Audio and Video Wall Power Line Installation Procedures
updated 3/30/2022
by Vince Galbo of MSB
Click on the link below to read the entire article in PDF format, or scroll down to read below.
Dedicated line installation 3 2022
Audio and Video Wall Power Line Installation Procedures
updated 3/30/22
DISCLAIMER
The subject of the paper involves exposure to potentially lethal voltages. Please read this recommendation fully and then get an electrician to agree to do the work. If you decide to do this yourself then decide if you have actually done this kind of house-voltage electrical work before and are competent to do so and accept the risks of doing so. Galbo Design, Vincent Galbo, and MSB Technology make no guarantees or accept any responsibility for any injury or the results or any damages caused by considering or performing the procedures outlined below. Galbo Design, Vincent Galbo, and MSB Technology make no guarantees the information is correct or complete. The content of this paper is free advice. Rely only on the services of qualified personnel to interpret the information and perform it safely. The reader of this document is responsible to decide who is qualified to perform the work. The reader of this document is responsible to determine if any of these recommendations are in violation of any local codes. By taking action on any or all of the content in this paper the reader of this document, both user and electrician alike, thereby agree to accept all responsibility and hold harmless Galbo Design, Vincent Galbo, and MSB Technology.
What are we trying to accomplish here?
I repeat !! Be smart here, give this paper to a licensed electrician and let them do the work.
Please know that all items in this paper have been tested over 20+ years with definite audible results. The main goal is thicker wall wire to the audio system. Every person that has done this wall power improvement has acknowledged some worthwhile improvement. Most often people say “this is the sound I have always wanted in my system! Why isn’t anyone talking about this?”.
Please read on.
People very often tell me “I have 20 amp dedicated lines” and assume they have done everything they need to do. By US electrical code definitions, a "20 amp dedicated line" will have 12 gauge wire in the wall. So while you may have a “dedicated line”, 12 gauge wire is absolutely insufficient for high end audio systems. We are recommending 10 gauge or thicker wire here. It is the subject and goal of this paper. The gauge of the wire is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the fact that the line is “dedicated”. The subject of this paper works on the theory that the varying musical demands of your amplifier are actually modulating the incoming power line, divorced from the utility (power company) by some amount of resistance (ohms). Even at 10-15 feet from the wall outlet to the breaker panel, 12 or 14 gauge wall wiring has too much resistance for audio purposes. The noise coming from your utility is often lower than you suspect and the gauge of the wire is far more important because the amplifier itself is modulating the actual line it is plugged into. The amplifier demands current directly up and down with the music at audio frequencies that are of course above and below the 60 cycles from the power company. These demands are impressed on the line wavering the incoming voltage and so the amp is re-ingesting its own noise and also making the line dirty for itself AND the preamp, DAC, server, etc. This is possible because the wall wiring back to the breaker panel has some degree of resistance depending on the length of the run and the wire gauge (12 gauge or sometimes even 14 gauge). Power conditioners and certain power cord designs help because they make an effort to “shunt” this noise (short it out and kill it) and consume the unwanted frequencies dumping them as wasted heat. A better answer is to reduce the resistance back to the breaker panel making it difficult for the amp to modulate the power at all and also at the same time and importantly, getting maximum moment to moment power for the amplifier power supply. And so, there are two benefits to reducing the resistance back to the breaker panel (1) stop the amp from fluctuating or modulating the wall power, (2) provide the amp with maximum current (amperage) moment to moment as the music is playing. Please Note: The single biggest goal of this paper is to install 10 gauge wiring up to 20-30 feet and eight gauge beyond 35-40 feet, and then six gauge wire beyond 60 feet. Everything else in this paper is there to be sure you get the maximum benefit from the lower resistance of ten gauge (or heavier) wire! Skipping any steps is false economy.
Conductive connection pastes
Please see http://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-8463-7G-ConductiveSyringe/dp/B005T8QLYM or go to http://www.mcmaster.com in the search window enter part # 1219K57. This is pure silver paste in a minimal amount of carrier. This is more expensive but included here in case the first option becomes unavailable.
These pastes are called “grease” but are rather thick. Be wary of any others you might find that are actually somewhat fluid. I have reports of migration of at least one audiophile silver grease that, because of voltage potential across the Line and Neutral, the paste attempts to physically migrate and close the gap between the hot and the ground. In one local attempt it burned up an outlet. That is why I use the McMaster Carr or MG Chemicals products. It is almost crumbly and never migrates upon inspection years later, nor does it seem to oxidize over time. There are reports of “audiophile” silver pastes that do oxidize and so the oxidized silver becomes worse than not applying silver at all. DO NOT try to use this stuff on interconnects, or speaker cables. While it seems like a good thing, the paste is impossible to control and it smears around in use because it never really dries. The result is a partial or complete short across signal hot and ground. I added this comment based on one audiophile who tried it on his interconnects, got no sound in one channel, weak distorted sound in the other, and spent hours washing his RCA plugs and cleaning his input/output jacks on his components. I don’t think it can be completely cleaned out and he should have replaced the jacks and plugs. In other words just don’t do it. It is better to clean your interconnects and jacks once or twice per year (highly recommended). Here is a cleaning tool for RCAs. http://www.musicdirect.com/p-9658-signet-rca-cleaning-tool-ea.aspx You can also Google "interconnect cleaning" and "XLR input cleaning" and see procedures and chemicals like Caig and other products to deoxidize the jacks on your equipment. Consult your equipment manufacturer for their recommendations also.
Back to AC power
You will use the silver paste at every AC power connection that is made starting by removing the breakers and applying it to the inside of the clip on the back of the breaker. No need to apply it to the buss bar connection especially since these are always electrically live and fatally dangerous!!! The clip will transfer the paste to the buss bar. I recommend new breakers if they are older than one year or so. (they are cheap compared to the cost of your audio system). If you get the original equipment circuit breakers (like Square D, Siemens, etc.), from an electrical supply house (not Home Depot or Lowes), you will likely get silver-tungsten contacts inside the breaker. Cheap off-shore replacement breakers may have copper contacts which have higher resistance and will oxidize over time raising the resistance further defeating what we are trying to do here. Research with your local electrical supply for your brand of breaker panel and ask them to look up the breaker contact material to confirm it is silver or silver tungsten. You will also use the silver paste on the wires where they enter into the screw terminals both at the breakers and the wall outlets. A thin film is all that is needed on all these connections and the silver actually performs better as a thin film. (more…is NOT better here). This stuff tends to get on the fingers and then everywhere else so be sure to clean up with Goo Gone or some such solvent since the silver paste is like liquid wire. It can be a finger-shock hazard if you are sloppy with it, so be sure to clean up any excess or smeared film with a solvent like Goo Gone EVEN IF YOU CAN’T SEE IT !!. Your electrician will have a non corrosion paste that he always uses to preserve and prevent oxidation on an aluminum or copper connection but does not reduce the resistance of the connection anywhere near as well as the silver paste. Its intent is to slow oxidation over time and nothing more. The electrician will say “oh I already have some stuff I use”. Let’s be very clear here: The electrician’s paste is not suitable for our purposes. The silver or a silver-loaded copper compounds are the only choices.
I recommend at least two 20 amp 120 volt circuits run on 10 gauge wire up to 25 feet and 8 gauge up to 40 feet, and 6 gauge beyond that. The 8 gauge requires a jump-down back to 10 gauge using a junction box, somewhere just before the outlet because the largest wire that will fit in a standard wall outlet is 10 gauge. I am told the Furutech makes an outlet that accepts 8 gauge directly and we might slightly prefer that outlet especially when 8 gauge is used. 6 gauge will require a connection in a junction box, down to 10 gauge if 6 gauge is used. Don’t worry about this connection, use the silver paste when joining the two wire gauges and know the connection will be less resistance than the wire itself and will stay that way permanently. I recommend 20 amp breakers. 30 amp breakers do not pass any more power or have lower resistance. They simply kick off at 30 amps instead of at 20 amps. A 30 amp breaker could actually be more dangerous possibly causing a fire in the event of a true short circuit (very rare but that’s what the breakers protect against).
Install one dedicated line for all front end equipment, and one for each amplifier and one circuit for one (or two) subwoofers. (subwoofers are even worse than amplifiers at making the power lines dirty). Try to find good outlets something like the PS Audio Power Port, or a Furutech, or Wattgate models. Generic commercial grade outlets are not a good substitute. Low and medium priced audiophile outlets are a good investment since they are heavier copper, better plated and really grip the blades of your power cord plug.
Sub panels
If the distance between the wall outlets and the breaker panel is very far, like 50- 100 feet, one might consider a subpanel close to the listening room. I recommend the Eaton CH series panels using copper buss bars with silver plating. The internal power paths are highly conductive, again, with less resistance. In keeping with the purpose of the paper, ask the electrician to uprate the wire gauge between the main panel and the sub panel. 4 gauge should be minimum with 2 gauge being considered above 60 feet. Again, let’s remind the electrician we are not wiring for high current draw, we are wiring for the lowest possible resistance. They will look like the exact same thing to the electrician.
Grounding
Also, consider 2 or 3 ground rods 6 -10 feet apart tied together running back to your main breaker panel. Try to put the ground rods into the dampest place in the soil if possible. Some modern codes tie the house ground to the re-bar that is embedded in the concrete foundation and concrete floors of the house. Your electrician will know the best procedures in your area.
For 120 volt circuits: MAKE SURE ALL EXISTING AND NEW CIRCUITS THAT YOU USE ARE ON THE SAME ELECTRICAL PHASE. I have had several direct experiences with an audio system connected on the opposite house electrical phases and the dual 120 volt feed from the electrical grid seems to make a good antenna to pick up RF. Connecting your system to only one electrical phase seems to prevent any RF issues that can damage equipment in areas with high RF. (No… you have no way to know if you are in a microwave path, or TV/radio transmission path, so just do it!) Usually, every other breaker in the stack is the same phase. In other words, starting at the top (first) breaker in the left column you will have “A” phase. The next breaker down (second) will be “B” phase, and then the next (third) will be “A” phase again, etc. So the two (or more) dedicated lines should be spaced one breaker apart to be on the same phase. Another way to say this: On the left hand side of the panel, all of the odd numbered breakers on one side will be on one of the phases, all of the even numbered breakers will be on the other phase. Then on the right side of the panel the opposite may be true meaning the first breaker on the left is on the same phase as the second breaker on the right, etc. On either side every other breaker will be on the same phase. Some newer panels may have one phase all on the left, and the other phase all on the right. If you don’t know and don’t know how to test, have an electrician help or do the work. Warning !! Fatal voltages are exposed here. Decide if you are competent with an AC voltmeter and if you will not be dangerous to yourself and accept the sole responsibility for this decision. If you have experience with an AC voltmeter measuring wall power and you feel you are competent then you can test between any two wall outlets to prove they are on the same phase by testing for AC voltage across the two shorter slots in the respective wall outlets. (the longer slot is always the neutral, the shorter slot is always the "hot" or "line"). Measuring between the two outlets probing their respective “hot” short slots you should have a reading near zero volts and maybe floating around several millivolts (mv). Use an extension cord on one outlet to get near the other outlet to let your meter leads reach if necessary. Remember, the long slot is neutral, the short slots are hot or “line”. If your reading is 220-240 volts between the two short slots on the two outlets then the two outlets are on separate circuits on the opposite phases and should be corrected. This is done by moving one of the breakers to another position in the breaker panel so both outlets are now on the same phase. If you are not competent with a voltmeter, ask you electrician to determine the phase of your wall outlets.
Also, it is a good idea to ask your electrician to go around the breaker panel when he is done and tighten all of the set-screws that clamp the wires. This is especially important on the heaviest cables that feed the panel. These screws will be LIVE and lethal! They cannot be turned off so ask the electrician if he has the proper voltage-rated insulated tools to do this and if he is comfortable doing so. Electricians will often do this any time they service a panel. Caution!! Lethal voltages are exposed here. DO NOT pick up the tools you own with the plastic or rubber grips and think you can do this yourself. Your tools are not voltage rated for this procedure and it is fatally dangerous if you make a mistake, so DO NOT be tempted. Let an experienced, qualified, licensed, insured, electrician do this.
I use a meter made by Alpha labs at $130 to get some scale of the electrical noise coming from the utility. https://www.alphalabinc.com/product/plm/ Electrical noise can vary WIDELY across the country affected by cell towers, radio and TVs stations etc. It can be very high frequency not only conducted on the copper wire but also following the wire like an antenna. The only way to know if electrical noise is present is to measure it. Use the meter day evening and late evening. Especially if your system sounds different in the evening. Use the meter direct into the wall outlets of your system with nothing plugged into any of the outlets. If audio gear is plugged in then the reading will be lower because the audio gear is absorbing the noise. The reading that way will be meaningless. The noise is expressed in millivolts (mv). The mv reading is low below 50-100 mv, high around 400-500 mv and very high above 1000 mv up to 2000 mv which is the top range of the meter. I strongly suggest you use your ears to judge any power treatment. The meter is a guide. I advise not to chase small increments like 50mv compared to 40mv, you may not hear anything. Look for bigger changes. You can measure power conditioners with nothing plugged into them but be aware certain components in some conditioners can show higher readings because of reflections between the power conditioner and the meter. The higher measurement from the conditioner may not be of concern. Again, use your ears with and without the conditioner. If the sound is better with the conditioner, trust that result.
I don't generally recommend line conditioners for amplifiers when the system is done as described above. It is generally better to go straight into the wall. Again, use the Alpha labs meter as additional information here. If you do use a line conditioner on an amp be sure there is a claim of NO CURRENT or WATTAGE LIMITS and so it is likely a straight-through design with any filtering elements ACROSS the line. If it does have a wattage or current rating then it would indicate some sort of treatment in SERIES with the line which is almost never good for amplifiers and may even choke off lower power gear like front ends depending on the design of the conditioner. Some conditioners claim to have no current limiting. I suspect a claim of no current restriction is a relative claim meaning the current restriction is very small and it could be true for our purposes. Let me say here to use your ears in all cases. I do recommend conditioning for all front end equipment. For front ends which tend to draw little power compared to the amp, you might pursue a well designed conditioner but be observant about power limiting. (consider all of the foregoing theory but in the end use your ears). If you must run only one wall power line, plug the amp direct into the wall and then the front end into your line conditioner. It is infinitely better to install at least two lines (which must be on the same phase) because the amplifier will modulate the wall power fluctuating by the demands of the music and actually make noise on an otherwise quiet wall power line. Plug the amp directly into one and a line conditioner into the other which you will then plug your front end into. We have experience with the Audioquest 5000 and 7000 power conditioners. The Audioquest Niagaras are good with the 7000 model having a special power supply to filter and augment current to the mid-level filtering marked “Ultra liner Noise dissipation system” outlets 3 and 4. We found these outlets best for DACs. I have less experience connecting things like servers to the dielectric outlets 5 and 6. Use your ears. Be aware there are some complaints about the internal transformers humming in certain locations. This is not hum from the speakers but rather from the transformers themselves. After the wall wiring is done as per this paper the AQ Niagara 5000 may be a better choice. Our experience is to connect the DAC into the “high current” outlets intended for amplifiers. It gave us the best balance between transient current delivery and noise filtering. For the DAC, the other outlets seemed to restrict the current too much making the sound lackluster. Again, I often prefer the amps straight in the wall and do try line conditioners on the front end judging by ear. In any case, try to audition line conditioners before you buy. The AQ Niagaras are not the only choice and we have not tried others so do compare other brands. Conditioning is probably most important for DACs and digital sources because of the digital clocks running at "insane" accuracies. Bad power can easily make the DAC clock jitter worse in addition to adding ground noise to the analog circuitry and signal cable connections.
Some high end amps can be switched over and run on 240 volts and I recommend it. If you absolutely cannot change your wall wiring to a heavier gauge, and your amp allows it, you may be able to use the existing wiring to convert to 240 volt then using a 240 volt outlet and a 240 volt plug on your power cord. Ask your electrician if you can convert an existing 120 volt line to 240 volt. Be sure the amp has the feature that enables it to be changed to 240 volts and be sure the changeover is done correctly. Transformer primaries and the transformer core will run slightly more efficiently yielding lower impedance so the internal DC amp supply might appear slightly “stiffer” to the amp’s audio circuits (always a good thing). Because the amp is now running at twice the voltage but ½ the amperage (current) the wall wiring “looks” twice as thick to the amp as it does at 120 volt (ohms law). Now the amp will make even less audio noise on the line and it then rejects its own line noise better as per the goal of this paper. The 240 volt outlet can be a standard 15 amp (240 volt rated), with 10 ga. wire up to 60 feet then 8 gauge beyond that.
For the 240 volt lines, the electrician may, or may not know about a NEMA receptacle and plug number that is the same size and form as our common Edison duplex 120 volt receptacle but the wide blade of the plug is on the opposite side as the 120 volt duplex. Hubble or commercial Leviton works fine for 240 volt, and the 6-20 series looks less industrial in your home.
It is Nema plug number 6-20P. http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=6756 and Nema receptacle number 6-20R or 6-15/20R
http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=7093
Here is the Nema chart. http://www.stayonline.com/reference-nemastraight-blade.aspx
“Stay on line” is a good source
http://www.stayonline.com/default.aspx but your electrician may like a local supplier. BE SURE TO CHANGE OVER THE AMP INTERNALLY IF YOU DECIDE TO RUN 220 VOLT !
Twisting the wire
Twisting the Romex or individual wires almost completely rejects high frequency noise which is induced electrical fields from radio/TV stations, cell towers. Nearby low frequency noise from nearby AC wiring is also rejected. Conversely, the wiring being twisted will not emit a field or induce nearby wiring. Ask the electrician to twist the flat Romex cable one twist every 6-12 inches or so. He can do this by stretching out the length of the intended run and tying each end to something like a broom handle. Pull the wire taught and twist. Yes it is tedious but critical to do so. If the lines are running in parallel each line should be alternately twisted relative to the one next to it and ideally the twists of two lines should be at different intervals meaning twist one line at 6 or 7 inches the another at 10-12 inches and another at 8-9 inches, etc . This prevents any coherent coupling between them. Keep them away from each other by minimum 4 inches. It is perfectly OK to cross them at a right angle. If you are running individual wires in conduit then twist the black (hot) and the neutral. Do not include the mechanical ground in the twist. Just run it straight through the conduit alongside the twisted pair. In a recent untended test between twisted vs non-twisted wiring, two customers used the same electrician. The electrician was asked to twist the wire as described. It was discovered he did not do that step. He was required to come back and do it over, twisting the wire as described. Independently both customers could not believe the difference in the sound. With TV/radio stations, microwave transmission towers and now 5g cell towers everywhere, these fields affect our equipment more now than we know. The most susceptible may be the highly accurate clocks in all DACs but these fields do affect all of the equipment.
If your electrician has any concerns about all of this, be aware he is always planning for CONTINUOUS current draw and rates everything and splits up the loads between the two house phases, like the air conditioning and the electric dryer for the available amperage. Please explain to him that we are designing for incredibly short peak current pulses and we need the resistance from the wall outlets back to the utility as low as possible for thebest amplifier and overall system performance. The continuous draw might be 4 -10 amps and is negligible from the electrician’s standpoint. Larger wire does not violate any codes in the US as far as we know but you and your electrician are responsible to be sure this is true in your state, county, and city. In summary, we ask the electrician to understand we want the lowest possible resistance between the wall outlets and the breaker panel. It is all about incredibly short term current demands that are typical of music. These very high peaks can’t be measured with a conventional ammeter. Also, these very high, very short term current peaks can be well above the rating of a 20 amp breaker. These peaks are so fast the breaker does not even see them and therefore do not trip the breaker.
Here is the way to think about the goals and descriptions of this paper: The goal and ongoing process in our hobby is to find the choke points in our systems and upgrade them. The electrical power should be the first consideration in our systems and hence it is most often the first “choke point”. The system can never sound better than the worst power it is fed. There are two considerations: (1) increasing the wire size to improve the current starving and power modulation (noise), caused by the amplifier itself as previously described. (2) The noise coming from your utility and the surrounding airborne RF noise needs to be suppressed by well designed power conditioners and twisting the wiring as previously described.
Power conditioners fix some of the noise created by the previously described “amp starving” but it is better not to starve the amp and create the noise in the first place because amp starving often creates worse noise on the system, that is measurably and audibly worse than anything that might be sent by your utility.
In many cases depending on the oxidation of your existing wall power connections, age of the breakers, length and gauge of the wall wiring, the above wall power changes in your home system are often a bigger improvement than any component that you can buy, especially with solid state amps. But even people with tubes report improvements if not huge improvements.
Without exception over the last 15 years, comments from those that have done the above heavy gauge wire wall power mods say there is audible improvement in dynamics while making the sound even more detailed, yet much more relaxed with dark backgrounds leaving only the notes and music. I was very surprised the first time I did this house power mod. I expected the bass and dynamics to improve which they did. I did not expect the mid-range and the highs to clean up and become far more coherent as much as they did. The improvements were at least as much as a "great" new component. The improved clarity is always surprising and obviously well worth the effort.
Don't forget to enjoy the music !
Vince Galbo 3/20/22
We are grateful to Vince Galbo for letting us post this article for our members. Vince has also stated he is available to answer questions should anyone wish to contact him. (ed.)