Remodel causes 60Hz ground loop


Friend remodeled kitchen and when he reconnected entire system, as it had been disassembled and out of harm’s way, he inherited a ground loop.  Small apartment, so moving to another room is not an option.
Only the music server is affected.  Vinyl playback not affected.  Runs everything through Furman 15i Elite conditioner.

Any ideas about approach for ridding the system of this?  Thanks in advance.
celtic66

Showing 4 responses by erik_squires

@fuzztones

Yeah the isolation transformer may work, but if you can fix the cable TV or satellite TV cable, you avoid adding anything after the DAC.
Welcome.

I should say that the test is really simple.  Unplug the coaxial cable while listening to the DAC.  In many cases you don't even have to be playing music because the ground loop is there as soon as the DAC is selected.

Best,

Erik
Aha! :)

So, you can use a cable TV isolator.  Relatively cheap.

https://amzn.to/3f6ziSG
What probably happened is that the re-model fixed a missing safety ground.  When that happened, a ground loop formed for the first time between the cable TV connector and the system.

Best,
Erik
Is there a coaxial cable connection involved somewhere?  From a satellite dish, or cable in?