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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
hifihvn
943 posts
 
In my apartment circa 2005 ALL outlets were groundless and needed cheater plugs. Is this illegal? (California) If not, why would that be allowed if potentially lethal from everyday use?
Eugene81 (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

I believe it is. It states it started in 1962 here. Link[http://www.electrical.com/national-electrical-code/]
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,687 posts
 
Yes, you will die a long,slow, agonizing death. The whole time you are dying you will be hearing the answers to this thread over and over in your head(that's the agonizing part,the long and slow is BS!!).
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
I believe 20 mA can stop your breathing, 100mA is lethal. At that point, the argument of where the short is becomes academic. ;-)
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
Kijanki, PS Audio power cords are used with every conceivable type of gear, not just PS products; are they ALL designed not to need grounding? The point is that they [PS ]say that the sound is better sometimes with the ground plug in place and sometimes without; they do not give any warning about using them ungrounded; just suggest you try them both ways.
hifihvn
943 posts
 
In reference to PS Audio, their newer products I found contain a safety warning about the ground. Links [http://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/HumbusterIII_-Manual.pdf][http://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/P3001.pdf] [http://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Juice-Bar-II.pdf]
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