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HIGH Quality Electric Service Panel

Looking for recommendations on very good quality electric panel to use for my dedicated two channel room.  Thx.
stickman451
erik_squires
16,025 posts
 
Yep, Siemens and Square D offer in panel surge suppression, though I'd probably recommend it at the service entrance instead of a sub panel. The extra impedance of the line between the main panel and sub panel can keep the surge voltage high.

Always follow the NEC AND local codes. Always. If you don't know what that is, hire an expert who does.

Now one "trick" if affordable is instead to run a 220V line to a wall mounted step-down transformer instead. This will give you the lowest impedance, and a great deal of noise immunity. However it's so rarely done I doubt most electricians would be willing to do it in a home.

Best,


Erik

cousinbillyl
190 posts
 
Plitron manufactures toroidal transformers. They are affiliated with Torus. Torus builds a dedicated toroidal powered breaker box. This 'box' is no different from your standard breaker box, except that it houses a toroid to purify the electricity going to your stereo.

In my opinion, this is an overthetop exercise. The top of the line Equi=tech stand alone unit does the same thing. The advantage of a stand alone unit: it's close to your gear. This way you have short runs of power cords, they won't pick up 'stray' signal (rfi).

I'm sure I'm not alone. Once you feed your gear 'balanced' power, you'll never go back. Try the Equi=tech, you'll be amazed.
stickman451 OP
553 posts
 
I looked at balanced power; unfortunately it's just not in the budget.  

terry9
2,330 posts
 
Thing is that toroids like to growl while they work. Not what you want in your music room.

Balanced power can be a good thing, unless the equipment manufacturer connected the neutral leg of AC to ground. With normal utility power that's not a problem, but with balanced?

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

There is the Isoclean Zero Ohm breaker panel, but I’m not sure if they make it anymore since it’s not listed in their current products (used pure copper elements and gold plating). At $5k, I don’t think it’s in your budget, since balanced power is not. I have seen some panels that have a built-in isolation transformer, but I can’t remember the brands.

Like Eric said, Siemens or SquareD. In my case, I went with SquareD because it was available locally. Use 20 amp breakers instead of 15 amp. Run as many circuits as you want. Use a single run of Romex per outlet. You can have two runs of Romex connect to one breaker (but check local code on this).

You can get cryo treated Romex here:

http://audiosensibility.com/blog/accessories/parts/wire-and-cable/#!/Cryo-Treated-Electrical-Cable/c/5828813/offset=0&sort=normal

I’ve used this vendor many times and he is excellent. Even though he’s Canada location, he ships via USPS Priority from New York to anyone in USA. Prices are in CAN (just multiply his price by .77 and you get USD - for today’s exchange rate).

I have noticed a difference in sound between the awg of the Romex. A 10 awg Romex can carry a lot of current and is great for amplifiers. However, source/preamp equipement is more sensitive to the awg and will blare somewhat (push to hard) with larger gauge romex. Amplifiers are much less sensitive to this. Using a 12awg Romex for source/dac/preamp is probably better. I actually use a double-run of 14awg Romex for my preamp outlet (essentially a 11awg run).

Of course, choose good quality outlets. I recommend Furutech FPX Cu (unplated copper) as a minimum. It’s a good neutral sound that is fairly inexpensive You can go with gold-plated if you want a warmer/softer sound or rhodium plated if you want the detail/punch/resolution.

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