I have a grounding question for you guys. I realize this has probably been covered, but I need a little bit of hand-holding to make sure I don't get this wrong.
For aesthetics and convenience, all of my switches and connectors are being mounted directly into wood on the back of my amp. The exception is the volume pot which is mounted on an aluminum top plate along with the transformers. I understand I'll have to ground all of the wood-mounted components individually to a star ground. Then I was planning on grounding the top plate/transformers through a screw that attaches the one OPT since I can't use George's suggestion of grounding it through an RCA input (mine is wood-mounted). So my question comes in how to handle the grounding of the aluminum-mounted volume pot. Do I want it individually grounded like George's wiring diagram? Doesn't that make two connections to the chassis and introduce a ground loop? But without a ground wire from the pot, how do I ground the PCB?
I hope that is clear. BTW, I don't have the steadiest of hands and the connector pins on my volume pot are tiny, so a solution that involves minimal soldering to the volume pot would be ideal. Thanks in advance.
For aesthetics and convenience, all of my switches and connectors are being mounted directly into wood on the back of my amp. The exception is the volume pot which is mounted on an aluminum top plate along with the transformers. I understand I'll have to ground all of the wood-mounted components individually to a star ground. Then I was planning on grounding the top plate/transformers through a screw that attaches the one OPT since I can't use George's suggestion of grounding it through an RCA input (mine is wood-mounted). So my question comes in how to handle the grounding of the aluminum-mounted volume pot. Do I want it individually grounded like George's wiring diagram? Doesn't that make two connections to the chassis and introduce a ground loop? But without a ground wire from the pot, how do I ground the PCB?
I hope that is clear. BTW, I don't have the steadiest of hands and the connector pins on my volume pot are tiny, so a solution that involves minimal soldering to the volume pot would be ideal. Thanks in advance.
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Hi,
I would run one ground wire from your IEC/power cord to the aluminum part of your chassis, and one to the ground pin of each component that is not connected to the aluminum chassis. I am not sure if you can tell from this picture, but this is how I did it:
Zenfolio | Stefan Sievert | SimpleSE | Photo 7
The green wires coming from the IEC socket are ground wires: 1 to the aluminum top plate, 1 to the left/right channel ground, 1 to RCA inputs and from there I used shielded wire to go to the pot.
Zero anything (much less hum) at full volume with no input signal.
HTH,
Stefan
I would run one ground wire from your IEC/power cord to the aluminum part of your chassis, and one to the ground pin of each component that is not connected to the aluminum chassis. I am not sure if you can tell from this picture, but this is how I did it:
Zenfolio | Stefan Sievert | SimpleSE | Photo 7
The green wires coming from the IEC socket are ground wires: 1 to the aluminum top plate, 1 to the left/right channel ground, 1 to RCA inputs and from there I used shielded wire to go to the pot.
Zero anything (much less hum) at full volume with no input signal.
HTH,
Stefan
Thank you so much. I'm still blown away by the help this forum provides!
So here's what I'll do unless I'm confused and you or anyone else objects:
1. Connect the RCA inputs, volume pot, and PCB just like George's wiring diagram on the tubelab website
2. Run individual grounds from my aluminum top plate and wood-mounted components into a star (perhaps put a few components on same wire)
3. Connect that star to the earth ground of the IEC
Thanks again
Dave
So here's what I'll do unless I'm confused and you or anyone else objects:
1. Connect the RCA inputs, volume pot, and PCB just like George's wiring diagram on the tubelab website
2. Run individual grounds from my aluminum top plate and wood-mounted components into a star (perhaps put a few components on same wire)
3. Connect that star to the earth ground of the IEC
Thanks again
Dave
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