My dedicated audio room build - QuadDiffusor's Big Dig

[QuadDiffuser]

Master Earth Grounding bus bar

This section highlighted in green will be connected to a variety of low resistance ground sources, including wet soil rods, cold water pipe, etc. The main Breaker Box (inside the house) will have a grounding cable running to this Master Earth Grounding bus bar.



A much older house nearby in the same neighborhood has a suboptimal (much smaller, and heavily corroded grounding bus bar mounted on a wooden board) with bare wires inserted. The only good thing going for it are the very clear plastic labels, LOL. Frankly speaking, I have no idea how this bus bar does what it's supposed to do!

 

[Kingrex]

Streetside AC power utility box

The local utility company's metered compartment, located just outside my house.

View attachment 148702

Do you know if the bus bar is aluminum or copper? Europe is lucky in that a lot is copper. The USA and its race to the bottom of the garbage can is all aluminum. You can't even special order copper. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap is all the market desires.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

The guy in charge of Mechanical & Electrical works called his buddy who replied that the Ground bus bar was made mostly of copper. It sure look like the following product, a solid copper bar with a thin surface plating of tin. Appearance-wise, it has a similar surface sheen as the one inside my breaker boxes.

Tuling Tin-plated Copper Bus Bar

www.tulingmetal.com

Without removing the bus bar and grinding off the surface plating, there's really no way to verify whether its core is indeed mostly copper - fingers crossed that it is! At least it doesn't look like cheapo aluminum...

 

[QuadDiffuser]

I've decided on my next DAC: the MSB Technology Cascade.
And, after that, taking advantage of the trade-in program, the MSB Technology Sentinel:

MSB's new Sentinel DAC

Since about a year ago, MSB Technology has been busy developing their new flagship DAC, The Sentinel. As a future owner of this heroically-engineered flagship DAC, I'm absolutely thrilled! I'd like to start this thread to keep everyone on WBF updated. MSB's own website's forum has several...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[QuadDiffuser]

The swimming pool's been (mostly) tiled, the car porch gate's in, and very importantly, the porta-potty has been moved a bit further away!

 

[QuadDiffuser]

The new Soulution 717 power amplifiers are currently my top choice for monoblocks. Excellent exchange of information between Ron and Cyril, especially the reminder that linear power supplies using torroidal transformers and rectifiers which converts powerline AC into DC is essentially an inferior, slower SMPS with no power regulation, whose efficiency is woefully low, and outputs distortion/noise which smack into the audible spectrum.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Thanks, Phil !
Extremely short on photos and diagrams, but I'll try starting with the following website/page:

baluga

Phil,

Thank you for introducing the Bocchino connectors to me!
I've emailed the Australian gentleman proprietor, Carmine, and waiting for his reply.

I found the "Sablon Audio" chat site on WBF, and in particular, this forum on power cables has been particularly useful in understanding the characteristics of the Bocchino IEC connector, whose size is gigantic but necessary to accommodate largest of copper conductors and associated python-like "audiophile" cable jackets. Luckily, the space behind my audio components will be quite spacious so the IEC's size should not be a problem.

Sablon power cords

There’s a well known audiophile saying about how good sound starts at the wall and I was always fascinated by power cords long before I started making my own. I literally went through dozens of different models using a variety of materials and topologies. Over time, it became clearer how the...

www.whatsbestforum.com

Like the photo below, I'm likely going to be ordering ten Bocchino IEC connectors.

 

[pjwd]

Phil,

Thank you for introducing the Bocchino connectors to me!
I've emailed the Australian gentleman proprietor, Carmine, and waiting for his reply.

I found the "Sablon Audio" chat site on WBF, and in particular, this forum on power cables has been particularly useful in understanding the characteristics of the Bocchino IEC connector, whose size is gigantic but necessary to accommodate largest of copper conductors and associated python-like "audiophile" cable jackets. Luckily, the space behind my audio components will be quite spacious so the IEC's size should not be a problem.

Sablon power cords

There’s a well known audiophile saying about how good sound starts at the wall and I was always fascinated by power cords long before I started making my own. I literally went through dozens of different models using a variety of materials and topologies. Over time, it became clearer how the...

www.whatsbestforum.com

Like the photo below, I'm likely going to be ordering ten Bocchino IEC connectors.

View attachment 149439View attachment 149440

Cool
They will be great.. it's a great feeling tightening those set screws

 

[QuadDiffuser]

I'm placing my order for 1.35 kilometers of (mostly) custom-made AC cables... 13+ spools will literally be weighing a ton!

They’ll be a combination of twisted-pair Live and Neutral conductors and standalone Ground conductor wires, directing power directly from the breaker box into the components, skipping a few interfaces in the conductor-to-duplex-to-plug-to-conductor journey so typical of most AC power delivery setups.

There will be plenty of cabling to play around with to audition and optimize for a particular component in my system, with ten very stiff "AC power snakes" emerging from various positions throughout my listening room floor.

Whatever's left over, I'll will be splitting them with my audiophile friend who's also building a dedicated audio room. And beyond that, we're confident they'll sell like hotcakes as DIY high current audiophile AC cables.

 

[pjwd]

I'm placing my order for 1.35 kilometers of AC cables... 13+ spools will be literally weighing a ton!

Some will be twisted-pair Live and Neutral conductors, but mostly as a standalone Ground conductor wire. I'll be connecting them directly from the breaker box into the components, skipping a few interfaces in the conductor-to-duplex-to-plug-to-conductor journey so typical of most AC power delivery setups.

There'll be plenty of cabling to play around with, to audition and optimize for a particular component in my system, with ten "AC power snakes" emerging from various positions throughout my listening room floor.

Whatever's left over, I'll will be splitting them with my audiophile friend who's also building a dedicated audio room. And beyond that, we're confident they'll sell like hotcakes as DIY high current audiophile AC cables.

View attachment 150451

Dang .. I should have bought some copper shares

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Three copper conductors, likely the 16mm2 gauges, will enter from the top (see 1st photo). Power will be distributed through the breakers (see 2nd photo), from the top down, as it travels to the components.

 

[Kingrex]

I'm placing my order for 1.35 kilometers of (mostly) custom-made AC cables... 13+ spools will literally be weighing a ton!

They’ll be a combination of twisted-pair Live and Neutral conductors and standalone Ground conductor wires, directing power directly from the breaker box into the components, skipping a few interfaces in the conductor-to-duplex-to-plug-to-conductor journey so typical of most AC power delivery setups.

There will be plenty of cabling to play around with to audition and optimize for a particular component in my system, with ten very stiff "AC power snakes" emerging from various positions throughout my listening room floor.

Whatever's left over, I'll will be splitting them with my audiophile friend who's also building a dedicated audio room. And beyond that, we're confident they'll sell like hotcakes as DIY high current audiophile AC cables.

View attachment 150451

Definitely the best way to power gear. Saves a lot on power cords and duplex too. Not code compliant. But works well.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Wow, these IEC connectors are hilariously large!

 

[wil]

Wow, these IEC connectors are hilariously large!

View attachment 151587


View attachment 151588

You need these:

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Inserts-Detachable-PLC14YW/dp/B0771T7PC9/ref=asc_df_B0771T7PC9?mcid=f839131ad168359d9e16a9c1b5ad377f&hvocijid=8306988088682970486-B0771T7PC9-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8306988088682970486&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9191056&hvtargid=pla-2281435176698&psc=1

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...and even with the inserts, I prop those up from underneath. You know they're big when you order, but nothing prepares you for the real impact when you hold them, or plug them in. They are monsters!

 

[wil]

Three copper conductors, likely the 16mm2 gauges, will enter from the top (see 1st photo). Power will be distributed through the breakers (see 2nd photo), from the top down, as it travels to the components.

View attachment 150493

View attachment 150492

This breaker panel looks “audiophile grade” to the max! Is this a subpanel after the utility panel?

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Yes it is! Here’s another view of my PowerLabs Century breaker box (v1.4), and its website URL.
Click through to the Space Shuttle photo, and you'll see a product brochure.

Power Lab | Century

Power Lab's Century Fuse Box marks the flagship model of the product line. It is among the best audiophile-grade fuse boxes currently available in the market. Power Lab proudly terms this the "Century" model.

powerlabb.com

Using the remote control, the Century can be illuminated with its built-in LEDs



This is the view from underneath, with the Ground bus bar (bottom), and the Neutral bus bar (above). Cryo-treated solid copper, plated with gold.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Screen capture of the installation process.
The Live conductor is brown, Neutral is blue, and Ground is green/yellow.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Trying to figure out where (and how) to distribute my power chords (exiting from the ground) around my listening room. Any ideas would be very welcome!

The green rectangle is a rough footprint of my Von Schweikert Ultra 9 loudspeaker (R channel).
The diagonal line (starting from the corner of the photo) is the room's midline.

How about four on the R, and four on the L, for a total of 10?
Two towards the front wall, in case I use a component rack?

Since most of my components, including power amps, DAC, music server, are going to be placed on an active vibration reduction platform sitting on the ground, I'll need lots of power chords in the space between my loudspeakers. However, I'm not sure how far away they should be from the loudspeakers.

The duplex case cover (bottom left) should be appropriate for the Ultra 9's Foundation subwoofer amplifier. The others, I'm not so sure. Guessing that they may have to be further away, towards the front wall, to factor in chassis depth, and the rear position of the IEC inputs.

 

[QuadDiffuser]

Here's an idea, using an old template from last October.

Place four AC "snakes" on both the L and R, in the space between the two loudspeakers.
Then put the remaining two towards the front wall.
Any one of the snakes can be used to connect a PS Audio PP15 or PP20, to spawn 10-20 AC duplex plugs wherever they're needed.