Did I just cook my preamp?

 as it turns out as others have pointed out, no ground pin was removed and the amp is by design ungrounded. I agree it’s dangerous. Could you elaborate on what an outlet tester would tell me?

A basic one would tell you if you if the wiring to the outlet was correct and reasonably functional.  For instance, the ground wire may be missing or broken, in which case a ground pin on your gear would be useless.

Now that I think about it, get a more advanced one so you can see the N-E (neutral to earth) voltage.  This will help you see also that the neutral wire is near ground (should be 2V or less). 

 

 

@obarrett Said:

RR2160 amp has built in DAC and has two coax inputs. One to CD player one to bluesound node.

bluesound node

Internet provider line into your home? Fiber, Coax cable, other?

Are you using WiFi or hard wired Ethernet cable to the bluesound node ? IF hard wired is the cable used a shielded ethernet cable? (Looking for a possible ground path)

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(CDP digital out used as a transport)

Does the CDP use a grounded power cord?

yes you’re right the preamp was grounded to the tone arm.

IMO, that is the way it should be done. With multimeter you will verify the tone arm is not connected, grounded, to the TT EGC.

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Incredibly, when I was unplugging the phono preamp, I actually got some current from simply touching the exterior of the box.

I thought you meant unplugging the preamp power supply from the wall outlet you were touching the metal "box" of the preamp with the other hand. Thus my questioning about the wall outlet cover plate. If metal it would be grounded. I was looking for a possible difference of potential, voltage, from the phono preamp metal "box", to ground that caused the electrical shock.

You clarified with this.

you asked what two metal objects I was connecting. I was connecting the interconnects from preamp OUTPUT to the analog INPUT of the TT.

analog INPUT of the TT. ??? You mean analog input of the RR2160 amp?

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I had an idea which may be totally wrong but I noticed the blue light in the 110LP flickering the last couple months, and it’s connected to the circuit inside the preamp by a wire. Maybe something went wrong with that wire and it shorted to the exterior of the preamp box.

Don’t do any more experimenting using the phono preamp.

The normal operating input voltage of the phono preamp is 24Vdc. Power wise just a few watts. That normally will not cause sparks.

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From original OP:

After getting things back into place, I listened to some music using coaxial input before reconnecting the interconnects of the phono stage. When I tried to, I actually got some electric current that burned my hand slightly. This came from the back of the amplifier. I made sure everything was unplugged and tried again - this time a spark and smoke from the interconnect making contact to the back of the amplifier.

That would imply a significant difference of potential, voltage, between the two points.

Just a guess you had your fingers of one hand holding the outer ground shell of the interconnect and touched the rear metal panel of the RR2160 amp with the same hand. (In and out points were the finger(s) of the hand.)

Sparks? From the outer ground shell of the interconnect plug to the rear panel or outer ground shell of the RCA jack on the RR2160 amp, OR center pin of interconnect cable to RR2160 amp? (Hopefully you were not successful in plugging the interconnect into the Line in RCA jack of the RR2160 amp.)

Where is the difference of potential, Voltage, power, coming from? That is where the multi meter comes in. I will instruct you where to use the multimeter.

If you do not also buy a plug-in circuit checker I will instruct you, using the multimeter, how to preform the same tests as the circuit tester.

Using the multimeter we will verify the RR2160 amp does not have an internal Hot 120V to metal chassis fault. We will try to run tests on all the associated equipment until faulted culprit is found.

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I was going to just get a no contact voltmeter, but it seems maybe I should instead get a multimeter? Let me know what you would advise.

Multimeter...

As for checking the 120Vac wall outlet. A multimeter can preform the same tests as a plug-in circuit tester. Buy both if you want. If only buying one, buy a multimeter

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@obarrett

Two examples of good multimeters.

 

This is a good multimeter that will last... The extra cost feature of LoZ setting eliminates false phantom AC voltage readings.

Klein Digital Multi-Meter, TRMS Auto-Ranging, Temp, Low Impedance

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This is also a good multimeter. It doesn’t have LoZ though.

Klein 600 Volt Digital Multimeter, TRMS Auto-Ranging, Temp

 

@jea48 , when my old Radio Shack meter failed the drop test and I needed a new one (like immediately to bias my amp) I went to Lowes (because they are super close) and I bought a South Wire.  How do those stack up?  I saw that they had Fluke meters, but for what I thought at the time was an ungodly amount of money.  I could always upgrade to a Klein; I am pretty sure that now Lowes sells them as well.

@immatthewj

Is this the meter you bought?

Compact 3-In-1 CAT IV Digital Multi-Meter

Is this the amp?

Cary V-12; it features a dozen EL34s and each pair has a switch in between them that configures that pair to either triode or ultralinear.

If you are only using the multi-meter to measure DC ma it's probably ok.

https://www.caryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/CAD-280SA-V12.pdf

Just curious what are you setting the DC ma bias at?