When I built my house, I had one 30 amp circuit installed for the front wall to use with the amps, and a second 30 amp circuit installed on the side wall for the source components. I can't imagine anyone really needing 60 amps of power. But specifying 30 amps circuits gets 10 gauge wire, and I like the idea of separating the amps from the source components. Since it is rather hard to compare one vs two circuits, I can't say this is necessary, but the cost is minimal. I would do it again. You might talk to Chris VenHaus about using some of his wire for your project. His e-mail is [email protected]. Good luck. |
Gofaststang,
I know alot has been discussed about this topic but as with many aspects of this hobby,there's alot of information and viewpoints. Thanks for the advice! |
Unless your amp is 1000 wpc or more, if you use 30 amp circuit breakers, you run the risk of burning down the house before ever tripping the 30 amp circuit breakers.
On the other hand, I like to float most of my grounds, so I guess I really shouldn't talk.
You can still request 10 gauge and run a more reasonable 20 amp circuit suitable for the greatest dynamic current draws of 99% of the amps out there.
In addition, you should never need more than 15 amp circuits for each of your other components (except perhaps a subwoofer). Implying that you should reap greater benefits if each component is on it's own seperate 15 amp circuit (with the amplifier on it's own 20 amp circuit).
Digital sources inject a lot of digital noise back into the lines. Therefore, you definitely should put the digital source on it's own dedicated line. And you should not have anything sharing the line with your amplifier.
In summary, you should request, at a minimum, 3 dedicated lines. One 15 amp for your digital source, one 15 amp for your preamp, and one 20 amp for your amplifier.
And idealistically, since the electrician is already there, you might request a second 20 amp dedicated line for your subwoofer or second amplifier(or future growth) and another 15 amp dedicated for your tt, tv, or whatever.
And find the best 10 gauge and audio-grade outlets you can find for your electrician to use. Even very good 10gauge is pretty cheap and chances are your electrician's 10gauge won't be any better than Home Depot's run-of-the-mill 10gauge.
-IMO |
Yes, to second the above:
a) buy some good quality industrial grade wire
b) get 3 dedicated lines, as per Stehno above: one being the "big" one, use one for digital, one for big loads, the 3rd for all others.
The electrician might complain for not using his/her own wire (i.e. lose some profit on that) but you'll make it up for him asking for 3 instead of 1 line. |
Greg and Stehno are dead right for the simple reason, that I did exactly that....and how can I be wrong!!?? (-;
P.S. The electrician didn't complain, I treated him for free, hehe.......... |
I did 5 lines in my place,(2 30 amp lines for each Monoblock amp, 1 20mp for Digitial, Analog (turntables, phono Preamp, and 1 for Standard Preamp, at the time i was running huge Fourier Panthere Tube OTLs for amps, A Counterpoint SA11 17 tube preamp, and a Counterpoint SA9 13 tune phono stage) kinda overkill however the extra costs and time were insignificant, so I did it, isnt going over the top one of the characteristics of high end??
Ive since pared down some of gear, but the extra $150 in parts/labor costs I felt were well worth it |
Stehno,
Is there any better if I use power conditioners with dedicated lines. If so, which source(s) should be used with the power conditioner primary. Assuming that I have only one power conditioner.
Thanks so lot in advance. |
Oanhu, if I understand your first question correctly, the answer is dedicated lines do nothing to clean up dirty AC. With the exception that the digital source will no longer inject it's digital noise into the other components.
Therefore, if a power conditioner had benefit before dedicated lines, one should realize benefits from the power conditioner after dedicated lines.
In my experience, I realized greater benefit installing a line conditioner for the amplifier, then the pre-amp, then the cdp. Other's will disagree with this priority but that's my experience.
-IMO |
I have also done the same as several of the other responders. Two lines; one for the front-end, and one for the amp. The cost is minimal, but the impact was worth it! I would not go back to one circuit again. I also recommend 15 amp for the front-end, and 20 amp breaker for the amp.
Go for it! |
I have four 20 amp dedicated lines to four dedicated outlets and use every outlet. Ideally it would be nice to have a dedicated line for each piece of gear. Like others above, I agree it's important to keep digital gear separate from other components.
The single most important benefit of dedicated lines is that they prevent "noise, garbage, and grunge" from any other household appliance from interfering w/ your stereo components, and the affect of this is to greatly lower noise floor. So in effect the ded. line really does clean up the AC your stereo components are receiving. Cheers. Craig |
I also use 4 dedicated lines (2 for amps, 1 for digital, and one for preamp and electronic x-over) and was able to do away with the power conditioner; but you will have to experiment with your particular situation.
Richard |
Thanks for all of the great advise! |
I spoke to my electrician today and he mentioned something about using a "redundent ground" to isolate the digital noise. Has anyone heard of that? |
