Short in my system?


I keep getting shocked when walk across the room to touch the system, which then pops really loud through the speakers. 

I have a McIntosh 352 tube amp plugged into a Niagara 1200 power conditioner, which is really like a giant surge protector. 

I live in cental NC, and wSo I don't know if theres an electical problem with the house or with the system, or if this just happens sometimes.  It also happens sometimes when I touch the floor lamp, just a static spark.  Its just so much worse when I touch the amp because its amplified so loud and I'm afraid its going to short out the whole system, or at least blow some tubes.hile its been a cold dry winter, I live on a lake and it rained a couple of days ago so I don't think its the dry weather.  

mojo771

Showing 1 response by jeffbij

Assuming that the floor is carpeted, you can make a spray using a fabric softener (1 to 5 dilution) and spray it on the carpet and let dry.  There are also commercial product anti-static sprays available as well.  You can search Amazon for them. That should help.

I would avoid using the ground lug on any of your equipment to disipate the static charge.  In most cases, it is no different than touching the face plate, etc.  (and you definitely don't want to send a high voltage static charge into you cartridge.) 

And logic tells me using the same grounding path of a AC outlet would be potentially dangerous.  The ground wire at the outlet is there for safety incase there is a fault or short at the outlet.