[LAU] My Tascam US-122

[Arnold Krille]

Am Mittwoch, 13. August 2008 schrieb Martin Horn:
> I am an electrical engineer myself and here are the facts again:

From the facts you might be right in this special case. BUT: When someone 
starts doing this on his laptop (even if it might not be dangerous), he will 
not stop at using this on his laptop. He well also start using tape on the 
cords of power amps and dimmer packs. And then it starts to get _really_ 
dangerous. And that is the psychologic reason for me (and many others) to 
scream "Don't ever do that".

And even though the power cord connecting to the laptop is mostly a two pin, 
there is still the chance of faults in the psu itself. And when something bad 
happens there, the third earthing connector is there to prevent further 
damage (by kicking the fuse of the power). If you disconnect this safety, you 
endanger your laptop and possibly your (and your fellow musicians) life.
BTW: If there was no connection between the earth pin and the laptops pin, you 
wouldn't get ground-loops. So there definitely is a connection. And its there 
with a purpose. Even if that purpose is "only" safety....

So, @Shawn, get an isolating transformer or (even better) a real DI-Box. The 
later will make your equipment have a symmetric XLR-output which techs like a 
lot more then asymmetric jacks. And disconnecting the shielding on an 
XLR-cable (at one end and be aware that phantom power doesn't work after 
this) is the allowed solution to this problems. Most DI-boxes even have a 
small switch to disconnect the earth so you don't have to solder special 
cables.

Have fun and stay save,

Arnold
-- 
visit http://www.arnoldarts.de/
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