Calling all Electrician's.... (1 Viewer)

[Brian Barnesky]

I'm kinda embarrassed I don't know more but I'm just starting out learning home fix-its. But I'd rather be honest.

I'm renting a very old (1908) home in downtown Seattle here. I have $7,000 worth of HT equipment and my recent purchase of Paradigm references and soon to be amp pushed me over the edge to tackling my power issues.

I currently have an average strip plug and have read AOT of threads regarding the various methods and units available. Since I've seen one lighting strike in 6 years here I'm not very worried. I'm looking at upgrading to a panamax M8-pro or 5100 to clean up my assumably?...dirty power.

My room only has one outlet and I'm pretty sure the home is NOT grounded and was just fitted with 3 prong plugs. I've heard that I may be able to attach a ground to the metal conduit that probably is run to that outlet.

What does a grounded outlet do?

How do I attach a ground wire?

How do I test if the outlet then is grounded?

How does this effect my system if it's not grounded?

I heard I should plug my new 7 channel amp straight into the outlet? Worries me further.

Sounds great to me but if I go right up and hold my ear to the 100's with the volume off on my Sony 444es I hear white noise. Could that be that I need a decent power center? The receiver?

Thanks ALOT. I want to be informed and actually know what the ramifications are here and what I can do to make this the best it can be till I buy a home here.....b

 

[ThomasW]

You can buy a little outlet tester that will plug into a receptacle and tell you if it's properly wired and grounded. Any hardware store will have one.

Your best bet would be to spend a couple hundred bucks and hire an electrician to run a dedicated line for the gear. It's a much better investment compared to ANY device like those from Panamax/Monster/etc.

 

[Brian Barnesky]

Thanks for the advice Thomas. I'm only renting this place for another year and don't really want to spend Multi-hundreds on this.

 

[ThomasW]

Most of the protection devices require a ground to properly work.

Most of that is the sum of all the DC circuit noise in the signal path.

The safe thing to do is get at least some form of good surge protection.

If you can afford it balanced power is nice and takes care of most ground loop issues.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Here’s what you’re looking for, Brian.





Most of your questions above may be answered once you find out exactly what you’re dealing with.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Brian Barnesky]

Bought the outlet tester and..........about 2/3 of the houses outlet are grounded including the media room. Nice!

Now I need proper surge protection in the form of the panamax. Which one whould I order? I'm confused as too "What I need" for my non-lighting area.

I bought some velcro strap stuff as well and am going to seperate all my power and audio/viedo cables.

Thanks.
b