What's involved in dedicated lines

thanks, esp to you Harry for your thorough response. Viridian, I know that my main panel is not up to code and if and when I sell my home I'd have to replace it. Would changing it from the current fuse setup to breakers improve my stereo/ht even without dedicated lines.

Also, I did install some new outlets last year, FIM's, would a dedicated line necessitate using new outlets or can I use the ones I have now by runnning a new dedicated line to it? As you can see my Ph. D. is NOT in electrical engieering!

Gjkphd, changing out the fusebox without running dedicated lines will likely not help much. In fact, there are many audiophile proponents of the old screw-in fuse vs. the modern fuse which resets. However, the screw-in fuse is more dangerous since it is often too easy to replace with a wrong, higher amp fuse (they are all the same physical size) which is a fire hazard.

The FIM's are decent outlets. You might want to save a few bucks by staying with them. There is no need to switch them out from an electrical point of view. However, if you run dedicated lines, you may end up with more of them so you will then need to buy more outlets anyway. The Albert Porter outlets (Porter Plugs) are also very fine and worth looking into. In terms of the number of outlets you might need, my experience is "the more the better": One for each power amp, one for the digital front end, one for analog, one for preamp, one for TV etc. See earlier posts for a lot of discussion here. Harry's recommendation of a power conditioner may reduce the need for some of those outlets by allowing you to combine things -- e.g., preamps, analog setup into one conditioner and digital & TV into another while you plug power amps directly into wall outlets. Good luck.

Thanks Ozfly, can the outlets I use now be converted into the dedicated lines by running different cables to them, or do I have to install new, never before existing, outlets agt the end of the deeicated line runs?

I mean can I use the existing junction boxes that house my existing FIM outlets?