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How to guarantee to lower noise- ground loops in your system

I have been through many problem area where noise in the  audio chain was a problem.
my friend Who is a Electrician solved the problem . All too many times people add a dedicated 20 amp circuit 12awg is standard 11-10awg even better lower resistance , also most important 
you need a Isolated dedicated ground, this is totally insulated right back to the earth ground in the 
breaker box this will dramatically lower your noise floor and remove ground loop problems .many people just put a dedicated line and think 
that’s it ,not so, if you are going to go through the trouble, then  for maybe $100 more the isolated dedicated ground  to the dedicated circuit is a must. I can tell you without question .
my Audio has a noticably quieter background .in songs i now hear low level musical artifacts like reverb off a guitar fading cymbals and clearer seperation of instruments .well worth the effort .Hopefully 
this will help others .this is a essential system upgrade .
128x128audioman58
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Rule of thumb - use only one ground for the system. That means use cheater plugs for the other 3-prong plugs. Or do what I did, hop 🐸 off the grid altogether. No more ground loops, no more micro-arcing. No more RF coming in on the AC line. No more power cords, period. No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks. 😠
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,784 posts
 
Yikes! a topic like this certainly brings out a lot of ... stuff.

It is this simple:

1) the house wiring should be to code2) you will not experience a ground loop unless your equipment has a grounding problem.


Despite an enormous amount of information available, an amazing amount of 'high end' audio manufacturers exercise poor grounding technique in their products (put another way: don't know what they are doing).  If the chassis and circuit ground are the same thing, that causes the device to be vulnerable to ground loops introduced externally (IOW, from other equipment).


If adding alternate grounding systems causes an improvement, its a good sign that equipment in your system employs a poor grounding scheme.




pcc67
226 posts
 
I completely renovated my home 14 yrs ago.  My electrician ran ground from panels to 2 outside half in 8 ft copper rods in the ground.  200 amp service.  When completely rewiring the home I had him run 4 separate 20 amp circuits 12/2 for my back wall audio equipment only.  I put in 2 gang boxes, each was 20 amp with neutral and ground. I have never heard any humming or noise at all.  All the other outlets in the room are a separate 20 and lights on a 15.  As far as any other dedicated circuit way, I can not speak.  The 4 separate circuits are for audio only and tv.  No issues.  Also have an intermatic on the main panel.  I think it was 125.00 at the time. Many older homes did run same circuits in other rooms. As I said,  older homes. 
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,585 posts
 
I pulled a coupla 12 AWG THHN solids through an existing conduit to a dedicated breaker (audiophile?)
One time I'm glad that conduit is code here.
Terminated in a Oyaide, direct from Japan. (cut out the markup)
Ice Age Audio to a Power Plant.
Good enough.

wig's avatar
wig
1,258 posts
 
Guys,

Can anyone recommend a good dimmer switch? I do have an old school dimmer switch on some incandescent lights and imagine that could be adding noise also.

Will have an electrician come out to look at box, check ground and possibly separate audio system outlet from other devices if that's still recommended.

Thanks,
Wig
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