Dedicated line questions

Hi Korn; I just had a dedicated AC system run to my stereo room. I had an electrician do it because I needed an exterior submain breaker box with four 20 amp breakers put in. The submain was fed by a 50 amp 220 volt breaker from the main breaker panel. I used about 50 feet of 6 gauge power cable. From the submain, there were four separate lines run to four Hubbell outlets. Total cost of this installation was $850. including the $50. for the outlets. As I learned from Redkiwi, a dedicated system will lower the noise floor a lot, but often causes an unwanted brightness that can be difficult to deal with. I ended up putting in Synergistic Research Master Couplers on my amp and pre-amp, and that took care of the brightness. As to your questions: If you have some electrical knowledge and are just running in a single line form a 15 or 20 amp, 110 volt breaker at your main breaker panel you could probably do it yourself, but just routing wire can be difficult. If you plan on multiple outlets as I did, and are coming off a 220 volt 50 amp breaker that needs to be stepped down to 110 volt, you need an electrician-- IMHO. I'd also note that the mainline wire is "directional" as far as music is concerned (I also learned this from Redkiwi), ie it sounds different each direction. So, I tested the wire by listening to it each direction. The first direction produced overly soft, flat, dull, and uninvolving music, while the opposite direction was much better balanced and was the direction of choice. You can only determine this by actually doing the listening tests. Also, Redkiwi (from New Zealand, where they use 240 volt AC) recommended using an old fashioned fuse box rather than breakers. I tried it then listened, and it just didn't sound good, eg music had a prominent mid-bass hump. The advantage of the fuses is that they sound better-- in New Zealand, and that they can be removed and cleaned, whereas breakers can't be cleaned (except for the exterior contacts). But 20 amp breakers only cost $7-8. ot replace. Note: a really important part of a ded. system is a dedicated ground-- I had the electricians drive into the ground three 6 ft. copper rods within 10 ft. of my ded. outlets, and they used a stout grounding cable. Redkiwi, if you read this post, please feel free to comment and/or critique because I'm pretty new to this subject too. Or anyone else also. I mentioned Redkiwi so much because he helped me get my ded. AC system installed, and provided much beneficial information (and support). I should note that my ded. system-- once tweaked, sounds excellent, eg much lower noise floor, blacker blacks, more apparent detail, and dynamics. Try an electrical supply house for bulk power cord. Good Luck Korn. Craig

Hi Korn and Craig. Craig has covered most of the points well. Note that if you put a dedicated AC in you will have to get good AC cords for ALL of your components. You need the AC cords to provide some common mode rejection, and you may even need to use a filter. Using standard cords with a dedicated AC can be excruciatingly bright and grainy. On the subject of breakers versus fuses - I have found the old style ceramic fuses to sound the best. Craig found the reverse was true, which could be a difference in the power supply, or could relate to Craig using a different style of fuse to the one I am using. Craig is right to emphasise the value of good grounding.

Garfish or Redkiwi, you mentioned a dedicated ground ("3 6 feet copper rods within 10 feet of outlets") for your outlets. I have two dedicated 20A outlets (1 for source and 1 for amp, need a 2nd for amps now that I use mono's). I do not have dedicated grounds. Do you just run the ground for the Romex directly to a dedicated grounding rod? Do you need a separate grounding rod for each dedicated outlet or could 2 amp outlets be connected to the same grounding rod? Does it need to be so close (10 feet) to the dedicated outlets? What kind of improvement can be expected from dedicated grounding rods? BTW, are you really serious about directionality of power wire? That seems hopelessly difficult to test when you have over 50' of wire to pull. Thanks, Greysquirrel.

note: buy PS Audio 300 and be done with power problems.

Greysquirrel, regarding your question about "star" and dedicated grounding, the way I got there, was to hire an electrical contractor who had done quite a lot of commercial work, so the wiring I asked for was not unusual, due to his experience with computer rooms and hi tech electronic assembly areas. The "star grounding" method is not strictly legal in our city, as the local electrical code here asks that ALL the grounds be tied together at the electrical box. What I have done, and suggest for you, actually exceeds this code, because it offers safer, multiple grounds. However, because it does not "precisely fit" the rules, is not always easy to hire a professional electrician to get it done. For Star grounding to work, each dedicated run for the audio system must be in PVC, or no conduit at all. The traditional metal outlet housings and metal conduit used in electrical work, automatically tie all the grounds together, back to the electrical panel. DO NOT connect your stereo's dedicated outlets to the main or sub electrical panel. Instead, a SEPARATE ground must be run from each of the stereo's Hubbell computer grade outlets, to the star grounding system. This star system consists of a superior ground plain, that plain requires three copper rods deep in the ground outside of your house (8 ft. or longer, each). This triple ground plain is tied together, and then tied to a single bar under the house. ALL of the stereo's separate TNN wire runs from the individual dedicated circuits tie to that single bar. The purpose of this scheme is so the stereo does not share its ground plane with the remainder of the house's electrical panel. This removes all the ground noise generated from appliances, motors, TV, air conditioning, computers, and other electrical appliances in your home that normally get into your system. The noise floor drops tremendously! If you want to go even farther, have a separate eight gauge copper run pulled from the drop, and run that to a 100 amp 220V panel, and from there you can run Hubbell twist lock 220V outlets to use with high end amps that are capable of running in either 220V or 110V. The Hubbell twist locks can be "split" into two 110V, or run as a single 220V. Barring that, the option of running single Hubbells, as all of us have suggested on this posting, is a superb choice. If you choose to use the method I suggest, and you later add additional dedicated outlets to your stereo, the bar under the house is ready to be tapped into, where the other stereo grounds already reside. This is nice, as it keeps all the "star" grounds in the stereo together and ready for future upgrades.