Please advise re dedicated circuit

You can consider two options in terms of were to get your line from; most people get them from a secondary panel or additional breakers connected to the primary house panel, a second and preferable option that many do not consider is to get a second primary panel directly from the power co. line into your home. The latter option may improve the overall quality of the power to your equipment and also may allow more flexibility in terms of type of wire and lenth. Be mindfull that 10ga wire is quite stiff and what you may think is a straight shot through the attic may in reality require multiple bends. I just finished doing a primary panel in my house for my 2-channel system and coming from the power co. meter to the panel we use ~40 ft. of 4ga copper wire to the breakers and only needed ~12 in. of 10ga straight through the wall into the outlets. We had the benefit doing it this way that the meter was on the same side of the house as my audio room, whereas the primary house panel is on the opposite side of the house and it would have taken ~100 ft of 10ga through the attic for each circuit run. Since we installed the audio panel outdoors, the 4 ga wire run from the meter was done underground with thick pvc pipe and fairly straight. Also, because the longer wire run is with the larger 4 ga wire, any voltage drop would be less than a long run with the 10 ga wire. Enough for now! Hope this helps.

Sean: I guess in my experiences I've used speakers with >88db sensitivity and >4 ohms. I know(the theory) the current requirements go up in a steep curve as either/both these figures go down.

I'll have to try something different and see if I can shoot flames across the room....:)

Marty

KCK: At 70 feet, you should be running 10 gauge at the minimum. Don't know the size of your amp or current draw, but the longer the run, the more voltage drop you'll have under load. Since it only costs a bit more for the 10 gauge versus the 12 gauge, use the heavier stuff right off the bat and be done with it. Even if you don't pull that much juice from the wall, you'll have peace of mind knowing that you are well covered, even for future use.

Marty: The "little" two channel Sunfire amp ( 300 @ 8 / 600 @ 4 ) can pop a 15 amp breaker if your standing on the volume with a 2 ohm load. As such, trying to drive SEVEN channels with a big amp and inefficient, low impedance speakers could be a real handful for anything less than an ideal AC circuit. Sean
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There are a lot of threads talking about dedicated circuits/10 gauge/12 gauge/15 amp/ 20 amp.

There seems to be a consensus for running 10 gauge to a 20 amp dedicated circuit. The more, the better.

Compromise-not much I think. I installed one, then added another at a later date. I have a monster 7 channel amp and the books strongly recommends a dedicated 20 just for itself(I think they are blowing smoke).

The main reasons if to separate analog front digital. I don't think your into analog. Also I like to keep subs on a different line since they tend to be "noisy".

Also the whole point really is to reduce the number of connections. If you do run two outlets from one line, have the first outlet by your main gear.

Marty

Thanks, I might try it. May hit a snag with the baseboard, though. Went under and looked for the existing outlet, could not see the wires leading to it, which means they are above the subfloor (of course they are!) I was actually thinking of replacing this outlet but now I think maybe a brand new one is the way to go, may be simpler.
Question: if doing two, is it a compromise to splice the second off the first? Yes I know the argument is for dedicated, but I would still be using only two boxes, both only for audio (and maybe video). Actually, with just the CDP and integrated amp to worry about on the audio side, maybe I just need one... but good to have two in case...

Always an improvement, no idea. I would bet heavily you would notice some improvement, really depends on how bad things were before. If the power is total poop, then the improvement would be greater.

I used 10g with a 20amp breaker. Some of the really big amps say they need this. Why not, bigger is always better right? 10g is harder to work with(thicker/stiffer) than 12g.

Cost-no clue. Less than $500 I assume. I did mine. Just put two in while your at it. Use new breakers and hospital grade outlets or better, isolated grounded outlets.

If you wired your own basement, that was much harder than this. The only hard part is actually feeding the cable from point A to point B. Just keep things really simple, run directly from the circuit breaker to the outlet. I used 10-3 and grounded the outside of the junction box(thing you mount the outlet in) also.

Good luck,
Marty