AC Dedicated Line

plga

I just measured last week my system and the subs consumption and, even at loud volume, more than what I hear normally, my system didnt consumed more than 1 amp and neither did the subs.

At first I thought the meter was wrong, but then I remembered that the DC Blocker had also a meter and I saw it measured very similar to the external meter.

rbstehno

I don’t agree that running 1 - 20amp circuit is all you need. Without knowing all the equipment you have today or you will get in the future, why only put in 1 circuit when running wire for 2 or more circuits isn’t that much more?

Here we see the difference between people who actually know what they’re talking about and flat out unsubstantiated opinion. Just like I said, now confirmed (and the best kind of confirmation, objectively measured, twice) audio circuits do indeed draw a whole lot less power than people think. Even I would never have said so little but there you go. Measured. Twice.

Well again max power draw occurs most often when devices are first turned on and the empty caps are charging. After that its pretty minimal, even at full volume.

plga again

The main power of my home is triphasic and, from the main board, all the monophasic circuits are connected to somehow balance each phase with similar current.

Thanks for that. We have three phase here in the US as well but here its mostly used commercially and residentially only when people request and pay for it. I know one guy with a killer wood shop running three phase. That’s it.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Not for what you’re doing. The advantage of three phase is its cheaper because it allows transmission of twice the electricity with the same amount of conductor material. Once it gets to your house panel though then you work with it just the same as our two phase AC. The panels in all our homes have two rows of breakers, one for each phase. Yours has three. Looks different but really the same. Because in both cases each circuit runs from one of the hot phases to neutral.

So you can do everything just like I said. Only little wrinkle would be you want to pull your hot from whichever one of the three has the least draw already on it. In other words try and keep it balanced. Same as you would here.

Probably should mention, I got a PM about this, the biggest best value of all this is if before installing you have all your wire cryo’d. Anyone with liquid nitrogen and a chest freezer can do this for you. Don’t pay a lot and don’t pay shipping. Find someone local or don’t bother. For sure don’t waste your money on anyone touting special audiophile treatment. They are full of it. But do cryo if you can. Huge improvement.

Wouldn’t it be riskier to use a larger breaker on a circuit than necessary? If you only draw 5 amps a 30 amp circuit may never trip. That was my understanding. Electricians, here, is that right?

@jbhiller
I’m an EE rather than an electrician, but keep in mind that the purpose of a breaker is to prevent the AC wiring from overheating, if more current is drawn through it than it is rated to handle. Its purpose is not to protect audio components or other devices that may be powered via that wiring. So if the AC wiring and the outlets are rated to handle 30 amps or more, a 30 amp breaker is suitable.

@ieales
Ian, thanks for providing a quantitative perspective on these matters, especially in the analysis you provided in the thread you linked to. My perception over the years, generally speaking, is that in the absence of a quantitative perspective it becomes very easy to attribute a perceived sonic effect to the wrong variable. As you said in that thread:

... many of the wiring ’improvements’ noted result from having a new clean home run with no quick-connects, aged connections and sockets. Heavier wire is used and any improvements are falsely ascribed to the wire gauge rather than the drastic reduction in line resistance.

Best regards,
-- Al

ieales

Not so. Full current is supplied by the PSU caps.

You’re either deliberately splitting hairs here, or just not reading carefully. Obviously, the PSU caps can’t supply current to components not connected to it, but which are connected to other dedicated lines and power supplies. Those components are indeed powered by their individual caps which are charged by ... the line. They can’t be charged by the line if it has run out of current - hence the advantage of dedicated lines. (And a reason to not power all components from the same leg - but that’s a separate and debatable issue.)

Its a common misconception, that the big benefit of the dedicated line is current. It sure does not seem that way to me. And I think I've done the comparisons that would show this to be the case if it were.

Originally, thanks to my electrician/contractor/FIL who insisted, my room was a normal 15A circuit. Normal in gauge. Normal in the circuit running from outlet to outlet, four or five of them, including lights, with my system outlet sort of in the middle of this mess. Pretty much like every normal house.

When I replaced this with one wire run directly to the one system outlet the improvement was huge, obvious, unambiguous. Even though it was the same breaker, same wire. Only thing different, one continuous wire not going outlet to outlet with multiple connections at each.

Next I replaced the normal gauge (10/2 I think, whatever) with overkill 4 ga. Many times thicker, mega overkill, never would do it today but didn't know as much back then. Thought it would be mega better. It was only barely better. 

Again, almost all the improvement with a dedicated circuit comes from eliminating extra connections. Connections. Not current.

For my next trick I found a local guy with a cryo tank, chatted him up, learned more than you can imagine about cryo, had all my wire done. Yes I pulled the wire out of my house and had it cryo'd.

Cryo makes a lot more improvement than anything you can do with gauge or voltage or whatever.

Finally, or close enough, I changed the same wire from 120V to 240V and added a crazy overkill silver wire step down transformer. Thought it would be mega, turned out minor. 

By far the biggest benefit is to just run one wire direct to your system outlet. Next after that, cryo. Anything beyond that gets into a whole lot more time and money and work and yes it is better but not by much.

millercarbon

Its a common misconception, that the big benefit of the dedicated line is current. It sure does not seem that way to me.

I have found it to be a major benefit, but I have a complex biamplified system with big amplifiers.

Originally ... my room was a normal 15A circuit. Normal in gauge. Normal in the circuit running from outlet to outlet, four or five of them, including lights, with my system outlet sort of in the middle of this mess. When I replaced this with one wire run directly to the one system outlet the improvement was huge, obvious, unambiguous. Even though it was the same breaker, same wire. Only thing different, one continuous wire not going outlet to outlet with multiple connections at each.

Yup, I'm not surprised that resulted in improvement. Tight, direct connections; simple, direct grounds; those things make a big difference.

Next I replaced the normal gauge (10/2 I think, whatever) with overkill 4 ga.

Whoa, 4AWG! That's huge, and difficult to install. For a 20A line, 8 or 10 AWG should be fine and is still way beyond code.