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Ungrounded power cord: Will I die?

I'm always reading about the dangers of lifting ground from a power cord, especially in manufacturer manuals. Does this only apply to lifting ground from a grounded cord or just using an ungrounded cord, period? There are tons of devices in our homes that use ungrounded power cords (think wall wart). How is it possible that my house has not erupted into a ball of flames yet?

Anyway, I have a 2-prong power cord with a 3-prong IEC female end that came with my Luxman amp. I am getting the outboard power supply for my Calyx 24/192 DAC, but it requires an additional power cord. The Luxman cord sounds pretty good so I want to use that instead of spending another $500 to buy another one, which is +150% of the power supply itself!

What say ye?
eugene81
eugene81 OP
270 posts
 
I guess even if the amp is safe to use with an ungrounded cord, they might put a 3-prong inlet for use with all of the other aftermarket power cords out there.

So the moral of the story is: It depends on the device. Stick to what it came with.
Post removed 
bojack
650 posts
 
Yes, you will very likely die. In 1987, my cousin burst into flames when he plugged in his ungrounded Technics TR19 tape deck. The manual clearly warned the user about this, but he was one of those "I don't need the manual" types. Don't become a statistic, and use caution whatever you do.
audioquest4life
770 posts
 
I personnaly would not float ground for equipment designed to be grounded, especially very expensive equipment. Why take a chance? I may take a chance for a cheap CD player, receiver, or anything else you will not cry about later should it go up in smoke.But, tube amps, tube preamps, any SS device worth a few bucks, phono stages, and phono stages are in my opinion not worth experimenting with to test AC issues or theories.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life
pehare's avatar
pehare
835 posts
 
For years now I have used a grounded powercord w/my tube amps & used an ungrounded cord (cheap but very effective Volex cord w/the grounding pin cut off) on my CDP. The CDP is still grounded thru the interconnects to the amp & provides quieter better sound.
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