I'm bidding on a new home. The home owner wants "the cleanest power quality" for a audio room. This is not a high end home, and I told him that what he had read on the net about grounding the outlets to their own ground rod was not acceptable. Anybody have any ideas on how to get clean power and still code compliant? I was wondering about having each outlet be a surge surpressor outlet to get clean power.

That sounds a little like putting up a barrier at the top of the stairs instead of giving baby a bath. Suppressing out-of-bounds excursions of voltage is all that, by definition, a surge suppressor does. It might well act as a low pass filter but it doesn't necessarily "clean up" power. I can't see those outlets making a difference in audio quality. But if their goal is actually protecting expensive equipment from surges rather than "hearing a difference", secondary surge protection couldn't hurt. I take it you're already bidding a suppressor at the main panel. I don't think I would like secondary suppression within an outlet.
Joe

Sell him a $100K whole house power conditioner.


(Kidding)

[This message has been edited by Dnkldorf (edited 06-20-2006).]

Ahhh.. he wants 'pure power,' does he? Well, here's a few ideas.

Dedicated circuits, with their own dedicated, unshared neutrals. Maybe even go up a wire size.
A surge suppressor at the panel.

If he really insists upon spending mucho bucks, you can put in a 1:1 isolation transformer.

Ultimately, all the grounds need to be connected together.

Hmmm.... How much money does he want to spend? Not kidding....

It would be cheaper to explain away the many variables of therory, and the way that electronics, and thier power supplies operate, which make the point nearly mute! But if he has no sense of reason, and money he wants to give you in abundance.... Take it all!

Might I suggest you break out the catalogs and spec's for Cryogenic oxegen free outlets, and some of the other CRAP LIKE THIS . (Scroll down, and look directly into the prices, feel yor eyes burn with rage....)

Just remember to mark it up 100+% for the insult and trouble of locating and specifying such garbage!

Or go totally custom and dress up a k-rated transformer like this , throw in some surge protection, and some other bells and whistles to really rake in that dough... Perminant installation of an O-scope to monitor it might be fun too.

BTW, surge protectors don't clean power, they just provide options for the rare high voltage failure. And won't save anything from under-over voltage from any other type of neutral loss, voltage gain or drop.

The only real way to "Clean your power" is to regenerate it, or through the use of a tranformer. OR A UPS UNIT..... (Well some types... The power conditioning type)

Tell this guy you can do the whole house. Right here .

Run a dedicated Romex circuit to his entertainment center. That is as clean as his power will get. Sell him a power conditioner if it doesn't seem like he has spent enough money yet.

He should also be looking at surge protection if this is a multimedia center with TV, data, phone etc. That is another topic that we can put real science on.

"BX" cable would be a good choice. The wires are inside an electrostatic shield (the armour and its equipment ground wire) and the wires themselves are twisted together, one twist every 6 or so inches. This twist will cancel any stray magnetic fields from the currents in the wire. These things are routinely done with audio cables to avoid picking up external hum and noise. In this case with the BX cable, you're confining the noise and hum INSIDE the cable to prevent it from getting into the audio equipment and cables. These points are valid and not "snake oil", so have at it with your sales pitch....

To avoid "ground loop" hum problems, be sure to have all the BX grounds come from a single panel and follow a common path for the home runs, and tie all the grounds together at a single metal box in the audio room before branching to other outlets in that room. Avoid the BX touching water pipes or such.

How about a motor-generator set? With a big flywheel, that will give really, really good isolation.

Avoid the BX touching water pipes or such.

Isolated ground MC (separate green/yellow) and a IG recptacle will take care of that.

I have actually done just that to eliminate a ground loop between an audio rack and a sat RG-6 grounded braid. I made sure that the sat ground and the IG came from the same place in the panel.


-Hal

I second renosteinke's idea.

Or get a one to one motor generator set for the basement and take the audio supply of the gen / alternator output via good sized cables to his stereo equipment.

All surges / spikes from the mains will be eliminated this way, which partially will go through an isolation transformer as a dampened spike but still visible on an oscilloscope.

One detail I forgot.... forget the romex, run pipe! Steel pipe will prevent the "AC hum" that happens when power wires pass next to LV wires.

Along the same lines... make sure that the stereo cables do not pass anywhere near fluorescent lights, dimmers, transformers, or variable-speed motors (like ceiling fans).

I think renosteinke's first post should take care of it. I think with the price this person would want to spend that upsizing a deticated circuit, and in BX if he wants to pay, along with the surge surpressor should do it. I was also thinking about the 1:1 transformer, but I have no idea how much they cost. Myself, I could not tell the difference if a cd was playing or rather it was a old 45! LOL

Don't forget these "Audiofile" Quality receptacles a bargain at only $150 Each! http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=110-439&DID=7

CWkid, did you see the "Crapola like this" link?

They have a cord in there for $365.84 per foot, with $2.50 cord caps in heat-shink, and some fancy, but useless braiding, with some sort of goo!


The things people do to part themselves with thier money....

[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 06-26-2006).]

along with the rigid pipe, the CV xfmr, twisted wire, and oscilloscopes.... I think 2Kv DLO cable is needed. (locomotive cable)
the stuff is available in 14ga. but you should probably pull 262 kcmil since its good for well over 400 A....

maybe he can be sold on the idea of vacuuming out the receptacles and polishing ALL the prongs and blades on the power stuff periodically. .....for really clean power......

don't forget lightning protection for the entire structure or spraying everything in the house with anti-static products

[This message has been edited by togol (edited 06-26-2006).]

Don't forget to insist on these, too:
http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?....

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-01-2006).]

Actually do this for dedicated theaters and wall mounted TV's where possible.

Panamax makes a power conditioner for different load ranges, I run all the power required for the room, screens, projector, TV etc and install a male receptacle for each run. Then the panamax unit cord and plugs to the wall receptacles and viola, conditioned power for the whole room.

And for remote/existing locations, they make an inwall unit that fits into a deep box.

Not quite sure if this is code compliant as seperate source of power (Regenerated) from that 5500 unit, becoming premisis wiring method to this unit.... http://www.panamax.com/Literature/PDF/INS0736E.pdf

from this unit.... http://www.panamax.com/pdf/M5500EX_L551A.pdf

Nope.... Doesn't fit the exceptions in 250.30(A)2, 15A is over 1000VA. Needs a GEC of #8. Unless there are two or more transformers under that size in there?

[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 07-02-2006).]

What we do for hi end systems, is run MC dedicated, and at the system, we give them a UPS with power conditioning, that gives them protection, and clean power, without spending a fortune.

Is this the place to mention that the power provided by most inexpensive UPSs is a horribly-misshapen, pseudo-sinewave, with very high harmonic content? Much worse power than you'll ever get from the POCO.

Be aware that during normal times (POCO lines are supplying power) many cheap UPSs just pass POCO power (via a relay) to their outputs and only cut in when there is a power failure. The only purpose these UPSs serve is to give a computer user a chance to save a file and then shut the computer down in an orderly fashion. The batteries will only last about 20 minutes. Thus this UPS is of no benefit in a high end audio system.