Dedicated power lines for audio?

Hi Leemark; Good comment re: phase. The 6 ga. wire I used is stranded TPC (tough pitch copper) and all the electrician did was reroute it from my garage, through the attic, and out an attic vent screen (to the outside). So actually that part went pretty smooth and easy. My sub-main box is on the outside of the house, and once there it was pretty straight forward for them. The dedicated AC lines and ground really made a nice improvement in music. Cheers. Craig

Hi Dcase...; I'm not an expert here, but recently I had a dedicated AC and ground system run into my stereo room (by electricians). From my main breaker box, I used 50 ft. of 6 gauge 3 wire from a 50 amp breaker, and ran it to a submain box with 4 20amp breakers. From the submain, they then ran 4 dedicated lines to Hubbell duplex outlets. My main breaker box is also Square D, and I just used standard 20 amp breakers in my submain box. I did replace the old original 50 amp breaker with a new one. Dedicated lines have some pitfalls: 1. The mainline cable from main to submain is directional, ie it will sound better running one direction than the other. And the only way you can find this out is by trying it each direction-- I learned this from Redkiwi. Well, I tried it and one direction music was excessively soft, flat, dull, and uninvolving (Redkiwi found one way to be too bright), but the other direction was much more natural, live, and involving. I first ran the mainline outside the wall/attic to do this testing before having it final wired in. Redkiwi also recommended using the old style ceramic fuses instead of breakers, and I tried them first, but music character was really strange, ie this set-up produced a distinct midbass hump and the mid-range was shelved downward, in short tonal balance was not right. Going back to standard 20 amp breakers corrected this, and music sounded natural (here in USA I had to step down from 220 volt/50 amp at the submain box-- and obviously this is a significant difference from NZ). BTW, Redkiwi is from New Zealand, and they use 230/240 volt there, but I learned much in the way of general principals from him. Use good quality outlets-- I used audiophile grade Hubbells (from the Cable Co.), do not use any surge protection or filters-- that's what you're trying to get away from. For ground, I had 3 six ft. copper rods driven in the ground within 10 ft. of dedicated sub-main. A stout ground wire was run from sub-main to ground, so each outlet does not have a dedicated ground. One other thing that is important: a dedicated system will cause your system to be too bright, caused by the stock, inexpensive power cords. Replacing your stock cords with good quality custom cords will probably be necessary. I learned this from Redkiwi also, and found it to be true. I put Syn. Res. Master Couplers on my amp amd pre-amp, and that got rid of the brightness. I have on order SR-MCs for my CD transport and DAC (hope it's not too much of a good thing). When all done (and tweaked), this was a significant upgrade-- noise floor dropped dramatically and music was more clear, detailed, live, and natural. I found out the hard way that some of this can be a big pain, but in the end it was worth it. Best of Luck. Craig.

....all the electrical supplies you asked about are available from any good electrical supply store, ie mainline cable, submain box (if you go that way), breakers, tubing, ground rods and cable etc.. The only special thing needed are the outlets, which as noted, I got from the cable Co.(www.fatwyre.com) at 2 for $25.00. Craig

Leemark; I used 6 ga. wire because I had it, and it was already wired into my main breaker box. It used to feed a 180 amp arc welder, and for that was certainly not "overkill". A mainline wire is only needed to go from the main breakerbox to a submain breaker box-- I preferred that because I wanted 4 duplex outlets, but did not have the room in my main breakerbox to wire them in individually. And of course, you're stuck with the "house" ground if you come directly off the main breaker box. There is disagreement about the value of grounding individual outlets and grounding just the submain (I grounded the submain). But a good ground is probably as important as the dedicated lines. High quality ICs, speaker cables, and power cords are almost all made of large gauge wire for a reason. Thicker is better, but of course dimishing returns are reached at some point. Hubbell outlets are well regarded for many uses as well as audiophile, and it appears that at 2 for $25. are less expensive than hospital grade. Regards. Craig.

Bob.... Interesting observation about glass versus ceramic fuses. I just used glass (that's what the electricians supplied with the box), and did not think to try ceramic, but your experience is much more like what Redkiwi (New Zealand) found. If I could go back and do it again, I'd try the ceramic fuses also. Fortunately the standard breakers sound good. Cheers. Craig

Hi Tk; and congratulations on your dedicated AC system. It sounds almost exactly like what I had done this spring. And I agree with all your comments about improved music quality/character. HAPPY LISTENING. Craig.