Based upon my experience in recently installing a new 200A service in our home (yes, I abide by all of the rules and had it inspected multiple times) here is what I have observed:
1: The service to the meter base will be provided by your local power utility company and will almost certainly be an aluminum cable. The utility is responsible for the care and maintainance of this cable up to and including the point at which it attaches to your meter base. IMO, you can view this as being to a great extent outside of your control. Once it is hooked up, you cannot service it without the utility being involved.
2: Albert makes a very good point regarding the service feeder as regards weight if the service entrance is overhead. The comparative weight of copper to aluminum if the feeder is long could be a really BIG issue.
3: FROM the output side of the meter base to the rest of your home is your property and your responsibility, both for installation and compliance, and for maintainance.
4: If if were me, I would insist on copper from this point on. How much cable are you really talking about here. I have what I thought was a really long run from the service panel to a sub panel which was about 75 feet, and we are still not talking about a lot of $ for cable here.
5: At least as important in all of this, IMO, from the point of view of the quality of power as it MAY affect audio, is to ensure (I mean really really ensure) that you have an absolutely top quality grounding system. All of the moving current has to go somewhere, and the cleaner the ground sink, the easier it is to get rid of noise pollutants that may appear on the house service lines.
1: The service to the meter base will be provided by your local power utility company and will almost certainly be an aluminum cable. The utility is responsible for the care and maintainance of this cable up to and including the point at which it attaches to your meter base. IMO, you can view this as being to a great extent outside of your control. Once it is hooked up, you cannot service it without the utility being involved.
2: Albert makes a very good point regarding the service feeder as regards weight if the service entrance is overhead. The comparative weight of copper to aluminum if the feeder is long could be a really BIG issue.
3: FROM the output side of the meter base to the rest of your home is your property and your responsibility, both for installation and compliance, and for maintainance.
4: If if were me, I would insist on copper from this point on. How much cable are you really talking about here. I have what I thought was a really long run from the service panel to a sub panel which was about 75 feet, and we are still not talking about a lot of $ for cable here.
5: At least as important in all of this, IMO, from the point of view of the quality of power as it MAY affect audio, is to ensure (I mean really really ensure) that you have an absolutely top quality grounding system. All of the moving current has to go somewhere, and the cleaner the ground sink, the easier it is to get rid of noise pollutants that may appear on the house service lines.