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.

 

gphill
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I disagree with most everything Minorl says. 

Keep it all on one leg. It matters. It not about the noise. If you have a good system, say AR Ref amps and an Esoteric CD player, you will hear it.  It will be more clean and clear.  If you have a Cary SLI80, you might not hear it.  But you will still notice a 10AWG dedicated circuit vs a 12 AWG feeding the rest of the living room.  

I also have not been able to validate putting lights or motors on the same leg as audio is detrimental. The noise is also on the neutral. You can’t hide from it.  I have tried this on many systems before I gave up on it because no one ever heard it.   Make sure to use a quality dimmer such as a Lutron Maestro. That will filter most of the noise.  I do put motors on a separate leg to reduce startup voltage sag on the audio phase.

I do like a good filter. But the only one I have found to work to my satisfaction is a large Torus transformer that has everything on it. Including your modem, router and switch if you stream. I don’t like most other filters. They either collapse the sound stage or create an artificial "Black".

If you don’t want to filter your audio, you segregate your power with subpanels and you filter the noise from your house. But what are you really doing. Not much unless your off grid "Island".  And if your off grid, I am still going to suggest you put a Torus onto the circuits feeding the audio to filter the inverters high frequency noise. As well as any RF that is attaching to the power wiring. If RF is attaching to the phono cartridge, tone arm wire or case of the phono stage itself, you cant do much other than get a good phono preamp that is good at rejecting the noise and not letting it modulate into the power supply.

If you happen to have a very large estate with pools and fountains, security systems, a server farm and a high end audio system, then segregating power and filtering the noise from getting back to the audio becomes something to consider.  You probably have a dedicated utility transformer so your filtered from the street noise.  You may want PFCC attached to a subpanel feeding the motor loads.  You may want a UPS attached to the server farm and security system.  You may want critical power with battery backup for light and refers in power outages.  Most people don't have this.  They share power with 5 neighbors on one transformer.  Your getting all the noise from their dirty devices.  So trying to segregate and filter your own dirty devices is a loosing battle.  Your best option is to filter the line to the audio equipment.

I have two dedicated circuits using MC 12 AWG.  Each branch is less than 40 feet long.  One feeds the front end and one the mono amps.  Originally, I had the two breakers side by side, ie. separate legs.  Somewhere in these forums I read that it is better to have the dedicated circuits on the same leg.  So I moved one breaker one space apart from the other which puts both circuits on the same leg.  I think the stereo sounds better.  Could I discern the difference in an A/B?  I’m not sure.  

The two mono amps are pulling 740W, the front end is pulling up to 500W if everything is turned on.  That’s 10 amps on one leg.  (Same as running a microwave oven).  I have a little voltmeter plugged into one of the dedicated outlets.  It shows 120V right now and did not change when I turned everything on.  (It does not show tenths of a volt.). Right now it is cold and all three heat pumps are running.  I normally see 122V.

That’s right, I just turned my stereo on at 6AM.  I’ll listen to some morning music until the weather warms up outside.  Retired living yeah!

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So the electricians are here today putting in my 3 dedicated power lines. I had a new square D QO 200 amp panel box installed with all new breakers. They also installed a 26kw standby Generac generator along with a whole house surge protector. For my new lines I’m using 10 gauge aluminum clad mc wire and eventually Hubbell 5362 outlets. I realize I could have done more, and in the end I may go with some kind of power conditioner for my front end, but for now this is going to be it. Looking forward to a better and cleaner sound.