I've been inside quite a few amps that have had this tiny ground wire typically running from somewhere on the circuit board and connected to either the heatsink or a transistor clamp down. What is the purpose of this tiny wire. Its never large enough to carry any real current and I have also noticed that there are plenty of other amplifiers that do not have this wire at all.
In most cases, it's there to shunt the high frequency noise from the sink to ground. Some amps (Rockford, others) make the connection from the board to the sink with a screw.
Some amps use parallel RC networks or simply capacitors in series with the wires. This helps prevent excessive current through the wire if the main ground is lost and the sink is bolted to the chassis of the vehicle.
Some amps use parallel RC networks or simply capacitors in series with the wires. This helps prevent excessive current through the wire if the main ground is lost and the sink is bolted to the chassis of the vehicle.
Yeah I can agree with all of the above but just some food for thought....What if a insulator was to breakdown and the rail was to get shunted through to the case of the amp.
Some of the more modern amps have over 120 volts inside them and that could sting mighty smartly if you became circuited between it and ground..
Remember the red and green wires of a phone can kill you under the right circumstances, and its next to nothing power wise. So its not a far stretch to imagine someone getting zapped by a ungrounded case of a high powered amp...Plus if the case was floating un-grounded it might transmit noise from the switching power supply like a antenna...
So the mini ground wire is for noise shielding and grounding of the case. It all follows good safety practices and theory. Also do not under-estimate how much voltage that tiny little jumper wire can carry, and because of its short length it can also carry a hefty amount of juice before it vaporizes like a fuse link.
I have replace so many of these over the years, I can not remember the total count. And its in most every amp ever made. Somewhere and somehow every sink has a ground connection. I also suggest you replace them as need be when your working on any of this gear, after all it was meant to be there...
Some of the more modern amps have over 120 volts inside them and that could sting mighty smartly if you became circuited between it and ground..
Remember the red and green wires of a phone can kill you under the right circumstances, and its next to nothing power wise. So its not a far stretch to imagine someone getting zapped by a ungrounded case of a high powered amp...Plus if the case was floating un-grounded it might transmit noise from the switching power supply like a antenna...
So the mini ground wire is for noise shielding and grounding of the case. It all follows good safety practices and theory. Also do not under-estimate how much voltage that tiny little jumper wire can carry, and because of its short length it can also carry a hefty amount of juice before it vaporizes like a fuse link.
I have replace so many of these over the years, I can not remember the total count. And its in most every amp ever made. Somewhere and somehow every sink has a ground connection. I also suggest you replace them as need be when your working on any of this gear, after all it was meant to be there...
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