Dedicated circuits

@immatthewj

Isn’t one of the selling points of a dedicated circuits that other loads are eliminated which would dirty up the power to your audio components? Not necessarily that you have more current available, but "better" current?

There’s plenty of arguments and discussions to go around. Power conditioners aside, the basic requirement or need is the ability to provide a path of least resistance for AC power transfer from your circuit breaker box to your amplifier(s). How you accomplish that is up to you or your electrician. It is most times accomplished via dedicated AC circuits, with no other appliances or devices on them. That keeps them "clean" and able to deliver the maximum amount of current and voltage needed. Over-sizing can increase this capability.

Thanks for that @dpop , I decided to do 3 dedicated circuits about 25 years ago. I didn’t know then and still don’t know a whole lot about this stuff, but I used to work with a bunch of shade tree carpenters & electricians & I bought a book about basic home wiring. I put the outlets in and ran the 12-2 runs of Romex, and then I paid someone to install an upgraded box and connect my new circuits.

However, my stupid question is: in the course of living in our house, I found the need to relocate outlets. Twice, actually. I asked around (including the electrician people at Lowes) and I was told that it was legitimate to use a work box to create a junction in the dedicated circuit. So the two questions are:

1) was this actually a legitimate thing to do?

and

2) the three circuits are still dedicated in that there is nothing on them but my audio components, but did the work boxes in between them and the outlets degrade them and does it affect them that each as two other outlets that are not being used? Does that last question even make sense as written?

@immatthewj 

did the work boxes in between them and the outlets degrade them and does it affect them that each as two other outlets that are not being used?

I know some audiophiles really like to dissect every morsel of an AC circuit for audio, but in your case, I wouldn't sweat it. IMO, they're still considered dedicated circuits. Some with golden ears may not agree with that, but that's my opinion. 

FWIW:

jea48

3,919 posts

06-07-2022 at 08:04pm 

@kijanki

+1

 

Please explain what happens if the power transformer’s secondary winding voltage is lower feeding the rectifier, due to a quick AC mains VD event, and the electrolytic capacitors voltage is higher. Just going from memory the rectifier will not conduct and the caps do not get recharged for that "(millisecond pulse)" in time.

 

Jim

Response:

kijanki

4,296 posts

06-07-2022 at 08:46pm 

@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

I prefer Aluminum armored solid conductor 10 - 2 with ground MC (Metal Clad) cable for branch circuit wiring. MC NOT AC metal clad cable.

.

One topic that doesn’t get discussed much is available voltage. The rule of thumb is that what voltage can’t accomplish, current will (I know I’m probably getting a bit technical here). So let’s take that USA goal of providing 120 volts at an AC outlet, and you are measuring or only providing 115 volts (this can sometimes take place during hot air conditioning days in your neighborhood or building). Your amplifier could in reality pull more amps on peaks (compared to providing it 120 volts), due to the fact that you’re providing a lower AC voltage to it. This is when voltage drop becomes part of the equation. I guarantee that in most situations this won’t ever be a problem, but it is something to consider, especially with longer runs of AC wiring to the outlet from the circuit breaker box (technically called load centers). Again, this is normally not a big concern in almost all installations, except for some, but at the same time, it is worth noting. Here are a few examples of voltage drop charts:

Cerrowire Voltage Drop Chart

Voltage Drop Chart