Dedicated Outlets - The Latest Recommendations

Many thanks to all for the suggestions, and apologies for my slow response.

Since @inna was first to respond, I went out and bought a generator, and hooked it up in my listening room.  Unfortunately, due to the racket, the only thing I could listen to was Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music," which sounded pretty good--until I was overcome by the carbon monoxide.  Luckily, the generator eventually ran out of gas, and I slowly came around.  I'm thinking now that maybe I was supposed to leave the generator outside??

On the other hand, I really appreciate all the other suggestions, especially the highly specific ones from @jea48 .  I will attempt to digest all the specifics and communicate them to my electrician.  I have a feeling there may be a certain amount of arm twisting involved, but I'll see what he has to say.  Luckily, as a long-time audiophile, I'm used to people thinking I might be a bit whacky.

Thanks again!

If you look for an electrical contractor that does commercial work, not just residential, you may already be in the ballpark in terms of dealing with some of this stuff (less arm-twisting). At least that's been my experience. Good luck.

I went through the same gyrations recently.  Here are a couple things to consider:

Use a panel that has a copper bus bar.  The only commercially available panel I found that fits the bill is a Square-D QO series panel.  The QO panels are more for commercial use...the copper is "tinned" so it will not look like copper though.  All other panels I looked at had aluminum bus bars, including the Square-D Homeline series.

Your electrician will really fight you when you tell him to put all circuits one one leg but stay strong!  FYI, in many panels each leg alternates from slot to slot on each side.....each side is not necessarily on one leg or the other.

One thing I did not do, that I suppose I could have, was to run 10-3 Romex instead of 10-2.  10-2 has two insulated legs and an uninsulated ground.  10-3 has three insulated legs and an uninsulated ground.  Some people recommend 10-3 and using the 3rd insulated wire as a ground and not using the uninsulated leg.  Supposedly it is possible for the uninsulated ground wire to act as an antennae for RFI.  Just something to chew on.  One caveat....10-3 is very very stiff.

Lastly, one thing I'd like clarified from someone else....How do you define a sub-panel?  We ran a dedicated panel for my audio circuits directly off the meter loop and gave it its own ground.  When I hear "sub-panel" I assume this means it is tapped off the main panel.

Good luck!