Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator ?

[rafaelsmith]

Anyone have any experience with this?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

I had one lying around from an older car stereo installtion...When I first hooked up everything to run REW I was getting a hum thru my speakers and sub whenever the PC soundcard output was connected.

I put this in line between the Soundcard output and AVR input..it did remove the hum.

But I am curious if this product will cause problems with the measurements from REW.

I ask because at $15.00 it is WAY cheaper than the other "hum" illimination devices I have seen referenced on these forums.

Thanks,

[JohnM]

Cheaper isolaters tend to have poor low frequency extension and can have high distortion. Try connecting it in a loopback on your soundcard and make a measurement to see what effect it is having, can also use the Spectrum analyser to see what effect it has on distortion measurements.

[superchad]

I would never put a choke filter in the signal...just float the ground with a cheater plug.

[Trekari]

superchad wrote:

I would never put a choke filter in the signal...just float the ground with a cheater plug.

Using a cheater plug is a great way to kill someone should you ever have an electrical short and go to diagnose the problem without remembering that your chassis is no longer grounded.

http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...d-bfd-hum.html

The above thread should resolve any buzzing/hum you have that is being caused by ground loops - in a far more safe manner than cheater plugs.

[superchad]

The use of a cheater plug is cheapest and best way to limit hum without signal loss, I suppose anything could happen but out of thousands and thousands who have used these I have never heard of any death or even injury..... any unit should be fully unplugged for any connection or service projects.

[rafaelsmith]

Althought a loopback measurement using the Isolator did not look any different than without.. I just got some cheater plugs instead...needed one for the PC and Monitor that I was using to run REW on. No hum...and no questionable device in the loop.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Fortunately this is just a temporary thing to get some REW readings...

Regards,
Wayne

[superchad]

It is nice to see you didnt spend money you didnt have to...cheers

[rafaelsmith]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

Fortunately this is just a temporary thing to get some REW readings...

Regards,
Wayne

Well I had to use a cheater plug with the BFD cause it caused a really bad hum.

[superchad]

Dont worry about it.....there are tens of thousands of these in use this very minute and I have never heard anyone have a major tragedy because of these units.