Dedicated circuits


I just completed installing 2 dedicated circuits. After reading several threads here, I went with 30 amp breakers with 10 AWG wire with high end receptacles. One circuit for the amp and the other for everything else. I’m blown away by the difference. Tighter bass, not as bright, better imaging and soundstage. Should have done this long ago. 

z32kerber

@peter_s Synergistic Research’s latest “Purple” (it is actually black) duplex receptacle is an isolated ground type. 

All this focus on dedicated lines, wire gauge and breaker size makes me think it would be beneficial to remind everyone about the importance of having a good grounding system. We just moved into a 17 year old house a few months ago and I could not locate the existing outdoor grounding setup to the main panel which concerned me. This week I had an electrician install new ground rods and large gauge copper conductor connecting them to the main panel ($375). It was done per NEC and local code. I was not expecting any effect on the sound quality of my system, but I was shocked at the improvement in lowering the noise floor and the elimination of a slight-but-annoying glare on female vocal peaks that I have been wrestling with. Another unexpected bonus was that my wife commented that night about how much better the picture was on our plasma TV. Definitely great bang-for-the bucks!

I then starting researching grounding systems and found out that the life expectancy for a copper-over-steel-bar grounding system is only 5-10 years! 

 

 

@mesch Wrote:

Does anyone know of an amplifier that would require greater than a 15 amp curcuit?  By this I mean one that even for a mil sec would draw 15 amps?

Yes, my Crown Studio Reference 1 Amp requires a 120 Volt, 30 amp dedicated circuit. See power cord below image 2:

Mike

 

Looking at the Crown Studio Reference 1 manual, I’ve never seen an amplifier with a damping factor of over 20,000! Wow!! That's a 30 amp plug alright. Thanks for bringing that to our attention.