[Ron D]

I am thinking about putting in a couple of dedicated lines but if I do this I will require extra long power cords, say about 20 feet in length, as the dedicated outlets must be installed across the room from where my system resides? There is no way around this.
Currently I have 3 pieces on 1 line. Bryston amp, Hovland preamp and my digital gear is plugged into a small BPT conditioner also on the same line. Installing 2 lines would allow me to drive the preamp and amp on their own lines and leave the digital alone on its own.

The downside is having to run 2 really long power cords which I would plug directly into the amp and preamp's IEC inlets.

Am I spinning my wheels here? Is this money down a rathole???

All opinions and/or related personal experiences are most welcome.

[Ron D]

the house is a split level and the only way to get power to the other side of the room is via the outside and an 80' run. Floor is concrete and the ceiling is inaccessible. The new lines would be approx. 20' long and another 20' power cord would be 40' which I think would be better than 80' outside the house. Its either 40'  in total (20' Romex + 20' power cable) versus 80' Romex + 5' power cable. I mean how much would someone lose using a 20' decently made power cable (say 12 gauge) versus the same 20' in Romex - nothing that I can see. The power is actually using half the distance to get to the component.

Flip side is move the rig to the other side of the room where the new lines will be but then its now 20' speaker cables that are required to be hooked up each time I want to listen as they cannot be left out for someone to trip over. Also to replace my Acoustic-Zen speaker cables with 20 footers would be serious money (at least for me)...

[rosconey]

dedicated lines arent a waste even if you use long power cords,first you can never have to many outlets,second a clean line with no other draws -

total brain lock on the name but there is way -
your electrician runs the new lines along the bottom of the wall and covers them when hes done with a metal piece-doesnt look that bad and would get your outlet were you want them-man i cant get the name off the tip of my tounge-

[Marbles]

I am thinking about putting in a couple of dedicated lines but if I do this I will require extra long power cords, say about 20 feet in length, as the dedicated outlets must be installed across the room from where my system resides? There is no way around this.
Currently I have 3 pieces on 1 line. Bryston amp, Hovland preamp and my digital gear is plugged into a small BPT conditioner also on the same line. Installing 2 lines would allow me to drive the preamp and amp on their own lines and leave the digit ...

I had  my lines run outside, around the house, I think they were 120' foot runs, then down the basement wall inside the drywall.

I would run a couple of lines, but IMO you should keep them on the SAME circuit not different circuits.  Wish someone would have told me that when I ran mine.  If you run different circuits, it GREATLY increases your risk of ground loop hums.  Or you could run one line and multiple outlets to the one line.

[Carlman]

I would do something like what Rosconey's talking about...
Pull the Romex into the room, and run a covered molding or conduit along the baseboard to the other side of the room.
Then, mount an outlet wherever you want and fish the romex from the baseboard, through the wall, to the back of the new outlet.

This would make a permanent, clean, and inexpensive solution.  I don't know if it's 'to code' but that's what I'd do.  I did something similar to this in my garage.  I just ran the romex along the baseboard from the box and then went under my house to do the dedicated run.

Good luck,
Carl

[bubba966]

I would run a couple of lines, but IMO you should keep them on the SAME circuit not different circuits.  Wish someone would have told me that when I ran mine.  If you run different circuits, it GREATLY increases your risk of ground loop hums.  Or you could run one line and multiple outlets to the one line.

Are your breakers for your circuits one directly over top of the other?

(looking like so in your electrical panel)

20A dedicated line
20A dedicated line

If so then one circuit is on a different phase from the other. Which is probably what's causing whatever problems it sounds like you've had.

Easiest solution to that is to move one of the breakers so that there's a single breaker between your two dedicated lines.

(so it'd now look like so)

20A dedicated line
15A or 20A breaker for lights/whatever
20A dedicated line

Or moving one of them to the other side directly next to the other works as well.

(so it'd be like this)

20A dedicated line   20A dedicated line

But that's more difficult to do as you'd have to have plenty of wire to move the breaker to the other side of the panel. Which is probably unlikely as you've most likely got both dedicated lines coming into the panel in the same place. Which is why it'd make moving one so that there's a single breaker between them is the much easier solution.

[Marbles]

Thanks.  I actually solved it by just adding another duplex to one of the circuits, so now I have four outlets, and I use the other circuit (one duplex) for things like remote control on pre-amp, which is mechanical and not in signal path, and the battery charger for my turntable, which again is not in any signal path.

The next time I have an electrician in though, I will have him move the breaker.

[bubba966]

Thanks.  I actually solved it by just adding another duplex to one of the circuits, so now I have four outlets, and I use the other circuit (one duplex) for things like remote control on pre-amp, which is mechanical and not in signal path, and the battery charger for my turntable, which again is not in any signal path.

The next time I have an electrician in though, I will have him move the breaker.

Well, if I ever make it out to your 'hood for some reason, I can take care of that for 'ya...

[zybar]

Thanks.  I actually solved it by just adding another duplex to one of the circuits, so now I have four outlets, and I use the other circuit (one duplex) for things like remote control on pre-amp, which is mechanical and not in signal path, and the battery charger for my turntable, which again is not in any signal path.

The next time I have an electrician in though, I will have him move the breaker.

Well, if I ever make it out to your 'hood for some reason, I can take care of that for 'ya...

You can hit Rob's place on your way back from wiring my new house.  

George

[speedcenter]

dedicated lines arent a waste even if you use long power cords,first you can never have to many outlets,second a clean line with no other draws -

total brain lock on the name but there is way -
your electrician runs the new lines along the bottom of the wall and covers them when hes done with a metal piece-doesnt look that bad and would get your outlet were you want them-man i cant get the name off the tip of my tounge-

A friend of mine had his run outside the building in metal conduit. That's up to code and was a lot easier than tearing down already installed drywall to get wires run inside the building. I'm planning to do the same on my house this year, where I'll be routing 6 dedicated lines through conduit for about 50 feet to get to the wall behind my system. Shoudl cost about $600 if I do the hard work of pulling cable through conduit.

Peter