Ungrounded power cord: Will I die?

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.

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

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.

I lived in Japan for 9 years and was an audiophile at that time, so I purchased several Japanese components, all of which had two prong plugs. I did not understand why at the time but reading this thread taught me the differences, so thanks to all who helped me get less dumb.
I am wondering about the question around the amp IEC having three prongs on some of the Japanese stuff though. I'm wondering if a power chord with a three prong plug is used with these components would the ground plug be functional? As someone said the Japanese electronics are built with plastic or coated to avoid the need for a ground in the chassis, but I wonder if the female plug on the back has any ground function, or if it is simply there to allow use of aftermarket cords. One might gain a false sense of security if they attached a grounded cord to an amp that had a non-functional ground.

.

Purely a guess but I agree with the idea that the Japanese stuff comes with the standard 3 wire input jack to be just that; standard. Those who like to play with power cords would shy away if they couldn't do that.

.