Lifting the Ground

I have no hum problem. But I thought I read a while back that lifting the ground also improved the sound. If that's not the case, I won't pursue this.

Thanks for keeping me straight.

Generally, lifting or floating the ground does indeed improve sonics. Unless perhaps you had a dedicated ground like a copper pole going 6ft into the earth for just the audio circuits/lines.

For most of us without dedicated grounds, the common ground usually attaches to the nuetral bus somewhere within the service panel and I think this may explain why the ground actually induces sonic harm.

In my experience and under most conditions I float/lift the grounds on all components except for the cdp source component. It is this configuration that typcially provides the best sonics.

FWIW, I use dedicated line conditioners on all of my components so I have no idea what one might expect floating the grounds without any line conditioners.

At this moment, I have all grounds floated but two days ago I had only the cdp grounded.

-IMO

At this moment, I have all grounds floated but two days ago I had only the cdp grounded.

Stehno, just curious about your CDP. My Arcam Alpha 9 accepts a three wire plug and cord with an IEC connector. The male connector on the CDP only has two blades for connection, the hot and neutral. No equipment ground blade for connection to the CDP chassis/case. Have you checked your CDP IEC male connector on the back of your CDP?
jim

Jea48, as you probably know most all components have 3 pronged connectors for AC. But as you point out a few will only have two. My old APL 3910 had only two because APL snipped off the grounding blade at the IEC connector exiting out of the chassis.

All Esoteric units have the three prongs. However, Esoteric seems to insist on using only their power cable for the G25u Master Clock Generator. Because their power cable only conducts the hot and neutral leads and no ground.

Hope this helps,

Stehno - what improvements did you hear when you lifted the ground on your system components (minus the CD player)?

Do you run your amp thru a power conditioner? I was told by my dealer that running an amp thru a power conditioner would degrade the sound. What's been your experience?

Do you agree with Jea48 that there's little risk in lifting the ground on a high wattage SS amp? I have my preamp, CD, and turntable plugged into a Tice power conditioner; and I run my SS amp straight into another wall socket. Are you recommending floating the ground on everything, to include the amp?