Got a new (to me) older audio stack. Not used to some of the earlier electronics conventions.

The system has two pronged cords, and has external grounding. How much danger am I looking at here? I’m not 100% certain how to use it properly.

  • socsa@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    The ground lugs are for a turntable, not a power ground. The audio signal from a record player is incredibly tiny, which means it needs more amplification stages (usually if you have a phono input, it has another pre amp stage). Because of this it is important that the turntable and pre-amp have a common ground reference to eliminate things like a DC offset or ground loop which would otherwise be amplified more than other audio artifacts from other sources.

    The strap looks like an antenna ground for an AM input

    • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Sounds like you’re confirming what I’ve been hearing from other people, that neither of these grounds contains any real danger?

      And as for grounding the turntable, that makes a bit of sense, however I have a fairly modern one and I’ll have to check it. I don’t know that it actually has an external ground beyond the three prong plug.

      Is grounding of the turntable still relevant in that case?

      • socsa@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        I think most modern turntables have a built in pre-amp so it’s less of an issue. If it doesn’t have a ground lug itself then it’s probably not an issue.

        • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 day ago

          Yes, I believe I have a selector switch that allows me to select either the internal pre and for an external. I was thinking of going with the old external for a bit of additional configurability.