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What type of wire for dedicated 20A AC lines?

I’m about to have two 20A dedicated lines installed. What type of wire should I use? I know there are differences of opinion on whether to use 10 AWG or 12 AWG, however the link below makes a great case for using even 8 AWG solid core copper on longer runs like mine will be (50 ft), to ensure a lower resistance, lower voltage drop over the long run, and therefore more access to instantaneous current for my Gryphon Diablo 300. The wire would need to be stepped down to 10 AWG to connect with the receptacle. The article actually states that the thickness of the wire is more important than the fact that it is dedicated…

Assuming I want to follow this advice, which again makes sense to me, where would I find such wire to give to my electrician?

 

nyev
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 

@jea48   You are right - there will be no current thru rectifiers until capacitor voltage will drop below rectifier supplied peak voltage.  Theoretically it is possible to build LPS where capacitors keep average instead of peak voltage, but it requires huge inductor in series (in order of Henries) made with thick wire and AFAIK nobody is doing it.  One problem is lower rail voltage (average instead of peak) while the other is dependency on the load current.

http://www.r-type.org/articles/art-144.htm

nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

This stuff is awesome and I barely comprehend the explanations, but it sounds like there are strong arguments that I’m going to really going to enjoy my big fat 10AWG wires with lower resistance, enabling more rapid access to glorious peak current, all for like two hundred bucks extra, give or take. And if the anti 10-gauge crew end up being right and it does nothing, the extra bucks will totally still be worth it knowing those big fat wires are providing the juice!  Can’t go wrong.

 

kingrex
107 posts
 

There is more to it than just adding a 10 awg wire.  I design electrical infrastructure to support audiophiles homes as well as manufacture premium panelboards.  I have a pretty dense 6 page specification on how to assemble it all.

FWIW, if your going through the trouble of adding a line, add 2 to 4.  Its not much more money and you will hear the difference. 

kren0006
1,859 posts
 

@kingrex

I’ve read different opinions on running all gear in system through single 20A line versus multiple. I don’t know enough to have an opinion myself yet on this.

 

If someone were to install three 20A lines for a single 2ch system, let’s say, how should they determine the components to be driven by each line? Let’s say system has 2 monoblock amps, a preamp, a digital system (e.g., dac, streamer/server, sacd player, maybe external clock), an analog system (TT, phono pre). What goes to each of the three lines? or two lines?

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,887 posts
 

FWIW, if your going through the trouble of adding a line, add 2 to 4. Its not much more money and you will hear the difference.

I agree! I installed four dedicated lines one for each mono block amp, one for digital and one for analog.

Mike

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