Quote:
Originally Posted by Analogy
What happens if you lift all *but one* of the grounds, so everything earths itself through that single connection, breaking the ground loop? I'm under the impression that that's a good way to do it.
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That's risky and dangerous (an in some countries illegal) for the most part. Star earth configuration, as Yep has already mentioned, is the way to go. Combined with earth lift switches on audio gear, or lifting the earth on one end of some of the audio cables, that will solve most earth loop problems.
Laptop PSU's on the other hand are notoriously poorly designed as far as noise is concerned. Many times, they will cause buzzes, humming, pops, crackles and other noise even if the laptop and the monitor speakers are the only things connected and are connected to the same power strip. In such a case, where the earth pin is often included simply to satisfy the bureaucrats with little, if anything to do with safety, removing that connection is the simplest and least intrusive (as far as audio quality is concerned) method.