[max190]

I have a dedicated 20 amp circuit into my 2 channel room for my Int & Cdp. It is terminated on a standard outlet I purchased at HD.

Inside my entrance panel this circuit is terminated like all the rest of the circuits feeding the house with the ground on a stand-off buss bar. If I were to change my run of the mill outlet with one that says it has an isolated ground, how is it isolated from all the outlets in the house? 

Seems to me you would have to drive a rod deep into the ground and then attach only the ground wire from this outlet to it. That would be isolated would it not? 

[decal]

Check out this article on isolated grounding.

[max190]

So it appears I could not even hookup a isolated ground outlet since you need to have a 3-wire with separate ground wire feed.
Correct?

[JLM]

Isolated grounding requires a separate panel with transformer.  Only those circuits served by (wired to) the panel would be served. 

In operating rooms the purpose is to alarm if leakage exceeds 5 milli-amps (to alert staff to current leakage into the anesthesized heart muscle - leading to heart failure).  Years ago (pre 1976) it was vitally important with flammable anesthesia was used to avoid the room going boom.  Receptacles served by an isolated ground system found in intensive care rooms (a "fad" from years ago) were often labeled differently to inform staff which were on the system.  My guess is that's all the "isolated ground receptacle" is (and it might also be hospital grade).

[max190]

I have seen hospital grade outlets at Home Depot. I believe they were orange in color and made by Hubbell

[Speedskater]

Isolated grounding requires a separate panel with transformer. 

This is totally incorrect.

That's a "Separately Derived System"

[Speedskater]

What kind of in-wall wiring to you have.
Individual wires in a metal conduit (EMT)?
Individual wires in a plastic conduit ?
Romex® (NM) plastic covered multi-wire cable?

What kind of a building do you have.
Wood framed walls?
Metal framed walls?

[srb]

An isolated ground receptacle has no connection between the ground contact and the metal mounting tabs of the receptacle, as a normal receptacle has.  This is to prevent an alternate ground path if it is installed in a common grounded conduit system, so that it only has a ground connection through the ground wire back to the subpanel or main panel.
 
Steve

[max190]

My 20 amp circuit is a Romex I believe 10-ga / 2 wire plus ground config. According to what I found out on the net I need to have a 3 wire plus ground to wire up an isolated ground outlet to code.

The term 'isolated' is what I cannot get through my head. Ground is ground 

[Speedskater]

Unfortunately "ground" is a very misunderstood and misused word. In this case, we want to prevent leakage and other noise currents from using our audio ground wire to return to their source.
If your circuits use Romex® (NM) or individual wires in a plastic conduit and your walls have wood framing,  then you don't need additional ground wires as your ground is already isolated from those bad random currents.
In the real world, ground is seldom ground no matter how much we or the schematic want it to be.

[max190]

Speed, my old Hafler preamp had a grd lug on the back of it. The power cord was just a 2 wire. My Kenwood KD500 TT was the same way.

I ran a grd wire from my cold water inlet pipe and connected it to both of these. Doing this almost eliminated all low level hum and noise from my system which in turn gave me much better low level inner detail.