Eliminating hum

01-02-15: Bojack
Using cheater plugs is completely safe and often effective.

Don't let the underwriter of your homeowner's policy see that post :-)

Assuming the equipment is in good physical condition, so that there is little risk of an internal short developing between a "hot" AC wire and chassis, the risk that is entailed by the use of a cheater plug is extremely small. However, it cannot be said that the risk is zero. And if that very small risk were to ever materialize, perhaps because the component was marginally designed with respect to how the internal AC wiring is routed relative to nearby sources of heat within the component, or perhaps because the component was wired on a Friday afternoon by someone who was in a hurry to leave, or for whatever reason, the result could very conceivably be either a fire or electrocution.

Yes, use of a cheater plug is "often effective." However the third prong is provided on AC plugs and outlets for a reason. A claim that use of a cheater plug is "completely safe" is, frankly, misleading, potentially harmful, and nonsense.

Good comments by the others. Regards,
-- Al

Not to harp on this, but electricity will try to find the shortest/easiest path to ground. By removing that short, certain path by lifting the ground, and a fault occurs, "You", your family touching something else, your pet, or other equipment may become the shortest/easiest path to ground instead.

Be safe, be smart, don't take things for granted.

Based on my own personal experience, hum can also be picked up as airborne EMF from a nearby amplifier. In my case, what I had spent hours configuring and re-configuring, as suggested by Tjassoc, was not an AC ground loop at all, but EMF picked up by my IC connecting the phono stage and pre-amp. Simple aluminum foil around the IC remediated the problem. This issue can be very tricky, as my own experience attests to. Good luck.

Goodness I have used cheaters my whole 37 years of audio life. Most of us have and it will at least help you understand if it is a ground loop issue.

I must be lucky:). I have never, ever heard of any incident in real life to be honest Agoners.

Al, most amps are grounded at the first reservoir cap in the power supply etc...

This topic comes up all the time on many threads and it always makes me think " who has ever, ever been harmed by using a cheater on an amp or preamp?"

If a power cord would have a short to the chassis would'nt that trip a
breaker in the home? I think the most cautious of us would say never use
them as there is certainly a possibility of shock if all the conditions are
aligned perfectly. It is also reasonable to say many things we do every day
are far more risky. Things like riding a bike, taking a walk, ice fishing, etc...

I did just read this ...............

"In the professional audio and video fields, the cheater plug has been
identified as a serious safety problem. Its casual use as a method for
avoiding ground loops in analog audio and video signals (to eliminate hums
and buzzes) is dangerous.[4] Bill Whitlock, president of Jensen
Transformers, writes, "never, ever use devices such as 3 to 2-prong AC
plug adapters, a.k.a. 'ground lifters', to solve a noise problem!"[4] Whitlock
relates how an electrical fault in one device that is connected to its
electricity source through an ungrounded cheater plug will result in
dangerous, high current flowing through audio or video cables. Whitlo