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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Re: Dedicated line using romex 12/3 with red and black for hot. Has anyone else used this? posted by alley-kat on March 13, 2003 at 10:57:23:
Hi, kbois, alley-kat & fellow cable treakers.First of all I never like the sound coming out of Romax. Most
building wires we pick up from the stores are made from recyled copper: copper strands drawn from copper rod smelted from copper cables & wires scrapped from torn-down building sites, industrial recycles, etc. I know because I know the bigtime smelting & cable mills in Georgia, which supply buiding wires to store, like Home Depots. Audiophiles should use wires made of virgin copper. Not recyled copper! The problem is: we can never tell the electrical wiring used in our homes is made from virgin or recycled copper.My solution for this situation twelve years ago when I moved into my home here was: dedicated power circuits which I hooked up direct from the electric panel in my basemnt, to my sound den which is also in the same basement. My home has two-phase 125V power supply, & bridged for 250V supply for range/stove. I hooked up two circuits from the panel to my audio gears: 125V & 250V. The 250V power rail is mainly for my power amplifier, which is multi-volted. There is good technical reason for better using 250V power supply, if available, for power amplifiers which draw heavy currents. This direct power wiring would not be complete without a direct grounding for my equipment. So, I wired a grounding circuit using oxgen-free muitl-stranded insulated copper wire direct from my equipment power bars to the central grounding point of my house at the basement just below the electric panel - clamped down & silver soldered. The total length of cables is not over 20 feet each run!
WARNING: if you are not electrically seasoned like your truly, please
hire an qualified electrician.The next thing to do was to decide what types of power cable to use. No Romax, period. No exotic cables, for sure. I tried various mult-stranded equipment wires with my audio gear to get the best sound out of them. Eventually I settled down with TEW #8 133 strands copper equipment wire with thermoplastic insulation (rated 600V 105C). I also use #8 590 strands oxgen-free copper cable with thermalplastic insulation. Both sound good. They sell dirt cheap. No THHN please, as it is another small diameter general-purpose building wire which I don't want to touch.
With direct powering from the panel & direct grounding, I never needed any power conditioners for my audio gears, & I don't think I will. I don't mean you don't need a power conditioner like me. If you are tapping power from any wall sockets, with miles of Romax wires
circulating inside the walls of your house, acting like a huge RFI
antenna, & hundreds of joints on the ground circuit before it goes
to the central ground point of the house. What do you expect!
You were just like pumping water from a sewer & try to filter the
craps out. Don't hold your breath.This is only one of the reasons I have chosen my basement as my sonic
paradise - shortest & most efficient powering & grounding link to my audio gears.Other good reasons are: very quiet & year-round constant temperature (23C) environment for music listening. Solid concrete substrate
for suporting the equipment, and concrete wall structures around to provide a vibration-inert environment. "Seismic vibrations" (a laugh!
) if any, will be reduced to null. I test play my gears at
some 100-decibel loud volume, no acoustical feedback nor vibration problem. I never need any acoustical treatment or isolation tweaks! The massive basement concrete slab does the trick!The last & the most important reason is: The last thing I want is to
tear down the decor of my home-sweet-home into an audio
demo room with gears & cables all over the house. I have been to
so many audiophiles' homes & privately, I really feel sorry for their families. Their homes no longer look like a decent home. Just like an electrical workshop! I don't want to look like a Frankenstein so anti-social in front of my family. So, I have moved my sonic paradise down to the basement since day one, with door always closed when music is on. We got to be considerate. Not everybody in this world
goes banana on music, like us.Just some of my little experience with Romax.
Good listening
cheap-Jack
March 17, 2003
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- Re: Dedicated line using romex 12/3 with red and black for hot. Has anyone else used this? - cheap-Jack 13:40:30 03/17/03 (0)
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