Should I redo the AC power in my house?

FWIW, the know it all resident clown on this forum..

@erik_squires

jea48 said:

It does nothing for the sound of an audio system.

@erik_squires response:

I dont’ think this is proven, or even well investigated. If you wanted to show this, you’d have testing done with say, an elevated ground and measurements of noise on the ground wire in a home, and then also do some testing to see how well this noise can or cannot couple to audio systems.

Fact!
Mother earth does not possess some magical mystical power that sucks nasties from an audio system. If anything it can introduce noise onto the AC mains.


Grounding Myths

"Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering" by Henry Ott

3.1.7 Grounding Myths

More myths exist relating to the field of grounding than any other area of electrical engineering. The more common of these are as follows:

1. The earth is a low-impedance path for ground current. False, the impedance of the earth is orders of magnitude greater than the impedance of a copper conductor.

2. The earth is an equipotential. False, this is clearly not true by the result of (1 above).

3. The impedance of a conductor is determined by its resistance. False, what happened to the concept of inductive reactance?

4. To operate with low noise, a circuit or system must be connected to an earth ground. False, because airplanes, satellites, cars and battery powered laptop computers all operate fine without a ground connection. As a mater of fact, an earth ground is more likely to be the cause of noise problem. More electronic system noise problems are resolved by removing (or isolating) a circuit from earth ground than by connecting it to earth ground.

5. To reduce noise, an electronic system should be connected to a separate “quiet ground” by using a separate, isolated ground rod. False, in addition to being untrue, this approach is dangerous and violates the requirements of the NEC (electrical code/rules).

6. An earth ground is unidirectional, with current only flowing into the ground. False, because current must flow in loops, any current that flows into the ground must also flow out of the ground somewhere else.

7. An isolated AC power receptacle is not grounded. False, the term “isolated” refers only to the method by which a receptacle is grounded, not if it is grounded.

8. A system designer can name ground conductors by the type of the current that they should carry (i.e., signal, power, lightning, digital, analog, quiet, noisy, etc.), and the electrons will comply and only flow in the appropriately designated conductors. Obviously false."

Henry W. Ott

Who is Henry Ott?
http://www.hottconsultants.com/bio.html

The best way to introduce noise as well as a difference of potential, voltage, onto the chassis of audio equipment is by using an isolated dedicated driven earth ground rod.

(isolated dedicated driven earth ground rod? An Earthed grounding electrode that is not connected to the electrical service main grounding system. Therein Grounding Electrode System.)

When an isolated dedicated ground rod is not connected the electrical service Grounding Electrode System a difference of potential will exist between the two earth connected grounding electrodes. Always.

A year ago or so I got into a pissing contest with an EE on another forum. So for a test to prove I was right I drove a 5/8" x 8ft ground rod in the rock garden outdoors by my 2ch audio room. The rod is about 70ft to 80ft from the electrical service’s three 5/8" x 10ft driven ground rods. Also incoming water main piping is 1" copper buried in the earth probably at least 6ft that is part of the electrical service grounding electrode system.

I just did a quick measurement between the two isolated grounding electrodes and I measured 216 - 220 AC mV.

FWIW... The year or so ago test I connected the hot 120V AC conductor of a 20 amp circuit to the isolated dedicated ground rod to prove the 20A breaker would not trip open. And as I already knew the breaker did not trip.

Was there a problem that the OP had?
Or was it just upgrade for upgrade sake?

I have 4 separate 20 amp lines going into my listening room. Everything is segregated and silent.

Was cheap as my best friend did the work for free and I fixed his wife's car.

As far as Millercarbon's comment about where to spend your money. If you have shite electrical service coming into your house then you will have shite sound with $5k spent on fuses, cables and pods.

Get the core right and the rest will fall into place.

If there is trouble starting at the power transformer itself, that is where you begin. In my case, the house that I bought was built in 1930. That is reason enough to dig into what should be done for at least recent local code. I called the city electric provider and started there. They replaced the old cloth 3 wire line from the transformer that ran through the trees and more, not to just my house, but the 3 other homes coming from the new transformer. Damned near everything was replaced due to the old way that was likely overlooked back in the day. Grounding was one of my concerns and so the main ground is connected to the well pipe which is extended 25 feet below the surface of the earth. It went on and on like that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, since if things were substandard to begin with due to age or other considerations, how the hell could you expect the cleanest/best performance to begin with? I was able to get as much right as I could before the rest could be accomplished. FWIW, the city had to buy new transformers for our substation this year. Fortunately, they went above and beyond what was needed, unlike the last time, when one of them caught fire.