Hi, I'm trying to get some advice and opinions from folks that have prior experience or have been educated in this area. Primarily from a safety standpoint.
I am building a simple active crossover and a power supply for it. It's positioned in a separate metal box, in-between a preamp and two power amps, with a dedicated mains connection.
Unbalanced interconnects only, unfortunately.
As far as I see it, three ways to prevent ground loops:
1. Keep the interconnects short and hope for the best (the simplest and safest way), where ground of all circuitry gets connected directly to it's chassis,
2. Use a loop breaker on the ground line between device's chassis and a crossover circuit (in reference to Rod Elliott's Earthing article on sound-au.com). Where one would connect preamp RCA cable ground (it's shield) to the crossover inputs and do the same for the output signal, or
3. Don't connect RCA cables' ground at all and leave it 'floating'. Instead, use chassis both for a safety ground and a 0 volt connection for signal on the crossover circuitry (where you would use ground from interconnect, that's actually coming from a preamp).
I've seen many people actually cut the cable shield on a receiving end and call it a day. What would happen to the audio signal if you use some other devices chassis for a reference 0v line, instead of 0volt line that's actually exiting from the DAC/preamp? With exclusion of RFI and EMI signal pollution.
What would you chose?
Best regards,
Stefan
I am building a simple active crossover and a power supply for it. It's positioned in a separate metal box, in-between a preamp and two power amps, with a dedicated mains connection.
Unbalanced interconnects only, unfortunately.
As far as I see it, three ways to prevent ground loops:
1. Keep the interconnects short and hope for the best (the simplest and safest way), where ground of all circuitry gets connected directly to it's chassis,
2. Use a loop breaker on the ground line between device's chassis and a crossover circuit (in reference to Rod Elliott's Earthing article on sound-au.com). Where one would connect preamp RCA cable ground (it's shield) to the crossover inputs and do the same for the output signal, or
3. Don't connect RCA cables' ground at all and leave it 'floating'. Instead, use chassis both for a safety ground and a 0 volt connection for signal on the crossover circuitry (where you would use ground from interconnect, that's actually coming from a preamp).
I've seen many people actually cut the cable shield on a receiving end and call it a day. What would happen to the audio signal if you use some other devices chassis for a reference 0v line, instead of 0volt line that's actually exiting from the DAC/preamp? With exclusion of RFI and EMI signal pollution.
What would you chose?
Best regards,
Stefan