Unconnected Drain Wires ?

Hi Jim,

What I make of it is everyone’s system and situation is different. If the weren't it would be much easier to design a line of cables that work well in all cases. For example Mr. Hansen of Ayre fame IIRC runs with all the grounds lifted on all his gear, if you search Asylum there are a number of his posts concerning this. He says sonically it is superior. I run with all my frontend floating and my amps grounded but then again none of the cables that I make are shielded and I have no problem with noise or hum.

What I heard when listened to a cord with a floating shield was a reduction of air in the soundstage, in a system that these level of cords may be used in that might translate into a reduction of some HF nasties

Yes Charles does float his entire system (and his older home has ungrounded outlets) but it is also worth noting that Ayre double insulates their component chassis' thus making the endeavor safer.

Chris, I was thinking of floating the ground on my front end by disconnecting the components internal ground wire, rather than doing it at the AC plug end on my Tel Wire cables. Any thoughts on this? If I had to do it on the AC plug end of the Tel Wire cable is it easy enough to do?

Hi Tony,

My suggestion would be turn off breaker feeding that outlet then just disconnect the ground at the receptacle. You could do it at the AC plug but I don’t think you want an unconnected ground wire flopping around in the plug body. Hey what length speaker cable do you use?

I thought about doing it at the receptacle, but someone told me it was better to do it at the component IEC, which I can understand, just don't know what other hazard it might create. I'd definitely prefer not to take apart a cable, especially yours.

Currently using a 5' pair of Grover Huffman speaker cables. Why do you ask? So as not to hijack the thread you can email me offline on this.