See if you can "predict" a future ground loop hum?


I was hoping someone could perhaps shed some light on whether or not I may be in trouble regarding ground loop hum....here's the situation:

I'm about to move into a newly built custom home that we designed with a music/library. I had the electrician wire 2 20 amp dedicated lines: 1 at the front of the room for a McIntosh MC 402 and 1 on the side wall for the other components, Classe preamp/Rega & NAD M5 CD players. No video will be on this system. The entire system will be balanced except the Rega Apollo and the REL storm subwoofer.

We're still currently in my "old" home with no special wiring. Last evening, I decided to hook up the MC 402 like I'll have it in the new home to test it out (I just recently purch. it and hadn't tested it yet). When I powered it on plugged into a socket in the front of the room (apart from the other components), there was an audible hum coming from the speakers. I then grabbed an extension and tried different outlets, and of course the one which had no noise was the outlet where the rest of the equipment is plugged into.

Now I'm scared to death that we'll move in to this nice room that I designed and could have the same problem. My question is will the dedicated lines (assuming they're wired correctly) solve this problem or could the same thing happen as in the old home that has no special wiring consideration?
audioguy3107

Showing 1 response by zephyr24069

The same thing could happen (and has to me) in an old setup with non-specialized but separate circuits; it happens due to the equipment plugged into the 2 separate circuits seeing different ground potential (at least as I understand what I've heard from electricians and audiophile friends who are good at this sort of thing). Have your electrician fix the situation so that both circuits have the same ground potential. In addition, you'll want to look into something from Granite Audio called the "Ground Zero" floating ground station. Check out my system as posted on Audiogon. I have the same setup and went through the problem you are referencing both in an older home, and with a newer home with custom-installed 20-amp circuits...