[Folsom]

Granted a lot of pre-made equipment is dependent on regular old sockets with a back strap. They need the connection or the fail safes in them will not work, say like the fuse and grounding etc...

However for those that like to play around, but always find dumping things to ground, to give horrible awful ground loops.... Well there is something out there to make ground your savior. I had no idea until some were donated to where I work, as to what these were...

http://www.drillspot.com/products/129008/Hubbell_IG8200_Isolated_Ground_Receptacle

There is no backstrap in these. You will never get ground loops unless you make them yourself inside your own equipment. No more guessing or just tossing the earth ground support. Now I bet someone sells them cheaper....

I just thought some people should know, as I am sure a lot of people have had the most annoying ground loops and not sure why.

[Occam]

Dos - Great one!!!! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Indeed, I guess one could call the back strap on a receptacle a 'ground loop'. 
A rational explanation of ground loops/noise -
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=8780.0
http://www.jensen-transformers.com/an/an004.pdf
Useful, but dry.
Your wisdom, PRICELESS!!!

[Daryl]

Hi Smile Destroyer,

That receptacle is an ordinary receptacle except that it is orange.

You can wire it with a separate ground isolated from the rest of the system and use it for sensitive equipment.

Networked equipment will benefit from this as it is separated by considerable distance and common mode signals on the distribution network will interfere with the communication lines.

Unbalanced audio equipment usually is not setup to deal with ground loops.

Therefore unbalanced equipment should not be grounded.

Unbalanced equipments grounds should float (high impedance) so that the sheilds of the interconnects can bring them all to the same potential with a minimum of current.

The more current required to bring the grounds to the same potential the more voltage error will exist accross the resistance and inductance of the interconnects shields.
 

[ctviggen]

In order to effectively put in an isolated ground, you have to run your wires through metallic conduit and put your outlet in a metal box, and then connect the isolated ground to the box.  This way, the conduit and box are grounded and therefore will not allow noise to enter the system.

Sadly, this does nothing for ground loops.

[boead]

HUBBELL ISOLATED GROUND Receptacle.
"...The grounding contact on this device has been purposely insulated from the mounting means to reduce electromagnetic interference. This is important if you have a separate “real earth” conductor for your audio or video system for minimum noise. A mounting strap is provided with an approved grounding clip for use with grounded metallic boxes. For proper use, the mounting strap must be grounded to the electrical service.

Care is important in specifying such a system with the receptacle insulated grounds since the grounding impedance is controlled only by the grounding wires and does not benefit functionally from any parallel grounding paths.

For installation by a qualified electrician in accordance with National and local electrical codes and the following instructions..."

http://www.smartdev.com/AC-1.html

[Niteshade]

I deal with ground loops all the time. It has to do with the grounding structure inside the equipment being used allot of the time. Ideally, star grounding eliminates/reduces EMI spread. This has to be done inside the equipment, whether it's an amp or preamp. It's important while building equipment to learn how to locate 'quiet spots' within the circuit to become ground focal points.

I would really like to hear more about the issues people have with noise.

[jneutron]

For installation by a qualified electrician in accordance with National and local electrical codes and the following instructions..."

Thank goodness, you have quoted the MOST IMPORTANT sentence on the Hubbel site.

NEC 250.146(D) covers isolated receptacle grounds.  It allows the use of an insulated grounding conductor back to the seperately derived system or the service equipment.

IT DOES NOT ALLOW A SIMPLE "EARTH GROUND" IN LIU OF A BONDING CONDUCTOR..

Use of an "earth ground" instead of a solid connection to the primary ground at the service entrance violates NEC and is extremely dangerous.

Cheers, John