breaker size?

Where is the sub panel located?
How big is the sub panel, ampere rating? What is the handle ampere rating of the 2 pole breaker in the main electrical panel that feeds the sub panel? (Number is on the breaker handle) How many empty spaces are left in the sub panel? Number of empty spaces on each side? Panel manufacture?

Any idea how big, horse power rating, the pool pump motor is? Voltage rating? 120V or 240V? Is the motor controlled by a VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) controller?


I think you should use a separate 20 amp line to each amplifier. Use three wire Romex just in case you ever want to run a 220 volt amp. Then you need one other 20 amp line to a power conditioner/surge protector. I use a Furman 2400 IT which I can not recommend highly enough. All my other equipment is plugged into it. All grounds should go back to the panel. Ideally all signal connections should be balanced including your turntable. Any standard outlets will do. Spend the money on your power conditioner. Audiophile outlets are a bad joke like cable elevators. 
Ouch. Oh well. There are those who "know" because they "think" and there are those who know because they have done- AND HEARD.

I find solace in thinking those who throw away vast sums on bad advice have such vast sums they won’t even notice.

One thing I cannot quite figure out though. If the whole point is to get better sound, why take advice from people who say right up front they can’t hear? Especially when at the same time they are admitting they don’t know, because they haven’t done?

Oh well. Your money. Throw a match, watch it burn for all I care.
Wow ..... that is some serious sour grapes. I will repeat what Almarg posted, and point out the obvious inverse/square law, i.e. RF sources nearby will have far more impact than distant ones:

Regarding the possibility of using the large commercial regenerator that was suggested by the electrician, if I understand correctly this sounds as if it may be something like a very powerful UPS (uninterruptable power supply). If so, what I would ask about is the possibility that the circuitry in it might generate significant RFI (radio frequency interference). I can tell you that if I bring a portable battery powered radio within a foot or so of the relatively small UPSs I use for my computer systems (which are the type that generates true sine waves, not stepped approximations of sine waves as is done by many inexpensive UPS devices that are presumably more noisy) the high frequency noise radiated by their circuitry is picked up very strongly in the AM band.

Use three wire Romex just in case you ever want to run a 220 volt amp.


You don’t need a 3 wire with ground Romex cable for 240V. A 2 wire with ground Romex is all that is needed.


Problem with using a 3 wire with ground Romex cable for a 2 wire circuit is what do you do with the unused conductor? Ground it? Leave it floating, taping both ends?
Floating the unused wire will act as an antenna and will introduce RF noise onto the circuit conductors.

If the unused wire is grounded because of the lay, position, of the conductor in the Romex cable, the hot and neutral current carrying conductor’s magnetic fields will induce a voltage on the grounded wire. Result is a ground loop and hum.

Worth mentioning again, as I have mentioned before in other posts, two conductor with ground NM sheathed cable (Romex) is not the best branch circuit wiring for controlling induced voltage from the magnetic fields of the hot and neutral current carrying conductors. The reason is because the paper filler that surrounds the bare ground wire does not rigidly hold the ground wire centered between the hot and neutral conductors. Twisting the Romex cable, imo, would make it even worse, not better.

A better Branch circuit wiring is 3 wire MC (Metal Clad) armored cable. (Hot, neutral, and green insulated ground) The 3 wires are tightly held together in a spiral twist housed inside a metallic armor. MC cable is manufactured with a steel armor or aluminum armor. Also manufactured with solid or stranded conductors. (Solid wire is recommended for audio branch circuit wiring.)
Example of MC armored cable.
http://www.afcweb.com/mc-metal-clad-cables/mc-lite-aluminum-armored-cable/

Best branch circuit wiring is to twist the hot and neutral conductors together and install the equipment ground along side the twisted pair in a conduit.

Jim
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