Is 60 amp electrical service enough for high end tube system


Just purchased a new home that has a 60 amp electrical service. Do I need to upgrade to 100 or 200 amp service? How much will this upgrade cost if done by a licensed electrician. I will be running a 200 watt per channel tube amp. Any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
jazz_nut
Hard to give you a definite answer without knowing all the specifics. From a design standpoint your system is capable of supporting 10,550 watts continuously and may be adequate if there are no major electrical appliances connected such as a range or dryer.

Typical problems with 60 amp services usually involve the lack of adequate branch circuits. This usually is most indicated by blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers.

I would recommend for serious jazz listening a least one dedicated line for your audio components. This of course requires that the existing service have the ability to add the needed line(s). Even if your service appears full, oftentimes an auxilliary box can be added via existing expansion lugs. You may not need a full service upgrade if expansion lugs are available.

As far as costs are concerned, in the midwest full electrical service upgrades start around $2000 for the very simplest and usually go much higher.

A reputable and knowledgeable electrical contractor is really your best resource to answer your questions.
Hey Kirk, not all of us own 1200 pound, 4 chassis, 800 watt Tube Research Labs amps! I've got a 100 Watt sub panel on the back wall of my listening room, maybe that's enough panel for my 100 Watt TRL Mono-blocks?
I am sure the service is enough for the stereo, but is it enough for the stove and dryer. A lot of electric stoves have 40 - 50 amp circuits and would be a major drain on your service. A good starting point to determine if the service is up to snuff is to determine if the lights dim when turning on various electrical loads. In an old house just printing a page on my laser printer made the lights flicker. I had to get that problem fixed!
If your oven, dryer, water heater, and furnace, and range are gas, it's enough. Upgrading the main panel and lines to the power pole is not expensive, and will add value to your house. Grounded outlets are important. Two prong outlets can be grounded individually by running groung wire to a grounded water pipe.
As stated above, a 60 amp main is plenty enough for stereo but is it really adequate for the whole house? Look at your heavy loads: electric stove, dryer or water heater? Air conditioning? Large refrig. &/or freezer? Large fans or water pumps, that sort of thing. Then determine your voltage coming into the distribution panel when many (not necessarily all) of your loads are operating simultaneously. Look at this realistically, not necessarily fully loaded. Using a VOM, measure the 120V of each phase-to-neutral coming into the panel. Measure at nominal load ( just house lights etc.) compared to heavily loaded. If your lines aren't sagging too much (say 117V no load down to 115 heavy load) then the 60 amp service is adequate. Otherwise if you see a lot of voltage drop then your utility drop probably needs upgrading to 100 amp or 200