Power Cables and Wall Sockets

The lights dimming is caused by voltage sagging. Voltage sagging is caused by one of two things:

• The amount of current being drawn
• The amount of resistance to the current., either on the hot or the neutral wire

The voltage drop (or loss) is an easy calculation:

V = A * R

That is, the voltage lost is equal to the current times the resistance on the line. Since A is a function of the amplifier we can’t really reduce that except by new amps or more efficient speakers. 😁

What you can control:

• Reduce other loads on the circuit such as the lights by switching to LED types
• Ensure all the connections between the breaker panel and lights are tight
• Run the audio on a dedicated circuit
• Run a thicker gauge wire to the circuit
• Ensure you don’t have excess voltage on the neutral. Shouldn’t ever measure more than a couple of volts.

It may very well be worthwhile to you to get a cheap voltage meter you can sit and watch while playing music, like this one, which not only shows you the AC voltage but the Neutral to ground voltage, in other words, tests if you have a bad neutral:

Does it make any sense to use a small spade or ring terminal crimped to the romex when we install our new audiophile outlets?

Absolutely not. You are much more likely to mess that up than you are to use the bare wire as God intended.

I do however feel using the rear entry (not backstabbed) slots with the clamp plates is the most secure method. 

This comes up a lot, and I wrote about it in two posts: