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Least Controversial, Reasonably Priced AC Upgrades

Hello Everyone

At last, the light is appearing at the end of my house renovation tunnel, and -- fingers crossed -- I may actually be listening to music in my new living room before 2005.

Having spent every last penny on marriage, family, Subzero refrigerators etc, I am trying for the first time to upgrade the wiring a bit and protect the equipment against surges.

Despite my enthusiasm for this site and a pretty decent system, I remain firmly in the dark ages on power conditioners, high end power cords, outlets, surge protectors etc.

The place where we are we are moving in the country apparently has frequent power outages, especially in winter when falling branches down the lines.

I have read many heated debates about power conditioners etc with some of you saying that they actually WORSEN the sound, that I would like to start with a simple:

dedicated line?
Albert Porters wall outlets?
a chunky power strip inside my new 6' component rack on casters?
a surge protector (Monster Cable?) to protect all of the above in my newly flaky electical district?

Again, simple, effective, not wildly expensive please.

The idea is to have a moveable rack of equipment on casters that I can wheel from the corner of the room to my listening chair for easy access, which will be tethered to the wall by one power cord only and with long interconnects to the amp which will be located by the speakers.

The rest of the spaghetti mess will stay neatly inside the rack, concealed by a ventilated door.

Thank you in advance for all ideas and suggestions.
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by volksigti

volksigti
2 posts
 
Wow...This was a most informative thread to say the least !!! Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge with your other fellow hobbists.

Well, I have to ask for a bit of advice too.
I had recently bought a house and I was having an electrician come this week to install 2 additional outlets in the room where my future audio/video gear will reside(I have no gear as of now). Each of the 2 additional outlets will be on a dedicated 20 apms circuit from the main service panel, wired with 12 Gauge wire. I had already purchased online one 20A Hubbell 8300 GY CryoTreated and a 20A Acme Audio Labs/Pass and Seymour Legrand 688 Cryo outlet from Dedicated Audio (I came accross the posts mentioning Albert Porter stuff after I had already placed my order with Dedicated Audio).

After reading all of the above this is my new plan:
1-Install a whole house surge protector from Square D
2-Use 10 gauge twisted-pair wire instead of the 12 gauge for the dedicated circuits.
In my situation unfortunately I won't be able to use any isolation transformers. I will only have a Monster Power HTPS 7000 Signature Balanced Power Conditioner plugged into a Monster Power AVS 2000 Automatic Voltage Stabilizer.

Since I am responsible for getting all the materials, my questions are:
A) Where can I buy retail-since I need it relatively quickly-the Square D Surge protector.
B) Is the 10 gauge twisted pair wire available at Home DESPOT or Lowes?
C) Is there any advantage to using PVC or Metal conduit for these 2 dedicated circuits, since here in the Dallas,TX area all houses have the wiring widing loose in the attic, with no conduit at all.
Any other suggestions you might have?

Thanx a lot for all your input, GTI.
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