Dedicated line questions...
There is a PS Audio video on YouTube about installing dedicated lines. He uses 30 amp (orange) romex with 20 amp receptacles. Is there any benefit to this? Is it worth the cost difference as 30 amp romex is more expensive. And is there much difference between less expensive and more expensive romex? The cost can vary widely between brands. |
Back in the day, early 1990's, when wire was a lot cheaper than today (and I knew a lot less than I know now) I ran mine like this only with even more overkill, 4 ga wire. Which probably equates to 80A. Don't know. Don't want to know! lol! Point is I have done this a couple times now, so that I know from actual experience just how much difference it makes. The biggest improvement by far is simply going direct, eliminating all the outlet-to-outlet connections of a normal circuit. This is very noticeable, but in the big scheme of things only about as big as upgrading to a Synergistic Research outlet or fuse. If that. Going from there to larger gauge wire, even monster overkill like mine, is not that much more. For what it costs nowadays, I about had a coronary looking at what copper costs these days. You could probably buy an outlet and a fuse and be way better off. In terms of pure sound quality for sure, and even more so if factoring in time and effort. Dedicated lines are more a long term investment kind of thing. If you are going to be there a very long time, and especially if you have long term upgrade plans, then its totally worth it. I have no regrets. But a lot of guys go into it like its some big deal, when really its just one more item on a very very incredibly unbelievably unimaginably long list of things that matter. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 |
More is better? In this case more probably makes absolutely no difference and might even be against code depending on the wiring that is already in place. Unless you have an extremely powerful amp and very inefficient speakers there is absolutely no benefit in using a 20 amp circuit. Everything in the house goes back to the breaker box. Running a separate line dose not isolate your equipment from anything. If you have a noise problem get rid of the noisy equipment and get stuff with well designed power supplies that reject/filter noise correctly. This is audio mythology of the highest order. But, if you want to waste money on feel good ridiculousness that is always your option. |
