kijanki,
The Ebtech Hum X is the only possibly safe cheater plug I know of. It lifts the ground unless the ground gets to a few volts, then it closes it, restoring the function of the safety ground:
http://amzn.to/2fIvyM7
The signal shield should NEVER be used as a substitute.
In-wall wiring, like IEC power cables MUST use a ground of equal guage to the power conductors. For instance, you may not use a 22 guage ground with a 12 guage power cables. It’s not allowed because it’s completely unsafe. You must provide low enough impedance AND heat resistance to be able to trip the wall breakers without melting the conductors. That’s a 15-20 A rating, but in the milliseconds between the short occurring and the breaker tripping you could have momentary current of around 100A. Try that through an RCA/XLR socket or cable and you would literally have explosive results while, at the same time, failing to trip the breaker, leaving a lethal voltage at the case, and possibly starting a fire. A complete safety mess.
Over the years manufacturers have used a variety of schemes to tie signal and safety ground together, often through a high value resistor, or capacitor. Some even use an floating signal ground, which is perfectly fine too and often the least noisy. However it should never be treated as the same by end-users, and one cannot substitute the signal ground for the AC ground.
Again, the usual culprits are outside antennas/cable TV and PC’s. Fix those and 95% of ground loop issues disappear.
Best,
Erik
The Ebtech Hum X is the only possibly safe cheater plug I know of. It lifts the ground unless the ground gets to a few volts, then it closes it, restoring the function of the safety ground:
http://amzn.to/2fIvyM7
The signal shield should NEVER be used as a substitute.
In-wall wiring, like IEC power cables MUST use a ground of equal guage to the power conductors. For instance, you may not use a 22 guage ground with a 12 guage power cables. It’s not allowed because it’s completely unsafe. You must provide low enough impedance AND heat resistance to be able to trip the wall breakers without melting the conductors. That’s a 15-20 A rating, but in the milliseconds between the short occurring and the breaker tripping you could have momentary current of around 100A. Try that through an RCA/XLR socket or cable and you would literally have explosive results while, at the same time, failing to trip the breaker, leaving a lethal voltage at the case, and possibly starting a fire. A complete safety mess.
Over the years manufacturers have used a variety of schemes to tie signal and safety ground together, often through a high value resistor, or capacitor. Some even use an floating signal ground, which is perfectly fine too and often the least noisy. However it should never be treated as the same by end-users, and one cannot substitute the signal ground for the AC ground.
Again, the usual culprits are outside antennas/cable TV and PC’s. Fix those and 95% of ground loop issues disappear.
Best,
Erik