Grounding Philosophy

I keep getting questions about amp grounding so I thought I would consolidate some of my previous notes on the subject. The first is a reprint of a forum post I made back in 2013 on the DIYAudioProjects Forum.

Warning: It has been brought to my attention that some people reading this post mistakenly believe that I am advocating the override, disconnection, or elimination of the safety ground (or bonding) connection in some pieces of equipment. This is not correct! The safety ground or bonding requirement for every piece of equipment is a firm requirement. At no time should any signal cable or independent wire be expected to fulfill the safety ground requirement for any piece of equipment. The process of “ground lift” is simply to provide a different signal ground reference in a piece of equipment.

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