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With all sorts of power cords available. Many very expensive.. I ask myself why do they also make the ground wire out of the same expensive wire?The ground is sort of just 'there''. It does not carry anything, and is just a safety valve, in case of a short or other accident.
So since the ground is really not used for music power.. Why is it usually made of the same expensive wire?
Is it just to all be the same?
Or, is there an actual reason unknown to me.. As to why the ground wire SHOULD BE of the same expensive type of wire as the Hot and return?Inquiring mind wants to know...
(In my understanding of the ground wire in an AC cord.. all it needs to be is adequate size to carry the current to ground in an emergency/accident. So it can be made of cheap copper.. instead of 99.999% plus $$$$ copper with a Teflon insulation. I cannot fathom needing it to be a fancy wire.)
Tell me why... please.Added: even in a balanced IC.. Does the ground have any 'use' other than to keep the ground plane voltage potential between the two connected item the same? Or can/does it do more?
Edits: 09/26/16Follow Ups:
From Henry W. Ott's big new book "Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering"
3.1.7 Grounding Myths
More myths exist relating to the field of grounding than any other area of electrical engineering. The more common of these are as follows:
1. The earth is a low-impedance path for ground current. False, the impedance of the earth is orders of magnitude greater than the impedance of a copper conductor.
2. The earth is an equipotential. False, this is clearly not true by the result of (1 above).
3. The impedance of a conductor is determined by its resistance. False, what happened to the concept of inductive reactance?
4. To operate with low noise, a circuit or system must be connected to an earth ground. False, because airplanes, satellites, cars and battery powered laptop computers all operate fine without a ground connection. As a mater of fact, an earth ground is more likely to be the cause of noise problem. More electronic system noise problems are resolved by removing (or isolating) a circuit from earth ground that by connecting it to earth ground.
5. To reduce noise, an electronic system should be connected to a separate "quiet ground" by using a separate, isolated ground rod. False, in addition to being untrue, this approach is dangerous and violates the requirements of the NEC (electrical code/rules).
6. An earth ground is unidirectional, with current only flowing into the ground. False, because current must flow in loops, any current that flows into the ground must also flow out of the ground somewhere else.
7. An isolated AC power receptacle is not grounded. False, the term "isolated" refers only to the method by which a receptacle is grounded, not if it is grounded.
8. A system designer can name ground conductors by the type of the current that they should carry (i.e., signal, power, lightning, digital, analog, quiet, noisy, etc.), and the electrons will comply and only flow in the appropriately designated conductors. Obviously false.
Henry W. Ott
With all sorts of power cords available. Many very expensive.. I ask myself why do they also make the ground wire out of the same expensive wire?
The ground is sort of just 'there''. It does not carry anything, and is just a safety valve, in case of a short or other accident.
I used to think the same way....then I did some listening, and learning about various products created to deal with the ground connection and ground plane. The ground conductor DOES carry something....not only parasitic noise, but in some cases some of the signal. It does not simply sit there waiting for "an event" to happen. And no this is not a design flaw, but with the proper instrumentation can be measured. I believe Nordost has done some of these tests.
So since the ground is really not used for music power.. Why is it usually made of the same expensive wire?
If you did some sonic comparisons, you would likely hear the qualitative differences, whether they be silver-plated copper, higher-purity copper, or solid silver.
Or, is there an actual reason unknown to me.. As to why the ground wire SHOULD BE of the same expensive type of wire as the Hot and return?
Again, to my ears, the higher the quality of conductor, the greater the benefits, no different than the benefits of using higher-quality conductors for H and N. On paper it shouldn't matter, as we've collectively discarded the idea based on old engineering texts. But with real life experience it does.
From memory, Audio Magic was one of the first to address these parasitic ground noise issues many years ago. Dave Clark of Positive Feedback did a review on a couple of those products at that time. Today there are ground noise products from Entreq, Furutech, PranaWire (disclosure....I am a dealer for them) and more recently a Taiwanese company (I'm forgetting their name) that Stillpoints is distributing here in the US.
It's the wiggly world of audio, but there is alot going on with the ground (signal ground & safety ground) that we have yet to discover. In short (no pun intended), the ground ain't just sitting there doing nothing.
What a creepy sounding phrase!
Literally and figuratively!
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Perfect for Halloween!
Smelly_Socks wrote:
"With all sorts of power cords available. Many very expensive.. I ask myself why do they also make the ground wire out of the same expensive wire?
A number of audiophile-quality 3-conductor power cords feature OCC copper L&N conductors, with a lesser-quality OFC ground conductor.
"Added: even in a balanced IC.. Does the ground have any 'use' other than to keep the ground plane voltage potential between the two connected item the same? Or can/does it do more?"
The ground conductor of a balanced interface still carries the return signal, and it's why I ignore it for a relatively short-length audiophile application, of which I find to sound better via a simple twisted pair that better keeps to the notion of a truly balanced approach with two evenly connected, mirror image polarities. I consider the ground conductor aspect of a balanced XLR cable to be more suitable for long-length pro audio applications, in my opinion. YMMV
.
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