bypass outlet and hook wires directly to romex??

A friend of mine did this years ago, and it did not burn down the house, but it has it's risks. It IS an inconvenient thing to do( his amp weighed 130# to boot).This was before all the new power cords came out,back in about 86. His system was amazing as he had payed attention to every detail. I would not reccomend it today. Get yourself a good outlet and get a good buy on a power cord(look for the most bang for your buck, I hear that the FIM outlets are great for $50 and try a CPCC "High Value" power cord $130). You will be glad you did every time you want to move that amp for any reason. I think that it is possible that this approach could sound even better than the direct romex due to the fact that the romex is not sheilded.

I've got a better solution for you.If your talking about connecting to a dedicated line (you wouldn't want to connect to an existing branch circuit anyway)instead of buying a hospital grade duplex outlet or one of the expensive alternatives go to Home Depot and buy a Leviton or other industrial quality brand female plug to connect to your line.These are the same plugs that Synergistic and other manuf.use on thier power cords(the male counterpart)and are very sturdily made with better contact pressure than most outlets and you get a perfectly matched detatchable connection.Also you can use a blank wall plate with a whole drilled to pass your wire through.

My thought for the last 6 months has been to run the romex straight from the service panel through the hole in the wall (where the outlet would normally be) straight to a WATTaGATE male IEC plug that goes straight into the component.

No breaks in the line, little or no need for power conditioners, or high priced wall outlets, or high priced power cords, no electrical leaks, less RF, and cheap too. If you do this with say 10 gauge OFC romex, I would think the results would be great.

And yes, to pretty things up at the wall, purchase a wallplate with the tv cable hole in the center.

If this is what you are talking about doing, I'd love to hear what you think after it's done.

-John

Stehno, your idea would certainly provide the best available performance for a Romex type run. The point that some of you may be missing is the fact that some aftermarket high performance power cords REMOVE problems when they are inserted just before the equipment.

As an experiment, I connected a standard three wire extension cord (purchased from Home Depot) and then connected the original stock cord to an Audio Research preamp.

After lengthy listening sessions, I connected a high quality aftermarket cord in place of the factory stock cord. The improvement could not have been more astounding.

Point being, even with a $4.98 Home Depot extension cord running from my expensive cryo treated hospital grade outlets, the signature and improvements of the expensive after market cord were obvious.

Whether Romex or a cheap extension cord is in play here, the benefit of the better cord as the final connection to the stereo seems to be the key. Like many things in this hobby I don't pretend to understand why.

I do know that the two other people who observed the experiment had assumed that the inclusion of the Home Depot cord would negate the effect of the experiment. Perhaps it did diminish the absolute performance, but it certainly did not suppress the benefit of the high end aftermarket cord that plugged into it.

Strange but true! Please borrow a premium cord and try this for yourself, it could convince you to make your life simple by installing a premium outlet and your favorite power cord. Certainly would be the safest route.

Albert - great post. I've done the same experiment with similar results.

Here is the solution!! Bypass the main circuit breaker and install a fuse block with a ceramic fuse. This will ensure your power comes direct from the pole. Contact your favorite high end power cord manufacturer and pay them to make you a 75' cord with an IEC on one end and exposed wires on the other.

Drill a hole in the floor next to your system - and run the power cord through the hole and under your house, up to the fuse block.

Tie your high end power cord in to the fuse block and presto!

Audiophile Nirvana!! or Nervosa??