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auxillary ground question

I just had my consonance opera audio ref. 2.2 cdp fried by lightning. I am wanting to add an auxillary ground to my basement subpanel that supplies only 3 20 amp circuits dedicated to audio/video. I have purchased a 5' copper pipe that is 1" in diameter to use as my ground rod as suggested by "the perfect vision" magazine. I purchased some unshielded 8 guage solid copper to run from subpanel to ground rod. Would shielded wire be better to use for this purpose? Will this really provide additional surge/lightning protection plus help lower the noise floor among other things.

Let me know your experiences. I really appreciate it.

Also, my speakers are the piega c-8ltd ribbon hybrid speakers. Amp is the aloia 15.01. Preamp is arcam av8. Already have a hram level 2 modded denon 3810 ordered.

Thanks,

Twc
twc

Showing 1 response by nsgarch

nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
There are several posts on the Gon dealing with this question. The gist of it is: Dedicated circuit --good, secondary ground - bad. Reason: a difference in potential between the two grounds; which not only can create a current in the grounding system, but also creates a ground "loop" which causes hum problems.

I live in Tucson, AZ, the lightening capitol of the world (maybe the universe!) My solution was to insert a high-speed diode from the "house" side of my dedicated circuit breaker(s) to ground inside the panel. The slightest surge will short the breaker to ground thru the diode and trip it (frying the diode!) before any current can get to your stuff.
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