[cbutter]

TIP: Not into High End Audio? Just want your speakers to sound clean? Go get yourself a 3-prong to 2 prong converter (you know, like the kind you have to use on older plug-ins) and plug it into your speakers (not your G5, you want that puppy properly grounded) and voila! Clean as whisle. It only cost you around $0.99 cents.

Now play all of the music and games that were muddied up before, heck just sit there in silence with the volume all the way up.

I can't guarantee that it will work with everyone's setup but it works with mine and I have a pair of Monsoon satellites with a sub hooked up to my G5 through the audio output mini plug. I have absolutely no buzzing or clicking coming from my speakers and I DON'T have the NAP feature enabled on the CHUD tools.

It is absolutely silent at full volume with nothing playing! Give it a try it may work for you too.

[OzarkMtn]

I use a pair of Edirol MA-20D Digital speakers that utilize the optical (Toslink) connector on the G5. They each have a 20 W amplifier as well as a 24 bit DAC. The sound is phenomenal and have never had any audio noises or clicking. This is the way to truly reproduce music & audio on the G5.

By the way, I also have a Griffin PowerWave that I use to drive my Apple PRO speakers for system alerts & notifications and I have never had any problems with audio noises or clicking with this setup as well.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by cbutter:
TIP: Not into High End Audio? Just want your speakers to sound clean? Go get yourself a 3-prong to 2 prong converter (you know, like the kind you have to use on older plug-ins) and plug it into your speakers (not your G5, you want that puppy properly grounded) and voila! Clean as whisle.

That would mean the whole issue is some problem with grounding ?
Hm, shouldn't be too hard to fix from Apple's side...

-t

[bartman00]

3rd prong "grounding" is something I really don't understand. Let me explain.

If you've ever done electrical wiring at the box you'll notice that the negative and the neutral line go to the SAME BLOCK! That is, they wind up going to the same place in your breaker box! If you wire the ground to the neutral in at the plug socket it’ll pass any wiring detector. That is, it’ll show up as properly wired. Remember, both neutral and ground get wired to the same block in the breaker box…. What’s the point of the 3rd wire then?

EDIT:

Found the answer. Sounds like the speakers are picking up electrical interferance from the 3rd prong and delivering it close to the amp. Disabling the 3rd prong solves the problem. I always knew something was up when I did my first wiring job and the guy showed me how both the ground and the neutral go to the same block. So in theory you could wire the neutral to the plugs neutral and the ground using the same neutral wire and have a perfictally fuctioning circet.. like I mentioned I tested using line testers.

Bart

[reader50]

The Ground and Neutral serve different functions. The Neutral returns current, and is grounded at the overcurrent protection to make it safer, and to split the 240V line - a 120V circuit is half of a 240V line in most cases (most of the other times, it is 1/3 of a 3 phase 120/208 line).

Since the Neutral carries current and has resistance, it will have a small voltage against ground out in the circuit ... if current is flowing.

The Ground is a safety return, if electricity goes where it should not, such as an appliance case, it is dangerous to the user. The grounding lines are supposed to be tied together wherever practical, so as to provide the smallest resistance back to the overcurrent protection device. Most overcurrent protection devices will trip faster the larger the overcurrent drawn, so the whole purpose of the ground is to conduct maximum current back in the event of a fault, and get the circuit shut off ASAP.

Tying the two together out in the branch circuit will likely cause an inline GFCI to malfunction if it is before the tie - many GFCI devices are built into the circuit breaker, so anything after that could cause a malfunction. Also, tying the two wires together after the overcurrent protection is a violation of the National Electrical Code:

NEC 250-23(a) System Grounding Connections.
...
A grounding connection shall not be made to any grounded circuit conductor on the load side of the service disconnecting means.
...

note: "grounded circuit conductor" means the Neutral in NEC-speak.

[bartman00]

I didn't say it was legal.. I said it works and in all reality is exactly the same thing because they all tie in together in the box any way.

Bart

[reader50]

Any current carrying conductor will have a voltage against ground. By tying them together out in the circuit, you are causing all grounded surfaces on the circuit to have small voltages some of the time -- it becomes possible to "get a tingle" by touching an appliance or anything else grounded on that circuit.

Should you happen to provide a lower resistance path back to ground than the regular path, that means you could potentially carry significant current through your body. This could happen if you are standing in water, or otherwise touching a water pipe in the electrical sense - such as while taking a shower.

Translation, such a tie can potentially kill someone. The circumstances would not normally happen, but they could - especially if some fool modified the circuit elsewhere and put a switch on the Neutral instead of the hot wire, or otherwise broke the Neutral. Polarity reversals come to mind too.

Please do not do this, the Ground is intended as a separate safety device.

ps - interrupting the ground wire to a powered speaker (the topic of this thread) does not cause problems elsewhere in the circuit, it only leaves the amplifier case ungrounded. It's something you are not supposed to do either, but I am not argueing against it here, extra noise in the sound system must be super annoying and might cause someone to eventually go postal, very dangerous.

[cbutter]

Just let me post this little DISCLAIMER:

Even though this quick fix seems to work for me it may not work for everyone, as I stated. It may even open up other problems (ie improper grounding). For me though it solves the annoyance that is emanating from Apple's ginormous power supply through my mini plug out.

Notice I didn't do this to my $2500 G5 which I would rather have proper grounding instead of my $150 set of Monsoon Speakers

I would like to add again that this fix only cost me $.99 cents.

I will NOT however come in from the pool and snuggle with the amplifier housing in my subwoofer........again!

[Ganesha]

Originally posted by reader50:
Any current carrying conductor will have a voltage against ground. By tying them together out in the circuit, you are causing all grounded surfaces on the circuit to have small voltages some of the time -- it becomes possible to "get a tingle" by touching an appliance or anything else grounded on that circuit.

Off-topic but, I wonder if this explains the Powerbook tingle some powerbook users complain about.

[cmoney]

Originally posted by Ganesha:
Off-topic but, I wonder if this explains the Powerbook tingle some powerbook users complain about.

I feel that tingle all the time. It's very easy to replicate also. I can just touch my leg to my G5 on the floor and run my hands on my TiBook. As long as my leg is touching the G5, I can feel it.

[Link]

Originally posted by Ganesha:
Off-topic but, I wonder if this explains the Powerbook tingle some powerbook users complain about.

It does. Many people who have a powerbook and have this problem have found that by using the grounded plug the problem ceases to exist.

On the other hand, I wonder what's up with the powerbook that's causing grounding out to the case

[tooki]

So, the audio problem was a ground loop (by removing the ground, you broke the loop). There's a device called a ground loop isolator designed to safely fix this problem. I use one in my car for my iPod, which is connected to the AUX input. Without the isolator, I got all kinds of noise. Now it's clean as a whistle.

tooki

[G4ME]

Originally posted by Link:
It does. Many people who have a powerbook and have this problem have found that by using the grounded plug the problem ceases to exist.

On the other hand, I wonder what's up with the powerbook that's causing grounding out to the case

insulation on the powerbook, they have to cut weight and size some how.

by using the cheater plug you should be fine, its there as a precaution if the hot wire comes in contact with any metal casing it will immediately trip the breaker if its a high current appliance, which those monsoons certainly aren't. With proper insulated devices you don't need the grounding plug. Look around the house see how many devices use the grounding plug, not many.

Also its my understanding if you are noticing a buzzing (60 cycle hum) or clicking that its your house wiring thats wrong and you are supposed to tied the ground to actual ground, not the same place on the breaker box.