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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
zorpman
87 posts
 
Some high value added additions that should cost you very little if you have a electrician already on site:

Install a whole-house surge protector at the main service (breaker) panel-Square D, or Cuttler-Hammer are always available on Ebay for zilch. Will protect again 99% of dangerous power surges.

Install a 240v subpanel 30 amp+ as close to your stereo as possible-wire to a twist-lock 240v 30 amp outlet-If you wire for 240v you can use 12 gage wire rather than 10 ga. but check your local code.

Install a 240/120 boost/buck transformer of at least double the amperage/wattage that your system will draw- these transformers are also available on Ebay. You could also install a Compact line conditioner that bucks the 240v to 120 and has its won 10 120v outlets-economical and very high quality. Available on Ebay from time to time.

This system will give you high quality, relatively safe power at a minimum price and will be upgradable if you decide to do lunatic fringe stuff. BTW you can sell the surge protector to the wife as a way to save that high price fridge.
jeffcott
143 posts
 
Cw:
Psychic is right, there is a wealth of informaion in the archives, although IMO he is being a bit harsh in his choice of words. Most of us here have received at least as much as we have given.
Trying to be helpful, search the archives for threads by Glen and Lak. Glen is a licensed electrician and KNOWS what he is talking about. Lak has a VERY well engineered isolated system. My understanding is the Psychic has a system that is very similar to Lak's. You can learn a lot from both of them. There are many others who have contributed to the archives.
If you wish more specific thoughts for your system, email me offline. I have saved copies of similar correspondence and will be happy to forward them to you.
lak's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
lak
4,529 posts
 
1) Install a whole-house surge protector at the main service (breaker).

2)Install dedicated AC lines 10 gauge.

3)In my opinion Albert Porters wall outlets are very good (other cryo'd brands are very good also).

4)Install a Xentek isolation transformer (5 KVA) some where before your AC power gets to your wall outlets.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I'm not harsh--I'm unemployed! It's cheaper to give me $100...small price to pay for *personalized* assesment. Look at what Lak did after he heard my power rig!

Gifts are accepted, too! RX8man got a complete & thorough power/noise assesment and sent me a couple classic Rat Shack A/V speakers I'm currently using while my stuff's in storage.

I am definitely going back to school and becoming an electrician (and speciallizing in noise control). Just need to get settled here in Florida...

***
twl
3,251 posts
 
I agree dedicated lines are good. Short runs are also good. If you have high-power/high-current amps, maybe increasing wire gauge by a bit would be a good idea. If you are running the wiring now, a twist every meter on the romex would help with RF noise rejection. Grounded metal electrical boxes can help with that too. Keeping all the audio circuits on the opposite AC leg from the refrigerators and other noise-generating appliances is good. Good quality aftermarket power cords do a good job at the last few feet before the components. Keeping digital players in a separate circuit from the amps/preamp may help with isolating digital "hash" put out on the power lines from the digital equipment(infecting the power to the other components). Good grounding is important too.

Basic practices of keeping the power wires away from the interconnects and other sensitive signal wires is a good idea to minimize hum.

Just a few suggestions.
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