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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
audioman58's avatar
audioman58 OP
4,228 posts
 
What many people don’t realize no matter how good your equipment design is if you are feeding ground off 
the same circuits you can pickup noise 
thst is why my electrician installed a dual ground one is common ground with other chains back to the breaker ground ,the others is totally dedicated and insulated back to the box this way no chance of contamination .he has 
installed the same setup to several recording studios .a noticeably blacker 
back ground then before .
volumizer
86 posts
 
@volumizer, so if using 12/3 instead of 12/2, you would have an extra conductor. This would need to be tied off so it is not connected, correct?
I understand the benefit of twisted cables, although I have never heard of anybody doing this.


Yes, you have an extra conductor, and it it not connected on either end.  I'm not sure, but I think it acts like shielding with the twisted Romex.

wolfie62
353 posts
 
If all circuits are to Code, AND there is a proper low resistance earth ground, you won’t have any mains circuit ground loops. 

This is all an absolute waste of time and money. 
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
If all circuits are to Code, AND there is a proper low resistance earth ground, you won’t have any mains circuit ground loops.

If "proper low resistance earth ground" means the earth ground from the components, then that is correct.
If just one component doesn't have a proper grounding scheme and is using unbalanced ICs, there is a probability of a ground-loop.


atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,979 posts
 
What many people don’t realize no matter how good your equipment design is if you are feeding ground off
the same circuits you can pickup noise
@audioman58  This actually isn't universally true. Its only true if the audio equipment puts current through the ground connection, which if its properly designed, it won't.


What sends up a red flag for me is, if doing this made a difference, then we know that some equipment in the system has a problem. When we then know that the designer blew it when he/she designed the grounding scheme, how many other aspects of the internal grounding are correct? The thing about ground loops is even if you don't hear them as a buzz, they still affect the sound via intermodulation.
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