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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: It’s mad, mad, mad... electricity.
Post Subject: Short answer, NO!Posted by Paul S on: 12/7/2007
Adrian, the neutral leg is "the" ground for any American AC-powered electrical device. The "ground" leg is +/- redundant, depending on the way the ground (or grounds) of the device in question is (are) configured. With some gear, all system-wide grounding is via the neutral, and this is as it "should" be for hi-fi, although that does not solve all ground problems, in any event. But there are still reasons for a third wire, including the risk of shock if a chassis or other component becomes charged by some sort of short, not to mention the usually-present stray current just hanging around because ground potential is rarely properly "stacked" in a given circuit or system of circuits. Also, in hi-fi it is not always good to combine neutral and ground in some cases, such as high and low level signal devices for example, and in the case of EMI/RFI shields, etc, where that ground leg can be swamped by neighbors. This is one of the issues I am raising, and if there is in fact a slam dunk solution, I don't know it yet. Filtered, balanced, isolated lines is a theoretically appropriate approach; but, here again, we aren't after theories, just better sound. I am not aware of any regenerators that even attempt to deal with these particular "systemic" issues.
There may also be issues within a given delivery system's grounding scheme itself, such as splitting and/or re-joining ground and/neutral wires and/or busses. This sort of thing is common enough in single family homes, but it is simply rampant in multi-family buildings and commercial buildings, especially older ones.
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site