AC wall outlets

[Ricalan]

Years ago I read a magazine article describing how important it is to have clean and stable ac power available to your audio components.

Made sense to me.

But if you don’t have a purpose-built room with dedicated, individually shielded, low number gauge wire lines of minimum length from a dedicated, high current junction box, what are you to do?

Ps Audio to the rescue. They offer an “audio grade” ac receptacle for $49 ($199 for 5).

Being skeptical and frugal, I bought Leviton 8300-R 20-Amp, 125-Volt, extra heavy duty Hospital Grade receptacles instead. $10 on Amazon.

Do they improve sound quality? I don’t know. In theory they should. They are a much higher quality than standard 15 amp receptacles.

I love this hobby.

 

[Rich]

If your power sucks, a high end receptacle isn't going to make a difference. If you have dedicated 20 amp lines with isolated grounds, perhaps it will. If you really want to make a difference, invest in a quality power regenerator. I have a PS Audio P-10. It makes a huge difference. Expensive, but worth every penny if you have a lot of money invested in high end gear.

 

[Speedskater]

All a receptacle can do is make a good low resistance connection and continue to do that thru the years and repeated plug insertions. Top shelf receptacles from a electrical supply store do just that.

 

[sleepysurf]

A few years ago, I had a dedicated 20A line installed for my family/listening room, with a hospital-grade quad outlet. I'm also using a Running Springs Audio conditioner for my Pre and Amp. Despite that, I've had persistent ground loop issues which I suspect derives from how the electrician tied into the main junction box. I've been looking for another local electrician to sort this out, but so far no luck. Seems most/all local electricians are clueless about high-end audio/video and various grounding options.

 

[sharok]

My electrician made me a subpanel with eight dedicated circuits (20 Amps each) with isolated ground. I use one circuit for the TV with an MIT Z-Duplex (6 parallel filter in it) and the other seven are connected to seven "Maestro" outlets.

I also use an EP-2050 surge protector / power filter at my main panel. I'm very happy with the whole setup.

 

[Speedskater]

Unfortunately with Isolated Grounds, there is a good chance that they will be installed incorrectly.
And in large studio IG systems, IT IG systems and industrial instrumentation IG systems, over the years new personal will mess it up.

Two clues that an IG system was done wrong:
a] More Safety Ground wire was used than the Hot or Neutral.
b] Somehow the ground rod came into the conversation.

 

[sharok]

Anything installed incorrectly, wont work right. It does apply to everything in life including dedicated circuits.

But in case it was done right by accident (in my case, it was installed correctly), the result is an unblievable dead quiet background.

 

[Speedskater]

Anything installed incorrectly, wont work right. It does apply to everything in life including dedicated circuits.

But with IG circuits there are different levels of incorrect.
a] Danger to human life.
b] Meets code but no noise benefits.

 

[Brad225]

Speed, is there something about sharok's description that leads you to believe it is done improperly?

Not trying to stir the pot just curious.

 

[Speedskater]

It's a generalization, I don't know anything about sharok's installation.
But it does seem to be doing the job.

****************************
I do know that a decade ago, when Audio Precision built their new location, commercial electricians messed up a bunch of circuits.

 

[Speedskater]

The three most common Isolated Ground system errors might be:
1] Running the IG wire to a isolated ground rod rather than to the main panel Neutral.
2] Running a IG wire from each individual outlet back to the main panel Neutral.
3] Having an IG system in a Romex® or plastic conduit circuit.

And in any type of system, incorrectly wired receptacles.

 

[R.I.P]

I have installed 2 20 ampere 250 Volt Porcelain base Busch-Jaeger power sockets.

The best available in Pakistan market however they are inexpensive.

One of these has 2 3kva voltage stabilizers attached and the other one 3kva stabilizer.

All three voltage stabilizers are grounded using green color Earth wire.

Grounding of stabilizers and Anthem power amp has a small audible impact on the audio quality.

 

[Brad225]

The three most common Isolated Ground system errors might be:
1] Running the IG wire to a isolated ground rod rather than to the main panel Neutral.
2] Running a IG wire from each individual outlet back to the main panel Neutral.
3] Having an IG system in a Romex® or plastic conduit circuit.

And in any type of system, incorrectly wired receptacles.

My knowledge of IGs is virtually non existent. With current electrical panels having separate neutral and ground bars insulated from the panel you can't mix the two. How do you install an IG?

Why is having an IG in Romex or conduit bad?

I am fortunate that the panel that feeds my music room is only 25 feet away. When I built the room I was able to run #10 Romex and have each outlet on its own circuit. They are on the same side of the buss bar in the panel also. It has made for a dead quiet system.

 

[Speedskater]

My knowledge of IGs is virtually non existent. With current electrical panels having separate neutral and ground bars insulated from the panel you can't mix the two. How do you install an IG?

Only sub-panels have an insulated Neutral bus. The insulated Ground bus is for the IG.
Main panels don't have insulated Neutral or Ground buses.

Why is having an IG in Romex or PLASTIC conduit bad?

It's not bad, but it's no different than regular receptacles. The reason for a IG system is to prevent noise currents, leakage currents, lost Neutral currents and ground currents from other circuits that share a regular ground wire or metal conduit from using your audio interconnects to get back to their voltage source.

I am fortunate that the panel that feeds my music room is only 25 feet away. When I built the room I was able to run #10 Romex and have each outlet on its own circuit. They are on the same side of the buss bar in the panel also. It has made for a dead quiet system.

For a smaller system I would prefer to us only one circuit wired to a junction box in a central point in the listening room then split out to the outlet boxes.
For a large home theater system I would run a heavy feeder to a center point sub-panel then split into different circuits.