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So much was discussed about AC outlets, dedicated lines, conditioners etc. A trained ear man can detect the sonic differences, but nothing was discussed about the sonic influences of fuse box breakers, the last (or one but) link an audiophile has access to before electric-co's large fuses and grid.
I came to the point of being somewhat tired of internal tweaking and went back to system synergy and room treatment. The other day a friend who's familiar with my systems sound dropped by with some music and IC's, and in a spur of the moment I suggested that before we begin I would like to try and cross fuses. My home fuse box consists on a mixture of Siemens and GE 20A for power, the first two in row were Siemens for the audio sys. I took out two GE's and put them instead of the Siemens (same place) which were used for the dryer and A/C, we set down and listen.
Unbelievable, The difference was overwhelming (I'm talking 24hrs later still), suddenly bass players appeared, mid bass and mid became lush and harmonic, smoother highs, involvement factor went sky high. On the down side, sound stage shrunk a little and some ambience cues got lost.
Earlier today, I re-crossed breakers and got the old sound back, now I knew for sure.
Some troubling questions are rising, If breakers make so much impact on sound, even more than outlets, how can one tell which is the best, every house and store have different ones ? Have my last couple of tweaking years with the IMO bad sounding breakers gone to waste ? Should I get some 60A ceramic fuses and try to change those electric co. ones ? should I ask them to replace the neighborhood's transformer to see how it sounds ?
The last bit was a joke, but the breakers thing was for real.
Follow Ups:
Generally a given brand of svc. panel will accept only a few brands of breakers other than there own i.e. Siemens, Square D, Cutler-Hammer, etc. The only way you can tell which sound best is to listen to the brands that will fit your svc. panel, using your reference discs. After you make your decision use these breakers, after having them cryo'd and treated with Quicksilver, etc. You can also get copper ground rails for both the neutral (white) wires and for the 3rd wire 'safety ground' connections in the svc. panel. And soldered connections are ALWAYS better then non-soldered connections. You seem to know what you're doing rummaging around in that svc. panel, if not you are LITERALLY taking your LIFE in your hands doing so. If you want to go the last mile do a GOOGLE for high purity copper 10 ga. Romex and have it cryo'd also. Audio is a "chain" and it can never be better than the weakest link. After you reach a certain point (early on) EVERYTHING affects sonics.Happy Wiring !
You do know according to NEC you can only install breakers in a panel that is approved for that panel...
I was surprised when I removed a set of old Combak Harmonix tuning dots (the originals from over a decade ago, about 3/4 diameter, two or three layer construction with the little paper thingie in the middle) and stuck them all over my breaker box... wasn't expecting a whole lot, just didn't want to waste the dots and had no better thing to do with them. The sound of my system markedly improved, more involving, sweeter, faster... it appears that there are loads of unmusical resonant hums and buzzes in the breaker box.... a major factor in why the same identical products can sound so different in different settings. You might try putting a RF-57 dot on the breaker, or possibly a RF-78 which seems to deal with lower frequencies better. If you can shut down the box from a master switch you might consider slipping the breaker out, cleaning the contact blade on the buss bar rigorously with Flitz, getting all the grime and oxide off, and then putting a fine film of Quicksilver or SST on the blade before reseating the breaker. Also clean the end of the copper wire that locks into the breaker and carefully treat it. I've had major improvements from SST on the ends of the wire going into my outlets. Have wondered, if there is enough room in a larger box, what would happen if you obtained a half length z-sleeve and put one over the wire right before the breaker.
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