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advice on dedicated line

Hello.

I need to have an electrician do some work on my house, and am mulling over a dedicated line for my sound system while she or he is there.

I am new to this, though, and not especially sophisticated about electrical matters. So I am wondering what exactly I want to ask for, and thought maybe you all would know.

I have an amplifier, a cd player, a Sonos unit, and a DAC.

Do I want two dedicated lines--one for the amplifier and one for everything else? So 2 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire?

Do I need to say something else about ground wires etc? About the breaker box?

Can I get 3 outlets on one dedicated line?

What kind of outlets do I want?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

mc
mcanaday
rello
311 posts
 
Elizabeth is correct,,,there is really no need for more than one 20 amp line and you are looking for grounding issues otherwiseÂ…even some manufacturers discourage it
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,411 posts
 
Thank you, Al. A great explanation that I can understand.
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
What an education! Thanks, everyone. Even with pros and cons, I confess I am tempted by the simpler route of one 10 gauge 20 amp line with the Porter -port. Would it be workable for me to get 6 outlets instead if 4 in case I ever wanted to plug in a small fm receiver to listen to the news? Or is that pushing my luck?

Also I am assuming that if I just one 20 amp line the points Elizabeth initially raised (circuits on same leg, nothing adding to more than 120) are not things I need to worry about.

In fact, with the single 20 amp line is there anything special I need to tell the electrician other than I want 10 gauge wire, to put the line on the least noisy side of the box, that I want nothing but my audio on this line, and to be careful with the ground wire? Is there anything else I would need to specify?

Thanks again very much. I would be lost without you folks!

Margot
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bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Excellent post Jim. Thanks. That's exactly where I'm heading. I may go for 2 or 3 dedicated Romex circuits. A 15 amp job for my CDP. A 15 or 20 amp line for just the amp, although I suspect 15 amps would be major overkill since the amp pulls about 800 watts (or 7.5+ amps when driving a heavy load). And a 3rd line for the rest of the my gear.
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