Electrician Coming Over What to Do?

1. Never ask your electrician for his advice unless it's for purely safety reasons that will keep your house from burning to the ground. More than likely, he will laugh when you tell him what your goals are here.

2. Order your own 10 gauge 99.95% OFC romex from JPS or where ever and have it ready. Otherwise you'll get his cheap stuff and thereby defeating some of your purpose right off the bat.

3. Order some FIM or similar audio grade outlets now (all 20 amp).

4. 15 amp circuits should be more than sufficient for your source and pre.

5. Your amplifier is not a monster amp. 20 amps should be more than enough for this circuit. If you install a 30 amp circuit, it is entirely possible that your house will burn to the ground before the 30 amp circuit breaker ever trips.

6. Have your electrician install the grounds (isolated preferably). Then later you can go around to each plug and disconnect/float the grounds to determine sonic differences.

7. You might consider an industrial grade sub-panel (still cheap) rather than the cheap off-the-shelf sub-panel.

8. Anybody who tells you that a line conditioner is no longer needed once you have dedicated lines: A. Does not know what they are talking about. AND/OR B. Does not own equipment good enough to tell the difference.

My guess is both.

9. Observe your electrician to ensure that he does not accidentally mis-wire circuits and reverse polarity (hot to hot, neutral to neautral). My electrician did mis-wire my 15 amp and 20 amp circuits several years ago and I almost caught my toes on fire had I not double checked the circuit before playing with it.

10. If you think you may be adding a subwoofer or another component in the near future, have him wire a 4th circuit now.

-IMO

Natalie, I was the electrician for most of the work done. I noticed vast improvements with each incremental step. More than I thought possible.

So what did I do wrong?

Several weeks ago, I removed my amplifier's passive in-line power conditioner (an LC-2 by Foundation Research which retails for $900) from the mix. In place, I removed the outlet pulled my 10 gauge 99.95% OFC romex about 3 feet out of the wall and attached a cryo dipped Hubbell 20 amp IEC to the end and plugged it directly into the amp. Service Panel, 10gauge romex, hubbell audio grade IEC, amp. It doesn't get much more streamlined than that.

Immediately, I noticed an increase in sibilance, a raised noise floor, and slightly less purity to the higher frequencies. I undid the mod and put the Foundation Research LC-2 back into place between the outlet and the amp. Everything was better.

So tell me: What did I do wrong? I'm all ears.

Unless somebody is getting extremely clean AC from the pole(which is almost nobody), a GOOD power conditioner will always benefit.

Now, to give you a little credit: If one does not have dedicated lines, then it is easier to compare the difference between conditioned and non-conditioned AC. The dedicated lines do help minimize noise from appliances, dimmers, and digital sources, etc..

You may have heard 'many a great system without the aid of Power Conditioning', but I am confident in saying that without power conditioning alls you were hearing was a decent sound coming from a great system. Now to your ears maybe they sounded great too. But without proper AC conditioning, you were not hearing all that they had to offer.

But I still go back to my earlier statement about those who claim power conditioners do nothing for dedicated lines. 1. They either don't know what they are talking about. AND/OR 2. Their equipment is such that they really cannot tell the difference. Okay maybe a 3rd item. Perhaps their power conditioner isn't all that it was cracked up to be.

Can you guess which one I think you qualify for?

-IME

Glen, you're getting a little flippant in your earlier post regarding your 20+ years in this trade, other's infinite wisdom, etc.. I assume you directed at least part of that in my direction as a result of one or more of my post(s).

Regardless of your trade, I'll direct the same questions and statements to you as I did to Natalie a few posts above. (Please see my previous post.)

But bottom line is: I have 3 passive in-line power conditioners and 3 dedicated circuits/lines. One for each component. Several weeks ago, I removed one of my in-line power conditioners from my dedicated 20amp amplifier line and ran straight from the service panel to the amp via a 20 amp IEC plug at the end of the romex and it sounded distinctively worse.

I ran this test because if I could sell $2k worth of line conditioners and not have extra little boxes hanging around, and perhaps upgrade my IC's and speaker cables with the money saved, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Assuming I really did the above and the results were as I described, then it seems to me that two of us are wrong and one of us is right.

Now it's entirely possible that I have the noisiest AC this side of the Mississipi River, and perhaps that makes me the exception. And perhaps you and Natalie have some of the cleanest AC making you two the exception. But I wouldn't bank on it.

You said earlier that after you installed your dedicated lines, you pulled your line conditioners and you did not notice any difference.

Great. What brand and model line conditioner(s)?
And what components were in your system at the time you made this change?

There are certainly other questions to be asked to help qualify your statement above. But I would think your answers to the above would at least provide better idea where you are coming from regarding the subject matter of this post than simply stating your qualifications as being an electrician by trade for 20+ years.

-IME