dedicated mains spur what to tell my electrician

John, here's what I'd recommend....

- 6mm cable. It does the job fine, is not too expensive and easier to manipulate than 10mm - I've learnt from experience!!

- Strictly speaking everything after the meter box is yours and you can what you want with it. If you wish to split it before your fuse box/consumer unit then do so, but it's a fair bit of hassle for not much gain - in my humble opinion....

- Yes the existing earth can and must be used unless you're going as far as installing your own earth rod.....which to me is taking things too far!!

- Spurs? depends on how much you want to spend, and what gains you really think there will be....

- System vs Outlay...? I'd say it's worth doing but up to a point!! I can totally get the idea of separating the delicate stereo components from the ring main full of noisy domestic components, fridge/washing machine etc etc, but is it worth going to the extremes mentioned......that's up to you!!

- I'd definitely say it was a no brainer, and have done it already for our av set up. But everybody's circumstances are different.....we were in the process of changing our old fuse box for a modern consumer unit at the time, I added two extra breakers and ran the cables - easy and cheap!!

There are those that have gone to the extremes, and good luck to them, if they feel it was worth it and notice a difference then I'm happy for them, I personally don't feel it's worth it....but then I don't own a CD555/NAC552/activeNAP500 set-up, heck, I don't even own any Naim yet!!

- There probably isn't anything wrong with your mains......how old is your house..???
But I know where you're coming from and would advise on doing it if you can, how far you take it is up to you......

Do you have the old bakelite cased fuses in your box..??
If so then I'd recommend you ask your sparky about replacing it with a modern consumer unit housing mcb's (miniature circuit breakers, or switches if you want the non technical term) it's a doddle to add an extra one (32A rated) and run a single spur of 6mm cable to where you're stereo lives.

The advice on what you do after that varies on who you speak to.....
Un-switched sockets are the way forward, but how many, and do you go for a hydra.....
I'm crossing this bridge at present!!
And we've decided on two sets of 3-gang un-switched sockets. I ran 10mm cable into the loft from a dedicated mcb over a year ago (that's how long we've been waiting for our Naim!), and I've no hope in hell of terminating this into two sets of sockets!! So, I'm going into a junction box up in the loft, then two runs of 6mm cable from there down into the sockets.

Phew!!
Hope all this helps.....

Cheers,
Ali

PS. On a side note - we're off to Dublin in a few weeks time to see the Aussie Pink Floyd gig at The Point. Staying at the Davenport Hotel Sat/Sunday night....is it any good..??

And can you recommend any must see things in Dublin for the Sat afternoon/Sunday.....???

My gorgeous other half's been before on a Hen Weekend - did the races/Guinness factory etc, but I've never been.... Looking forward to it though!!

Cheers in advance,
Ali

IMO if a sparky you consider employing to do job for you well/legally is not au courant with audio etc advantages/items required etc I would not employ him/her but have a pint and a laugh with him/her instead.

quote:

Originally posted by arf005:
PS. On a side note - we're off to Dublin in a few weeks time to see the Aussie Pink Floyd gig at The Point. Staying at the Davenport Hotel Sat/Sunday night....is it any good..??

You should have no problems here, it's quite a good hotel in a nice area of the city.
As you go out the front door left is towards Grafton street area, in front (ish) is trinity college. To the right and round the back of the hotel would be a less salubrious area.

quote:

And can you recommend any must see things in Dublin for the Sat afternoon/Sunday.....???

You're in the museum/ art gallery area if that interests you.

Nothing much nicer in Dublin than an afternoon pint of Guiness. Head towards Gratfon Street and on Sth Anne Street there is Keogh's, if you walk a little further towards George's St you come to Grogan's. On george's Street however is definitely the place for an afternoon pint with a low sun illuminating the place - The Long Hall. (bit longer walk but well worth it)

The open-top busses I believe are good if that's your thing.

Saturday afternoon shopping! If you go up O'Connell Street (and you probably should) keep to the street on the left (as you cross the Liffey) Like Henry Street as you can quickly run into quite run down areas to the right of O'Connell Street.


The Point is walkable from The Davenport but it's a fair walk, I'd recommend a taxi.


Sunday, well there's always mass

Thank you.....

Looking forward to it.......oh, and congrats, regarding the Rugby!
Well deserved I guess - you guys played like we did against England....except quicker!!

Cheers,
Ali

Line-outs were bloody embarrassing though!!

This might help.

Use 10mm cable. Put the splitter (the black box) after the meter and before the original consumer unit. My earth goes back to the original consumer unit, but you can separately earth if you want to. You'll see a thick black cable coming out of the hifi's consumer unit. That's because I use 10mm armoured cable which goes round the outside of the house. I use a 45amp trip.

If your electrician is any good, they should be able to get an unbroken cable run from the consumer unit to the wall socket. Use a Crabtree unswitched socket. I would go for a single spur with a hydra - it's easier and the consensus is that it's better than multiple spurs, though I haven't heard the latter and may be wrong.

HH
You got an Italian electrician?

Howard

The spur is neat and tidy. The other mess was there when we bought the house, but I've not got round to tidying it up - I've only had 14 years!!!

Nigel

Strictly speaking everything after the meter box is yours and you can what you want with it.

Absolutly NOT the case, check with someone qualified

good luck
Martin

Chaps

To repeat something I said a few weeks ago, I am currently working in the energy supply industry and spend a lot of time working with electricity distribution Engineers, all of whom are qualified to M.I.Elect.C.Eng status.

They all agreed that adding a single spur will considerably improve the performance of your kit. However there will be no difference in using a 6mm cable or a 10mm one. Any difference in sound will be down to imagination.

The single spur basically improves the performance of the torrodial tansformers and the 6mm cable does the same job as a 10mm one.

Also multiple spurs are no different than a single one, they are no better or worse, just the same.

This is information from qualified men who deal with equipment in miltary establishments and hospitals etc and actively measure performance of equipment against different forms of supply.

Regards

Mick

HI,

I have tried the single spur with hydra, multiple spurs (I have 4 x 10mm), agianst the ring main. The 4 spurs have it in my view, but I'm sure its down to personal taste (Isn't it all?)

I also use unswitched MK sockets as opposed to crabtree ones, but have not done the a v b comparison.

The picture above shows how I have my CU's configured, too.

Oh, and mine is totally legal!!!

andy c!

quote:

Originally posted by Martin D:
Strictly speaking everything after the meter box is yours and you can what you want with it.

Absolutly NOT the case, check with someone qualified

good luck
Martin

Martin,

Can you elaborate onn this as I also thought that afer the meter you could carry out whatever modifications you wanted, as long as the work is completed by qualified electrician and signed off.

Justyn.

So long as the electrician is suitably qualified etc, and it conforms to the relevant standard, there is no problem with you doing the work. I got a friend to assist with the ugg work, and then a sparky to do the connecting etc...

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:


The picture above shows how I have my CU's configured, too.

SJB,

For clarification - the 25mm tails come from the meter into the house, at the moment no doubt into your consumer uint (CU). You fit a splitter box ala the picture above, and then have 2 sets of 25 mm tails - on to the CU for the rest of the house, and one to a new CU just for the hifi...

You can then make yer mind up what size, and how many, spurs you run from the hifi CU.

andy c!

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:
SJB,

For clarification - the 25mm tails come from the meter into the house, at the moment no doubt into your consumer uint (CU). You fit a splitter box ala the picture above, and then have 2 sets of 25 mm tails - on to the CU for the rest of the house, and one to a new CU just for the hifi...

You can then make yer mind up what size, and how many, spurs you run from the hifi CU.

andy c!

Thanks for that Andy.
Now that I re-read the post I see you were referring to Nigels picture, I though you had forgot to load one and were referring to that. (must keep off the wine while posting!)

No worries - if you need any further help let me know... Have done this path incl the dIY that was needed, but the sound 'upgrade' is well worth it.!