Separates advice from newbie

Cable is 10mm/2  (conductor area)  (10mm/2 Twin & Earth)    

MCB can be 40A to 45A

Firstly I assume you are in the UK as what im using is installed in the UK.

I use 10mm twin and earth cable, which has 2x 10mm csa cores and a 4mm csa earth. The mcb's I use are 32A, which are fine as I am using 10mm circuits. Some people use 50A rcbo's. The size of the mcb does indeed affect the sound, as does the make. I use the mem mcb's (alb321 from memory).

I would avoid having a switch installed on the meter tails as this will also have a negative affect.

Thanks guys, yes i am in the U.K.

If I need a cluster of 5 non switched sockets, should I give each of the sockets its own 10mm2 radial, or is one feeding all 5 okay.

I shall buy 2 6way mem CU's, each with a main switch and an RCD and 32A MCB's

My provider was going to fit the isolator. For convieniece I love the idea. The alternative is me pulling the service fuse every time I want to work on CU's. I would have to break the seal! 

I was advised many years ago, by Naim, that a single radial was best. That wasn't official of course. It may be something to do with the star earthing. I have only one double socket on the end - when I had a bigger system with lots of mains leads I used a hydra, but these days only need two leads, which is perfect. How many sockets depends to a large extent on how far you plan to go with the system. Don't forget that if you get a nas and switch, they should not be on the Hifi consumer unit. We have ours on the ring main, powered from a UPS. 

joerand posted:

sjw posted:

Its pointless to compare Sonos to Naim .

Yet you went right on ahead to do so.

the comparison had been made in this thread "Forget Sonos if you are serious about streaming, especially high resolution audio files."

My comment was that Sonos is far far cheaper and works easily .It may not do high res files but sounds very good fed into a dac.

SJW,

I'm not invested in this topic. Just saw your response in the Comments bar, got a kick out of the notion, and felt compelled to reply. Forgive me. Enjoy your listening whichever device you choose to stream through.

I tried a single run, then 3 runs to double sockets and now have 6 runs to their own single points. Basically each piece of kit has its own 32A 10mm mains supply circuit. This sounded best of the many different options I tried. 

Just to clarify, you mention you are going to order consumer units with a main switch and an rcd? The rcd should be the main switch.

Okay, thanks mr.happy.struggling to find an original memera CU that's amendment 3 compliant mind you!

Another thing ive done is connect each socket earth terminal to a local earth connector block with an equal length of earth wire (4 or 6mm from memory) then run a seperate 10mm earth from this block back to the hifi consumer unit. This maintains the star earthing principle and also gives a high integrity earth path. 

Perform your earth fault loop impedance test both before and after linking the socket earths.

When the mains is up and running it will take around sixteen weeks to burn in, over which time it will be a bit of a rollercoaster sound wise. Some days it will sound awesome and others it will sound horrible, but this will get better over the first couple of weeks. Then it just starts to get better and better.

Post up how you get on.

Claudius,

I have a dedicated supply that uses x8 non switched MK single sockets each fed with a large multi stranded shielded cable. Purchased and Installed by my  B in L who is an electrician so not sure what the cable is but its about the size of my thumb. The shielding is earthed at the hifi consumer unit end only. I did post pics here some years ago but not sure if they are still available to look at. This installation was an experiment  that really worked so when my B in L installed his he did exactly the same for his system. The one thing it will do is give you is far less dirty mains effect, I remember well that my Hi Caps buzzed far less or not at all which was only one of the benefits. Please don't fit just one socket from your house consumer unit as its is hardly worth while, do the job properly and fit as many sockets as you need that are then connected to a dedicated hifi only consumer unit that of course is fed from your house consumer unit, Julian used a shielded cable even for this. Sorry about things but I am not an electrician so don't have all the terminology or facts but I can ask my B in L if you need to know more. Oh and don't bother with a mains conditioner either. 

Hi Wiltshireman,

Yep, I have also decided to use shielded cable. It's seems to me to be a case of needing to shield the cable from airborne radio waves rather than improve the earth loop impedance which was Mr. Happy's approach.

Of course Mr.Happy has done extensive testing and if he says he found improvement I believe him, so I'm likely to try and achieve both shielded and updated earth. But I guess using the shield is already a hugely updated earth!

My dedicated consumer unit will be fed directly from the meter (via a block) and I will use unswitched MK sockets. I've actually bought three CU's! One will be for all other visual equip, such as TV's virgin, Xbox.

I'm really enjoying this HIFI adventure, I've spent about £600 and I dont even own a HIFI yet!

I'm scared to tell my wife!

Having gone to all this trouble, I'm thinking that I might need to up my hi field budget.

I love naim kit but i am wondering about the Chord TT dac. Will enjoy all the learning and experimenting, and of course chatting with all you good folk.

On second thoughts, given Mr. Wiltshires comments, I might use 25mm shielded cable to setup the dedicated consumer unit much closer to the Hifi, which is about a 10 meter run from the meter.

Is 25mm shielded legal as a tail Mr.Happy.

As you are an electrician, surely you are aware of the latest regulations. You certainly shouldn't take the word of someone on a forum. 

Quite right.  Before you make any decisions on your electrics please ensure you consult with a fully qualified electrician who is fully conversant with current electrical code for your area.  Needless to say, even if you end up doing the work yourself, you must have it checked and signed off /certified by an electrician prior to going "live". 

That's a fair point, I shall study my BS7671! 

My main CU change will actually be my assessment piece after which I will be NICEIC certified and can sign of myself!

Innocent Bystander posted:

It is rather concerning that you seem to think you're ready to be qualified and intend to embark on electrical installation to be assessed, yet haven't apparently fully studied and understood the relevant requirements to the extent that you either know what is correct,  or know  to look up, where to do so, and understand what the standards say and mean.

The only thing relevant to seek guidance on here regarding electrical istallation is aspects related to possible effect on sound quality of hifi plugged in to the circuitry, which must always be over-ridden by any required safety or legislative requirements.

Forum rules are there, but this starts to be a bit paternalizing.

Okay, thanks for your concern !

the man cu is my assessment licence. The hifi cu is one I need to plan.

i from nod your remarks aggressive, patronising and totally unnecessary,

good of luck with that!

Correction "mind your remarks". Please don't now signpost me to the dictionary!

Claudious posted:

Okay, thanks for your concern !

 

the man cu is my assessment licence. The hifi cu is one I need to plan.

i from nod your remarks aggressive, patronising and totally unnecessary,

Possibly patronising, maybe more paternalistic, but if  so only because I have seen the consequences of failures to understand electrical requirements. But certainly not in any way intended as aggressive, and whilst I don't think my post reads aggressively I apologise if that is how it came across.

I had bad experience with a licensed electrician. However I stay far, far away of anything which has to do with mains, my LAN has drastically improved since I did the electricians job again a few days later by re-terminating my UTP cables.

The licensed electrician also tried to impose fraud on me by proposing a reduction in price when I pay in cash money.

I'm just not too impressed by the word 'licensed'.

I had 3 licensed electricians, and only 1 of them appeared to be a good guy.

Perhaps my posts have seemed to lack due care and attention but for what its worth my plans for my main CU go well beyond the minimum safety requirements of the 17th edition. 

My work will be of outstanding quality, of that I'm certain. Just don't want to feel guarded when I'm chatting with people informally about ideas. Of course I will show and excercise due protocol and diligence.

Appology accepted and reciprocated.

Ardbeg10y posted:

I had bad experience with a licensed electrician. However I stay far, far away of anything which has to do with mains, my LAN has drastically improved since I did the electricians job again a few days later by re-terminating my UTP cables.

The licensed electrician also tried to impose fraud on me by proposing a reduction in price when I pay in cash money.

I'm just not too impressed by the word 'licensed'.

I had 3 licensed electricians, and only 1 of them appeared to be a good guy.

For just that reason I have always done my own wiring, including complete rewiring of houses, because I know then it has been done correctly, though in recent times I have to get a qualified person to check and certify mains wiring.