New Dedicated Line - Almost No improvement

RE: outlet burn-in. Interesting and I had no idea. As a newbie I think burn in is the most annoying thing about this hobby (wife issues aside). I'll just leave them in because ......although I have about 180 hours on my Sapphire M3s and about 90 hours on the tweeters (had to replace those after too much volume) I'm reading again and again on Audio Circle that they really need 500 hours so I've got a ways to go before those are burned in anyway. That said, if I wanted to speed up the process I could remove one at a time and run my PC through it that I'm on all day at work.

RE: Spouse and dedicated room. We have a 4 BR home, mbr, office, wife's office and yoga room and lastly a spare BR. So they are all taken. My plan is that she usually stops watching tv around 9:30 PM and then spends 2 hours doing chick stuff. If I'm not buried at work I will be able to listen from 9:30-11:30 once (!!!) I sound proof the MBR door some wich of course leads out to the LR/stereo room. I figure once I sound proof the door (as much as possible) i can at least listen at 70 db which is fine. Then when she leaves for doctor or hair or yoga the volume will immediately go up to 85-90 db which is where i usually like it.

RE: the topic of this thread :) , so many opinions (which of course is fine and the reason I created it) that I'll have to spend some more time sorting through them. I do want to look at a few things mentioned and will be discussing with my electrician and will also read ditusa'a link. I been slammed at work today (with a ways to go) so I haven't had a chance to look in the breaker box again but will do so. 

RE: impact of SQ - I was just reading my EMI reading for the dedicated outlet vs. the regular outlets and not seeing much of a change. May or may not affect SQ. In an earlier post someone made a good point about this when listening to quieter passages - which I will do once I mount my cart and will put on the Wall or DSOTM or Abaraxis (sp) - there is a long list to choose from.

Thanks again all. I appreciate your time and expertise. As mentioned I will go through all of these a few times – especially this weekend when I have more time for it to sink in and look at the panel/breaker box. Will also discuss w/ my electrician.  

My story:

I’m not too savy when it comes to electrical knowledge.  In my case, I hired a highly regarded electrician who installed multiple 20 amp dedicated lines to my music room. He did an extensive rebuild/update of my box so everything is up to code.  Everything has worked flawlessly since the work was complete.  He installed the lines on a separate leg in my original breaker box.  I did it mostly for my power amp which the manufacturer recommends be run on a dedicated 20 amp line.

It made a dramatic difference in the performance of my system.  Due to my lack of knowledge, I hired an electrician with a stellar reputation in hopes I wouldn’t be taken advantage of…it wasn’t cheap (at all) but system performance really improved.  

i plan to retire and sell my house in the next 5 years.  I wonder if I’d have been better off buying a power regenerator that I could take with me when its time for me to go…

Installing dedicated lines should not be astronomically expensive. Twenty years ago… I think one cost me $300… last year $1,500 (it was a hard location to get to). The $1,500 was well worth it. It doesn’t take any sophisticated electrician… in fact, most of them think you are crazy. You just tell them what you want. For me, five years would be well worth the sound quality improvement I received.

An audio friend of mine really got into it with high end audio wiring and lots of extras. I think he thought it worth while. But you get a lot for just the basics. 10 gauge Romex. 

In my case (2022) it was $1500 for the 4 lines and about the same to upgrade/rebuild the box. I also had him inspect my ground rod. The connection to the box was badly decayed (he showed me that) so the ground was not even connected. This apparently made my whole house surge protector worthless. I had him drive a new ground rod and redo the connection for $750. Around $4K all in…It took the electrician and his assistant two full days to complete the job.

He openly said I was insane. I showed him the prices of aftermarket power cables…he said he was starting a new business LOL. We enjoyed a bottle of bourbon and a listening session the last evening. He had no idea what a quality home audio system could do.

My power conditioner has a pure sine wave output and I'm loving it.