Ungrounded power cord: Will I die?

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Glad to hear you are OK, but how does stinky food relate to the wire being burned?

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Ooooh, I see how you got confused about the smell, but 480 is a lot more likely to fry you than 120. My bet is if you had grabbed 480 you wouldn't be around to tell your story.

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The danger is getting shocked, not bursting into flames.

Wall warts and many other devices have plastic cases so even if the case contacts the line voltage you can't get shocked so they don't need the ground.

If it came with a three prong plug then safety standards dictate it should be there.

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Kijanki is correct on all points. Elizabeth, as usual, gives incomplete and/or bad advice.

Eugene, I really can't say how equipment designed for the Japanese market is configured, but the use of a ground connection (3rd prong) to a metal case is inherently safer than one without. I remember growing up in the 60's before 3 prong plugs and ground faults were common and we would get shocked when we touched the metal washing machine in the basement while standing barefoot on the concrete floor. My dad had an electric drill with a 2 prong cord and a metal case and you could get shocked if you touched it and something grounded like a water pipe.

That doesn't happen these days with better designs and better safety standards that involve plastic cases and/or grounded outlets. Using a cheater plug to defeat the ground can be dangerous. Note I said "can be". The problem for those who do it is they usually have no idea when that is.

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Purely a guess but I agree with the idea that the Japanese stuff comes with the standard 3 wire input jack to be just that; standard. Those who like to play with power cords would shy away if they couldn't do that.

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Why did the designer/manufacture of the DAC power supply decide he wanted a safety equipment ground for his equipment

I don't believe he did.

http://www.wickeddigital.com.au/index.php/shop-by-category-find-a-product-type/product/view/11/281

That is a universal 100-240 switching supply. Since outlets in many countries don't have a 3rd prong for ground it would have to be designed to not need one.

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Thanks Elizabeth, as expected, another worthless post about technical matters

People do die by electrocution

That number has dropped dramatically because of increased safety standards

laughing it off as a joke is irresponsible and childish

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I was wrong and Elizabeth is right.

The risk of death or injury from floating a ground is so low it is not a practical concern.

I apologize for my previous comment.

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Just curious about your thoughts,... if the PS uses an IE transformer with an electrostatic shield that is connected to the metal chassis, enclosure, of the PS and the equipment ground contact of the IEC connector. If the ground is floating will that have any effect on the EMI/RFI rejection performance of the PS?

What is an IE transformer?

If the shield is tied to the neutral and the neutral line is tied back to earth ground I'm not sure if the lack of the 3rd line makes a difference, but I don't think all countries use polarized plugs with the neutral tied to earth. Interesting question but I'm not familiar enough with power around the world to answer it.

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I understand where you are coming from but don't know enough about the power grid and design to say one way or the other.

I do know that a switching supply that doesn't use a transformer could get hooked up so the hot side of the AC line was connected to the output so I have to believe that type would never be used in a device sold to the public.

The more conventional way is to take the incoming line voltage to drive a circuit which jacks up the frequency much higher so you can then use a much smaller transformer that isolates the line from the load. There is no metal chassis so nothing to isolate.

I don't know enough about how these switching supplies generate RF and interact with the incoming line and how they radiate to comment further.

However, I am interested so if you come up with any more info please share.

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Let's put this in perspective.............

You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a stereo, radio, or television.

I don't think I'll worry about floating my preamp

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