How many wires are in 10/2 and what are they.
I assume you mean in MC.
3 insulated conductors. 2 Line conductors, 1 green insulated EGC.
You should know that🤔...
Dedicated power circuits
I’m having some electrical work done including a whole house
generator, surge suppressor, and a new panel box. I am also going to have two dedicated power lines run for my stereo. I’ve read a lot on here about how this is a really nice upgrade and would greatly appreciate any advice to help me along on my project. Right now the plan is two 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire. One for my amp and one for my preamp and sources. My equipment is a McIntosh MC 452, a C47 right now but a C22 in the future, Rega P8, Rose hifi 150b, McIntosh MR 74 tuner and Aerial 7t speakers. I’m also replacing my panel box with a new one. It’s a brand from a company that’s out of business and the quality and safety is suspect plus there are no new breakers available.
So starting with the breakers, then the wire and finally the receptacles what should I be looking for? The electrician that just left here is planning on the new panel being a Cutler Hammer brand. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Just a guess you removed AC cable from Fremer’s house. Not MC cable. Heck I don’t think you have ever worked with MC cable the way it sounds. This statement of yours kind of says it all.
To be more precise there is a black, a white, and a green EGC. All three conductors are the same AWG size. The Insulation covering the wire is THHN. Here’s a picture of 2 wire MC cable for you to look at. Southwire 8 ft., 12/2 Solid CU MC (Metal Clad) Armorlite .... Here’s a picture of AC cable for you to look at. 12/2 x 250 ft. Solid CU BX/AC (AL Armored Cable) ...A 16 AWG bare aluminum bond wire to be used in conjunction with the armor for the EGC. AC is junk, imo.
It was manufactured in a spiral twist yesterday, and it will be manufactured in a spiral twist tomorrow, and the next day and the next day, and the next day after that. Like I said, I don’t think you have ever worked with MC cable.
Wheres that coming from? Read the OP’s original message.
You can have your opinion. I have mine. Of course there has been testing comparing NM sheathed cable to MC armored cable. NM works fine providing the installer of the cable takes extra care not to twist the cable while installing it so as not to distort the lay, placement, of the bare EGC between the two current carrying conductors. With MC cable that can’t happen. The Hot, neutral, and insulated ground spiral twist is held tightly together it’s entire length by a plastic wrap and the metal armor. Be it aluminum or steel. The testing I talked about. I have two white papers for you to read. An Overview of Audio System Grounding and Interfacing. Take a look at page 16. Read pages 31 thru 36. Pay close attention to page 35. Page 35 chart. Al armored MC cable beat out NM cable. I wonder how careful the techs were with the NM. I bet they didn’t twist it, changing that exact lay, position, of the bare ground wire between the two current carrying conductors.
Of course you can’t always count on it. . Power Distribution and Grounding of Audio, Video and ...Read pages 11, 12, and 13. Pay close attention to the chart on page 13. Again Al armored MC beat out NM cable. Oh and look at the picture of the test board. The NM is laying flat. No twists. Wish they would have tested it with at least a couple light twist in it. Just like in the real world. Good luck pulling NM cable without getting any twists in it. You still want to recommend NM cable over AL armored MC cable? .
There’s a sales pitch to buy your 2 conductor with insulated ground THHN, maybe, THHN/THWN twisted cable assembly. . Best regards, Jim . |
Remember the Dead Poets Society when Robin Williams told the kids to stand on their desks. To see the world from a different perspective. I don't even know if you all have put your boots on the ground. Wiring an AV room is not the same as wiring a 2 channel audio room. Proper grounding has little to do with the electrode in the earth. You don't use metal encased wire with a hot, neutral and ground. I don't care if its AC, MC or Steel/Aluminum pipe and wire. If you wrap you wire in metal you have to be very careful in how you do it. If you make a single mistake, you will have a very loud ground loop. Many recording studio are wired with metal raceways. And many of those studio have a large isolation transformer that feeds everything. But the guy who designed the infrastructure is many times at the site during installation to oversee the project and make sure the electrician does it right. An electrician is your worst enemy when it comes to powering your audio system. They will ignore the spec and drawings, say they know best, then ask for a change order to remove and replace materials they installed incorrectly. Your much safer using NM. And, you have to make a shop where you can limit variables and listen to what you preach. You have to go through 5 or 6 homes and step by step change out 1 variable at a time, then listen and learn. Let it sit for a couple weeks and get the owner feedback. Then go back and make 1 and only 1 change, then listen again and let it marinate. I have been fooled myself. I made a change to feeder ground and was all smitten with the resultant bass. The owner told me 3 days later to rip it out. It was all wrong. He could only turn the stereo on for about 1/2 an hour, then he was completely unsettled and turned it off. I changed it back and he said it was night and day better. He was back to listening for hours on end. I shared the experience with an industry professional and he explained why what we heard happened. WIRES HAVE A SOUND. Every one of them. Maybe your a denier and think every power cord sound the same. If that is the case, then why are you even arguing. It doesn't matter. If you do believe power cords have a voice, then why wouldn't 40 feet of wire in the wall also have a voice. Technical jargon is just that. Its indispensable to be educated, but you have to listen to what you do. I am constantly learning. I'm not perfect. I have made mistakes and stumbled. Like the ground above. But hey, the internet if full of people saying oversize your grounds. So I tried it. But every time I do experiment I know more. At times I go back to projects I did in the past and refine the installation to get a little more out of it. Like I said earlier, the NEC is a minimum. Just because it meets code, does not mean its anywhere near as good as it can be. If you decide to put some holes in your walls and bring 5 or 6 different wires from your distribution panel out to your rack with the same termination on the end to listen, I would love to hear your impressions. I like to do this with my amp and my DAC. As well as phono preamp at times. And don't forget to let it rest in your system for a couple weeks. There is a big difference between back and forth listening and living with something for a while. What might sound WOW to you at the moment might end up quite grating over time. I find 24 hours or constant play with maybe 2 or 3 on off cycles is enough time to get a wire stabilized to hear what its doing. |
Agree with the idea that getting rid of differential noise is best done with an isolation transformer rather than relying on AC cable twists. One interesting article I read a long time ago suggested that a significant benefit of armored cable in general, including bare-armored-ground (BAG), was that lightning surges were carried better by the armor than the ground conductor inside due to actual skin-effect issues with high frequency strikes. The armor seems to have performed as a very low inductance path. Can't say I noticed a big improvement in noise when I used it though. |
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