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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: dedicated power lines posted by piezo on May 31, 2000 at 10:36:54:
Every electrical code that I am aware of specifies a SINGLE grounding point. Any ground rod that is not connected to the primary rod (connected with a large gauge wire) would constitute a secondary ground.Remember that the neutral is connected to the ground bus bar at the panel. And you have the outlets grounded to a secondary rod that may be at a different potential than the primary ground. If I understand the wiring of your system, this means that you could have a potential difference between the neutral and ground at your outlets. Connect a volt meter (AC) to the the neutral and ground of your outlets. Ideally, there should be a reading of ~.0 - .3 ac volts. If it is more than 1 volt, you have a problem. Even if the reading is good, you may still have a ground loop problem.
Ideally, you would want the grounds and neutrals (of ALL the outlets used in the system) to be at the same potential. When you have multiple power circuits with independent grounds, you dramatically increase the possibility of ground loops. Even small voltage differentials can affect the sound quality of the system. We have found that a ground loop "hum" is just the most severe form of the problem. Many systems have low level ground loops that do not cause an obvious hum but they DO obscure ambient musical information and cause the system to sound noisy, hazy or obscure. If you lift the ground with a cheater plug and the system sounds significantly better, you have the problem.
The solution is to ensure that there is a low impedance path to ground. You need good electrical connections with large gauge wires to a proper grounding point.
Installing a secondary ground usually does improve the sound quality because it reduces the impedance to ground - shorter ground runs. But let's be clear - a secondary ground is usually not a safety hazard: 99.9% of the time. There are two saftey issues. The first is the ability of the ground path to trip the breakers in a short condition. If the impedance to ground is too high, then the breaker may not trip. This is not very likely if the ground was installed properly. My primary concern is for people that live in lightning prone areas. By installing the secondary ground, you have created a pathway through your home for the lightning to pass in the event of a strike. That is not my idea of fun, even if a lightning strike is rare.
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Caelin Gabriel
Shunyata Research Inc.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Re: dedicated power lines - Caelin Gabriel 17:38:48 05/31/00 (2)
- Re: dedicated power lines - piezp 07:46:25 06/02/00 (0)
- And if you don't believe that, here's a picture - Batman 18:07:47 05/31/00 (0)
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