Dedicated 20 amp circuit - Electrician laughed!


I brought my electrician out to my house today to show him where I would like to install a dedicated 20a circuit for my system.  He laughed and said that's the stupidest thing he's heard and laughs when people talk about it.  It said, if you're going to do it, you have to have it separately grounded (shoving a new 8 foot rod into the ground) but even then, he sees no way there can be an audible improvement.

Now, he's not just an electrician though. He rebuilds tube amps on the side and tears apart amps and such all the time so he's quite well versed in audio electronics and how they operate.

He basically said anyone who thinks they hear a difference is fooling themselves.  

Personally, I'm still not sure, I'm no engineer, my room's not perfect, and I can't spend hours on end critical listening...  But, he does kinda pull me farther to the "snake oil" side and the "suggestive hearing" side (aka, you hear an improvement because you want to hear it).

I'm not taking a side here but I thought it was interesting how definitive he was that this not only WILL not make a difference but ALMOST CANNOT make a difference. 
dtximages

Showing 1 response by why0why

I installed my own dedicated 20 amp line.  I had a really long run, my listening room is on the opposite end of the house from the breaker.  I found a good deal on cryo treated Romex(think it was only $75 or so.)  The wire, a new breaker and a Synergistic Research outlet for $100.  So for less than $200 and an hour's worth of work, well worth it.  People saying it makes no difference have no idea what they are talking about.  Even if all it does is take all of the noise generating items out of the loop, it is worth it.  On the non dedicated line right next to it, you can watch the voltage swing from 112-117 very regularly.  The dedicated line sits at 119-120 usually and is much more stable.