AC Dedicated Line

perazzi28

A 20 amp circuit should be a 20 amp breaker with 12 gauge 2 conductor + ground.

Not necessarily - it depends in part on the distance between the panel and the outlet. Always check NEC and your local authority.

Exceeding the recommended wire gauge for a specific amperage breaker is just plain dangerous.

It isn’t clear what you mean here, as Al has already noted. It is absolutely safe to use a thicker wire than is required by code.

Attempting to wire 3 separate circuits to your hi-fi room to 3 separate outlets is a terrible waste of $$ and you will absolutely assure yourself of a serious ground loop & concomitant noise/hum.

Hmmmm, not in my system. Just the opposite!

Many people are under the misconception that the electrical ground for your home/apartment/domicile (in the foregoing referred to as home) is provided by your electric company. Very false. The ground is a true earth ground made by the electrician that wired your home. It is a 6’ copper rod driven in the ground and connected to your electrical panel with a large single conductor to the ground bar in your service panel.

You are mistaken. Electricity flows back to the source. The grounding rods are safety grounds.

All of your grounds go to that ground bar in your service panel.

That’s true.

The ground is a true earth ground made by the electrician that wired your home. It is a 6' copper rod driven in the ground and connected to your electrical panel with a large single conductor to the ground bar in your service panel.

Very False.

Many locales permit Ufer grounding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufer_ground and https://www.ecmag.com/section/codes-standards/what-ufer-ground-concrete-encased-grounding-electrodes

Ufer efficacy, like most things audio, is contentious. Concrete resistivity varies dramatically [≈10^4]. Factor in construction vagaries, rebar fabrication code compliance, local soil and the likelihood of two installation being identical is slim.

Any ground rod MUST tie to the panel neutral. Any circuits that have the safety ground connected to 'earth rod' only are illegal and dangerous. The earth [dirt] is high impedance and insufficient breaker trip current will flow when an equipment fault makes the chassis live.

How many 'AC Dedicated Lines' are actually worse from using incorrect safety grounds and steel conduit and random wrap individual LNE than the plain old Romex it replaced?

My electrician retired and referred me to a Master Electrician that works the panels on nuke submarines at nearby Bath Iron works.  He seems generally interested in my audiophile pursuits.  I had already upgraded to dedicated 10ga wires to the sound studio, however, he reworked the single panel, keeping the larger draw appliances "away" from the music lines in, on the opposite side of the panel.  Subsequently, I have upgraded the outlet, cover and male ends of my plugs to Furutech top tier products, with justifiable success.  I unplug my gear during storms and trips away, and love the "grip" used by the outlets.  They are smooth and firm by design, unlike the vice grip of hospital grade outlets that can actually reduce contact over time.  Also, a reminder...I trip the main power circuit breaker and the individual circuits every 6 months or so to keep everything optimum.  So it goes...More Peace, Pinthrift

he reworked the single panel, keeping the larger draw appliances "away" from the music lines in, on the opposite side of the panel.

Well, that’s a new one.

Behind the panel where most never look are two great big bus bars. All the breakers attach to the bus bars. These things are so thick it can’t matter where on the bar you take off.

Regardless of which side of the panel they are mounted on all 240V breakers are run off of both bars. Otherwise they would be 120 instead of 240. That’s just how it works.

All the circuits, every single one of them, they are all just as electrically connected to every other circuit on one side as on another. The only thing putting a lot of them on one leg can accomplish is to draw more from that leg. This won’t have any effect, except for one thing- some amps have transformers that are susceptible to noise caused by DC on the line. Having less active drawing circuits on the system side might- might!- help lower this DC offset and lessen the liklihood of getting this kind of DC offset transformer hum.

The biggie though with panels is the RFI they bring into the system. I didn’t believe this until a simple test proved it. First I flipped all the breakers to every circuit except for my system. This is the only way to break the electrical connection between all the circuits. The sound with everything disconnected like this is like the sound you get late at night when the grid is quiet- blacker backgrounds, greater effortless detail, much less grain and glare.

This is different than turning everything off. Turn something off, it is still connected to the wires, to the panel, and back to your system. Don’t believe me, do like I did, try it both ways. Turn everything off and listen. Then flip the breakers off and listen.

Or do the other test I did, which is to flip off all the breakers with things that are running and listen. Then flip off the breakers with things that are NOT running and listen. Even disconnecting things that are turned off makes an improvement. Therefore it has to be that the wires themselves are acting like antennas bringing RFI into the system. Its not just EMF etc from running appliances. Its the wires.

I sound like Mark Wahlberg in that stupid MKnightSham I am movie, "Its the trees!"

Pretty sure this is the big secret that accounts for at least some of why The Gate works so well. Anyway, you want to hear what all those circuits are doing to your sound? Go flip em off.

he reworked the single panel, keeping the larger draw appliances "away" from the music lines in, on the opposite side of the panel.

There are many threads related to this concept, consensus seems to be keeping high-current-draw appliances and SMPS devices away from audio circuits. I mean keeping a physical distance on the service panel for the audio line’s hot and neutral; ie, audio line breakers near top of panel. Refrigerator, air conditioner, etc. located lower.

My panel with subpanel is wired this way, although I disagree with all high current appliances wired to the opposite leg. The service panel must have a relatively even current draw on each leg.

I differ to @jea48 and @almarg on this subject.