I just discovered some bad electrical connections feeding my stereo gig. No doubt a previous owners shotty DIY work. Some of the lights in my basement stopped working. So after some investigating, I traced the problem back to connections in a junction box in the basement. I couldn’t believe what I discovered. After shutting the power off and removing a total of four-wire nuts, which were all too large, none of the wires were twisted together with any of the four connections.
After securing all the connections and putting properly sized wire nuts on, I fired the system back up and allowed things to warm up and stabilize for a while. When I finally sat down and had a listen I was a bit shocked at how much better everything sounded. As you’d expect, having loose unsecure electrical connections feeding your stereo gig has detrimental effect on Dynamics and bass, along with everything else.
I’m glad this problem which I was totally unaware of revealed itself to me. Best upgrade I’ve made to my system in a while.
Sounds a lot like my relatively recent observation that the lights in my listening room would dim during louder passages of music. I then ran a dedicated 20A feed to my two amplifiers and voila, no light dimming and improved sound too! This cost me about $65 and a few hours of labor, but definitely one of the better “bang for the buck” improvements.
And then later added a PS Audio SP3 regenerator for all my source components and the bias supplies for my electrostats. More goodness including protection from power surges albeit for a bit more than $65 + labor.
I might look into running a dedicated line as well. But I did discover that the only other thing on the 15 amp line that’s feeding my rig, is a sump pump which never runs, so it is a dedicated line. I wonder how much of a benefit a 20 amp line would bring to the table, taking into consideration my power requirements only require 15 amps?
Avoiding any splices at all is worth it.
Good point.
Probably worth checking out all of the house wiring if possible. One sloppy DIY weekend contractor job usually means another one somewhere. Electrical stuff is worth doing right.
—Cheers. Robert
The townhome was built by a professional contactor, but it’s obvious the basement finish, including the electrical, was done by a weekend warrior at a later date. Definitely need to check all the electrical out in the basement.
Sounds like a Mickey Mouse job in your basement. Better check out all the connections. Could be a fire hazard with loose connections because current tend to arc across loose connections. That can get pretty hot.
I’m spoiled rotten by a close pal who’s been a commercial electrician for 15 years. Everyone in our circle makes sure to spoil her in return after she performs upgrades in our homes.