A/C Grounding

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Based upon measurements and listening tests, I have recommended to people to ground only one piece of their interconnected equipment.  The interconnects will provide static dissipation through their secondary ground connection.  They often look at me in extreme terror.😱  Apparently Wikipedia agrees with me. Their explanation below;

A ground loop is the result of careless or inappropriate design or interconnection of electrical equipment that results in there being multiple paths to ground where this is not required, so a complete loop is formed. In the simplest case, two items of equipment, A and B, both intended to be grounded for safety reasons, are each connected to a power source (wall socket etc) by a 3 conductor cable and plug, containing a protective ground conductor, usually green/yellow, in accordance with normal safety regulations and practice. This only becomes a problem when one or more signal cables are then connected between A and B, to pass data or audio signals from one to the other. The shield (screen) of the data cable is typically connected to the grounded equipment chassis of both A and B. There is now a ground loop.

 

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