Dedicated 10 gauge NM-B lines twisted or straight
I’m not sure if it matters, but I’m going to run three separate, but parallel 80 foot, 10 gauge lines to the receptacles in my listening room. I plan on spacing the wires about 12-24 inches apart, but I was curious if anyone has an informed opinion or insight as to whether it would make a difference to have each line twisted some, or flat, as I think most electrical wires are installed flat, to make them easier to pull. Twisted wires supposedly would reduce magnetic fields, but I don’t know if it would then cause other problems, such as increase capacitance.
Check this out: https://forum.msbtechnology.com/t/in-wall-power-improvements-for-high-end-audio-systems-its-big/300 I followed his recommendations to great success. I used 8AWG with Furutech GTX-D NCF(R) outlets (accepts 8AWG wire). I also went the extra step of having the outlets, 20A breakers and wire itself cryo treated (why not). My electrician used some kind of grey flex conduit (not metal). Made a big difference for my system. |
Thanks for sharing. I haven’t read the full paper yet, but it looks like I’m already behind the curve, as he recommends “Please Note: The single biggest goal of this paper is to install 10 gauge wiring up to 20-30 feet and eight gauge beyond 35-40 feet, and then six gauge wire beyond 60 feet. Everything else in this paper is there to be sure you get the maximum benefit from the lower resistance of the larger gauge (or heavier) wire! And it looks like he recommends a 6 gauge wire for each type of component, especially separate wire for subwoofers. I’ll have to read on to see if he has any data to back up his statements, but maybe it’s just his experience, which also counts to a degree…but it would make more sense to install a sub panel instead of 3 x 6 gauge wires over 60 feet, which is perhaps what should be done. |
Just reviewing data from the internet: To minimize loss, aim for a voltage drop under 3% for sensitive equipment. The voltage drop calculator, says that 10 gauge wire over 100 feet should only cause a drop of 1.6V (1.33%) at 16 amps. However, Google says that the drop would be 5.4V (4.5%) at 20 amps. The same voltage drop calculator also says that 6 gauge wire over 100 feet should cause a drop of 2.37V (2.0%) at 60 amps. Here Google says that the drop would be 4.7V (3.9%) at 60 amps, which is what I would need for a sub panel.
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