Worthwhile $5 Tweak

Of course you could have saved yourself $5 by simply disconnecting the grounds to your components outlets.

Perhaps not the safest recommendation, but you most likely would notice a definite improvement in your system's sonics as grounds have a way of injecting much noise into the AC.

Funny thing is, to realize even better performance after disconnecting all grounds, is to re-connect the ground only to your pre-amp. Not sure why, but this lowers the noise floor even further and really smooths out the highs as well.

-IMO

Stehno: I am actually in agreement with you on the floating/disconnecting of grounds. I run my system off one grounded receptacle, with two grounded power conditioners plugged into that receptacle. One conditioner is dedicated totally to my integrated amplifier which has the ground floated as a result of me removing the ground on its male plug. I found though that my DVD player (which has only a two prong plug) sounds and looks slightly better with the chassis grounded (I tried this on the suggestion of a power cord manufacturer who posts at Audioasylum) directly to the receptacle. Perhaps I should disconnect the ground on the outlet that powers the stereo and see what happens.

The interesting thing is that the TV (which is on a different circuit, and also grounded receptacle) seems to be offering a slightly improved picture even though it is also a non-grounded, or internally grounded piece. My thought is that the improved ground connection at least improves things in some minor way by improving the electrical system's ability to dump off the noise inherent in the ground of the total system more effectively, thus limiting garbage getting back into the live line. But I concur with you that, in general, the ground is the source of a lot of garbage and sonic degradation.

I got your non grounded amps---Ever get a static shock on a dry windy day;when touching your non grounded amp??