I was wondering if there would be any sonic benefit (and if it’d be safe) to disconnect my ps audio power outlet’s ground wire, or should I keep this connected? I’ve read that some people have done it, but I want to be sure’s it’s wise and safe first. My ps audio duet is plugged into my ps audio outlet right now with the ground connected. Thanks.
Keep it connected unless it’s causing a ground loop hum (unlikely). Equipment sounds better grounded.
Thanks for the advice and reply, Paul. I don’t have a ground loop hum, so I’ll keep things as is. Hope you guys are enjoying your new place! I hope to come up from Colorado Springs sometime to visit. Will PS Audio be at RMAF? It’ll be my first time attending…
Doug
I have heard that you should only keep one equipment of your chain grounded.
The reasons are: a) the equipments share the interconnect grounds, so if one of them is grounded, all are grounded, and the electric protection is guaranteed; b) grounding all equipments may cause audible ground loop; and, most important, c) even if your ground loop is not audible, it is there, and it affects the decay times of the notes.
So, you should keep only one grounded, trust the grounding from the interconnects for the others, and reap the sonic benefits.
Personally, I have my reservations. This all seems a bit far streched to me, and to be honest, I dont like the idea of having the excess current passing through all my equipments through the interconnects to finally reach the ground cable.
And the alleged sonic benefits (if any) dont seem tangible enough.
Thanks for the reply. So when you say “you should keep one equipment of your chain grounded,” what do you mean? Just trying to see how this looks in a system…
You keep only the transport, or the DAC, or the preamp, or the power amp with the ground plug connected. The others will share this ground through the interconnects.
By trial and error you should choose which equipment, when connected, makes your system sound better.
But then again, I am not a big fan of this theory.
I would follow Paul’s advice and leave things alone. This sounds like some of the nonsense that comes from Rick Schultz at EVS (Tweak Audio).
Yes, again, unless you’ve got a ground loop hum you can’t fix any other way I would advise keeping everything grounded. It’s instructive to remember that as designers of equipment we shunt all the unwanted noise in the unit off to the ground and if it is not connected to Earth then that noise has nowhere to go.