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Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

RE: please teach me...- If you are serious

As a retired electrician, you will have a real advantage over most of us.

As others have stated, it has a lot to do with noise. You also want surge protection.

Start by running dedicated circuits from your breaker box, to the listening room. Put all circuits on the same leg of the box. Run a minimum of two, with your skills three would be better. One 20 amp for the amps, and two 15 or 20 amp for front end gear. If you do the three, then use one for amps and any powered subs. Then one line for analog and one for dgital. There are expensive outlets, but Acme has reasonably priced ones, or you can use hospital grade outlets. New outlets will have better grip, which is a good thing.

There are many types of conditioners, read up on what is offered at Music Direct and Audio Advisor. There are units that have separate sections for digital, analog, and high current. When it comes to amps you don't want anything that will limit current. While you can buy universal power strips, it is better to go with audio specific units.

Besides passive units, there are power regeneraters. They take the electricity convert it to DC and then convert it back to pure clean power. For front end components that is my choice. I run my preamp, dac, Oppo, and tuner on clean regenerated power. There are a few different companies, but I prefer PS Audio products. I don't have dedicated circuits, I should have done it when I moved in, but wasn't in the budget, and now my attic has 18inches of insulation. And due to health issues, I can't get up in the attic myself, no basement either. So using a regenerater I can get clean power out of a shared circuit.

One old tired argument is why use special power cords when there are miles of crap wire. Think of it this way, it is not the last 6ft,but the first 6ft.

Using power conditioners does improve the sound quality of your system. You will hear it, if you have a good highly resolving system. For a guy like you, building your own power cords, would be the way to go. There are always used conditioners available on the Asylum Trader and at Audiogon. Any computers connected to the system will be the worst offenders. I always unplug my USB cable at the laptop, when not in use. Of course if you don't have easy access that won't work for you.

Once you have read up on the various conditioners, check out Furman, AudioQuest, Shunyata, PS Audio, and any others that catch your eye.
Then post any specific questions you may have. There are lots of smart people here.




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  • RE: please teach me...- If you are serious - Jeff Starr 22:54:29 09/14/16 (0)


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