Electrician Coming Over What to Do?

Stehno makes some very excellent points. However, i personally would not spend the money on the JPS cabling. While i do believe that AC cabling and geometry of said cabling can make a difference, i just don't think that it is an $18 per foot difference. I am currently looking for cabling that will perform optimally and not cost a fortune i.e. "the most bang for the buck". Along the same lines, i would look at the availability of various outlets. If you do go the dedicated ground routine, you may have to buy specialty outlets that float the ground connection separately from the conduit.

Obviously, the AC wiring and outlets are a matter of personal preferences / budget, so do what you think is best suited for your situation. I would stick with at least 10 gauge wire and nothing lighter though. You could use either 15 or 20 amp breakers using this approach, sizing them according to draw. This also takes into account safety precautions in terms of having a breaker so big that even "flaming" components would not trip it. Should you increase the load on a circuit that you originally install a 15 amp breaker on, you can always replace the breaker with a 20 amp and never be concerned about the wiring.

I would also add that you should remind the electrician that all of the circuits need to come off the same leg / phase of the circuit. In order to even out the load in the house, he may have to make some changes in your main breaker box.

Other than that, my experience is that dedicated lines do nothing to fight the noise that is already present coming in from the pole transformer. Such a set-up does offer an increased amount of isolation from other circuits within the building though. This can be further increased by running isolated grounds.

If you do go the isolated ground routine, you CAN NOT connect anything else to your audio system that is not plugged into your "standard" non-dedicated circuitry other than battery powered devices. Doing so would tie the two different grounds together, which could result in a lot of noise and what is even more important, a safety issue. As such, have all the lines put in now that you think you will ever need in the future.

I have never checked into "whole house surge supression", so i can't comment on that aspect of your question. I do not think it is a "bad idea", only that i'm sure that there are several different ways and products to achieve this. If you are interested in such an item, i would start researching it as soon as possible. The electrician may not be able to install such a device now, but he can do all of the necessary prep so that he would not have to "undo" all that he dows now to install such a device at a later date. Sean
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I'm an Electrician by trade and basically I agree with everything Natalie said.

I sold a couple pricey power conditioners after putting in six dedicated I.G. 20 amp circuits in my home.

If you want to know what else I think on this subject matter do a search on some of my "tech talk" threads.

Be forewarned I only have 20+ years of experience and can't compete with others having infinite knowledge of this subject matter.

Hey Natalie how long have you been an electrician?

Stehno, If you feel a power conditioner is still needed then your Electricain did not do a good job.
The point of an dedicated line is to have power with no noise on the circuit from other gear. So once this is done. What will the conditioner do. Make the power 1% better Maybe.
I have heard many a great system without the aid Of Power Conditioning. If your gear needs it to sound good I would suggest Better made Gear.

Natalie, I was the electrician for most of the work done. I noticed vast improvements with each incremental step. More than I thought possible.

So what did I do wrong?

Several weeks ago, I removed my amplifier's passive in-line power conditioner (an LC-2 by Foundation Research which retails for $900) from the mix. In place, I removed the outlet pulled my 10 gauge 99.95% OFC romex about 3 feet out of the wall and attached a cryo dipped Hubbell 20 amp IEC to the end and plugged it directly into the amp. Service Panel, 10gauge romex, hubbell audio grade IEC, amp. It doesn't get much more streamlined than that.

Immediately, I noticed an increase in sibilance, a raised noise floor, and slightly less purity to the higher frequencies. I undid the mod and put the Foundation Research LC-2 back into place between the outlet and the amp. Everything was better.

So tell me: What did I do wrong? I'm all ears.

Unless somebody is getting extremely clean AC from the pole(which is almost nobody), a GOOD power conditioner will always benefit.

Now, to give you a little credit: If one does not have dedicated lines, then it is easier to compare the difference between conditioned and non-conditioned AC. The dedicated lines do help minimize noise from appliances, dimmers, and digital sources, etc..

You may have heard 'many a great system without the aid of Power Conditioning', but I am confident in saying that without power conditioning alls you were hearing was a decent sound coming from a great system. Now to your ears maybe they sounded great too. But without proper AC conditioning, you were not hearing all that they had to offer.

But I still go back to my earlier statement about those who claim power conditioners do nothing for dedicated lines. 1. They either don't know what they are talking about. AND/OR 2. Their equipment is such that they really cannot tell the difference. Okay maybe a 3rd item. Perhaps their power conditioner isn't all that it was cracked up to be.

Can you guess which one I think you qualify for?

-IME

Glen I am Not. I am a Technical Sales Rep Selling goods that need clean power to operate properly. Mostly common sense.