What type of wire for dedicated 20A AC lines?

@pwayland , I would love to connect my amp into the wall with no conditioner if that works. Trouble is, my single 15A circuit (which has a few other devices in our house that are all off when my stereo is on) seems to pick up line noise during the day that doesn’t seem to come from our household. We have tenants with their own breaker panel that is branched off of ours, and whenever they go out, my sound quality goes up! But by far the best sound is after midnight- it’s so good I’m blown away every time I hear it and I can’t stop listening.

Because it’s clear that the source of the noise is 1) My tenants, and 2) the general grid in my neighborhood, these sources of noise will continue to exist after I install the dedicated lines. There is no logical reason why the dedicated lines will solve those two particular sources of AC line noise, and as such I think the only solution will be conditioning. I’d be extremely happy if I didn’t need one though. I’m really happy with my current tonal balance so I’d much prefer not to have to risk messing with that. But I will try experimenting with conditioners for sure if I still have those day/night massive SQ swings after installing the dedicated lines.

I also have an Innuos PhoenixNET on order, to isolate any noise coming in on the Ethernet. It’s generally very well reviewed and I got great results with the PhoenixUSB reclocker. In fact, the Reclocker along with my Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker wire and power cable (AQ Dragon HC for my amp) upgrades were what increased the resolution of my system and exposed the AC noise (or possibly Ethernet noise?) issue. Before these upgrades I was blissfully ignorant to the problem of noise!

In case you are wondering, I am not rich, I saved up a lot, and decided I didn’t need my rather newish semi-luxury car which we didn’t care about and still had payments on! My end-game cables and gear (which took decades of effort and a lot of disappointment before getting it right) make me way happier than my car did. Priorities!

@nyev 

if you run a dedicated line, why not plug your amp into the grounding device/conditioner with everything else? The amp will benefit from it along with all other components. 

@dancarlson10 , that’s totally an option. Since I will have two dedicated lines, I can borrow a demo Niagara 5000, and hopefully a Torus RM20 from another dealer, and if I’m really lucky, a Nordost QB8 (which isn’t a conditioner at all), and I can experiment to see what sounds best. Including simply connecting my amp straight to the wall. Nordost support has told me multiple times to be cautious with conditioners with amplifiers. While they generally work if they are designed to supply the necessary instantaneous current, Nordost says they change the tonal balance. Which I heard first hand trying the small AC line filtering device from Shunyata (Venom Power Defender). That device cleaned up the sound a bit, but also decreased lower frequencies while raising the upper frequencies, at least in my system. I don’t need or want my tonal balance changed, if I can help it!  Of note, Nordost twice now has told me that if a conditioner is really needed to deal with noise, that Torus is a good brand, or “I’ve heard good things about Torus”, but of course cautioned me to try first due to tonal impacts.

@nyev 

I have a QB8 and my amp is plugged into it. I haven’t noticed any negatives from doing it this way. Good luck! 
 

Ron 

Speaking as a former master electrician I would just run 12-2 WG for each line and save the extra money to spend on a good power conditioner. That is all you need.Voltage drops don't come into play until you get around 100 feet runs.