2. misc-audio
  3. 156719-128813

Dedicated 20 amp circuit - Electrician laughed!

I brought my electrician out to my house today to show him where I would like to install a dedicated 20a circuit for my system.  He laughed and said that's the stupidest thing he's heard and laughs when people talk about it.  It said, if you're going to do it, you have to have it separately grounded (shoving a new 8 foot rod into the ground) but even then, he sees no way there can be an audible improvement.

Now, he's not just an electrician though. He rebuilds tube amps on the side and tears apart amps and such all the time so he's quite well versed in audio electronics and how they operate.

He basically said anyone who thinks they hear a difference is fooling themselves.  

Personally, I'm still not sure, I'm no engineer, my room's not perfect, and I can't spend hours on end critical listening...  But, he does kinda pull me farther to the "snake oil" side and the "suggestive hearing" side (aka, you hear an improvement because you want to hear it).

I'm not taking a side here but I thought it was interesting how definitive he was that this not only WILL not make a difference but ALMOST CANNOT make a difference. 
dtximages
Post removed 
Post removed 
pokey77
1,269 posts
 
First, find an electrician that understands what you need.

Second, listen to jea48. He is the resident expert here.

Third, if you can afford it, get at least two dedicated lines. I have three. One for the amp. One for the analog components, and one for digital.

I did not put the audio system back in that I had prior to the dedicated lines, so sound wise I'm not 100% sure. But I plugged my TV into one of the dedicated lines and it was pretty easy to see the improvement - I'm pretty sure that this is a significant upgrade for my audio. In this hobby, everything matters. Many write in the archives that dedicated lines make a difference. Do it. And of course, enjoy.
jollygreenaudiophile2's avatar
jollygreenaudiophile2
275 posts
 
Ha ha, Ever notice that all of Mr. Ohm's calculations are, "Proportional"?

It is not a law. It is still an unproven theory. Like I said. And It doesn't always work either. "Which is why it will stay unproven.  You guys are going to believe what you wish to believe I guess. Hee hee. 

 They say, "Ignorance is bliss". 

I see it in peoples eye's all the time.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Ah, hem, a theory once proved is a law. You know, like the expansion of the universe, theory of General Relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravitation, the speed of light = c, E=mc^2 Things of that nature.

In the 1850s, Ohm’s law was known as such and was widely considered proved, and alternatives, such as "Barlow’s law", were discredited, in terms of real applications to telegraph system design, as discussed by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1855.[13]

The electron was discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thomson, and it was quickly realized that it is the particle (charge carrier) that carries electric currents in electric circuits. In 1900 the first (classical) model of electrical conduction, the Drude model, was proposed by Paul Drude, which finally gave a scientific explanation for Ohm’s law. In this model, a solid conductor consists of a stationary lattice of atoms (ions), with conduction electrons moving randomly in it. A voltage across a conductor causes an electric field, which accelerates the electrons in the direction of the electric field, causing a drift of electrons which is the electric current. However the electrons collide with and scatter off of the atoms, which randomizes their motion, thus converting the kinetic energy added to the electron by the field to heat(thermal energy). Using statistical distributions, it can be shown that the average drift velocity of the electrons, and thus the current, is proportional to the electric field, and thus the voltage, over a wide range of voltages.

More to discover