How to connect Wiim Amp to the ground ?

[Antoine-Op]

Hello,
I'm observing electric interferences between my neon tube and Wiim amp when Wiim Amp and my Mac mini are connected with SPDIF Toslink/USB-C cable. No problem of that kind when connected by jack/RCA. People on forums advised me to link the amplifier to the ground. Is there any way to do that properly ?

 

[Antoine-Op]

One precision. When saying interferences I mean the sound is interrupted when turning on the light on the neon tube.

 

[Sake]

Ultra should come with a brass screw, for using to ground phono input. I guess its not pre installed so please take a look in the box.

You may try to ground with a simple wire to central heater radiator, or ground to ac wallet. Hope it helps..

 

[Antoine-Op]

Simple Wiim Amp is not equipped with ground port unlike Wiim amp ultra. So, I don't know how to manage...

 

[QuarryHunslet]

View attachment 30162
Ultra should come with a brass screw, for using to ground phono input. I guess its not pre installed so please take a look in the box.

You may try to ground with a simple wire to central heater radiator, or ground to ac wallet. Hope it helps..

The WiiM Amp doesn’t have a ground connection.

 

[QuarryHunslet]

Simple Wiim Amp is not equipped with ground port unlike Wiim amp ultra. So, I don't know how to manage...

The WiiM Amp Ultra doesn’t have a ground port either.

 

[Aquaman]

The WiiM Amp Ultra doesn’t have a ground port either.

Yes it does. It‘s got a ground pin in the power plug.

 

[Aquaman]

Hello,
I'm observing electric interferences between my neon tube and Wiim amp when Wiim Amp and my Mac mini are connected with SPDIF Toslink/USB-C cable. No problem of that kind when connected by jack/RCA. People on forums advised me to link the amplifier to the ground. Is there any way to do that properly ?

Try switching live and neutral on your neon tube mains connection.

 

[QuarryHunslet]

Yes it does. It‘s got a ground pin in the power plug.

No it doesn’t have a ground port, but it does have an earthed mains cable.

 

[Sake]

Negative pole from rca could be ground as well ( shield ) for your device, it is not harmful to try a simple grounded wire to the shielding pole ( the outer ring ) maybe it's worth a try

 

[Aquaman]

No it doesn’t have a ground port, but it does have an earthed mains cable.

That‘s what I meant.

 

[Aquaman]

Try switching live and neutral on your neon tube mains connection.

Or, in a first round, turn the mains input plug on the WiiM by 180 degrees.

 

[Mr Ee]

No problem of that kind when connected by jack/RCA

So leave that connection in place, unused?

 

[HansD-NL]

Hello,
I'm observing electric interferences between my neon tube and Wiim amp when Wiim Amp and my Mac mini are connected with SPDIF Toslink/USB-C cable. No problem of that kind when connected by jack/RCA. People on forums advised me to link the amplifier to the ground. Is there any way to do that properly ?

Different approach: Your neon tube lamp (when turning on) seem to create a spike on the power line and/or electromagnetic interference (EMI) that your USB/Toslink adapter does not like and I think that you have to investigate that. The WiiM and your Mac mini are tested against that sort of interference's and don't care, hence you have no problems when connecting without the USB/Toslink adapter. I don't think it has anything to do with grounding.

 

[HansD-NL]

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Negative pole from rca could be ground as well ( shield ) for your device, it is not harmful to try a simple grounded wire to the shielding pole ( the outer ring ) maybe it's worth a try

Careful with that. There are a lot of devices that don't have their signal ground connected to the safety (drain) earth.

 

[Antoine-Op]

Different approach: Your neon tube lamp (when turning on) seem to create a spike on the power line and/or electromagnetic interference (EMI) that your USB/Toslink adapter does not like and I think that you have to investigate that. The WiiM and your Mac mini are tested against that sort of interference's and don't care, hence you have no problems when connecting without the USB/Toslink adapter. I don't think it has anything to do with grounding.

Well, yesterday I had a talk with someone on another forum who thought the opposite (that the problem concerns grounding). His last advice textually was: "Another idea: connect a wire to the ground terminal of a RCA connector and plug it into any RCA connector. Connect the other end to the PC chassis or to the ground terminal of the jack. Just one wire".
Since I don't have an RCA cable to sacrifice for this purpose, I simply settled on the idea of connecting the amplifier and Mac using the HDMI link that I don't use for the moment (the audio connection remains made via USB-C/SPDIF-Toslink). The interference problem with neon tube has indeed disappeared thanks to that HDMI connection, which supports the grounding issue.
However, I would prefer to find another solution to free up the HDMI port in the future.

So, Sake, if I follow your idea, I could wrap a strand of wire around the outer ring of an RCA plug (shielding pole). The RCA plug would then be attached to any RCA input on the amplifier (subwoofer out for example, since I'll never use it). Then I could tape the end of the wire coming from the RCA plug to the chassis of the Mac mini. Am I doing this right or am I complicating things ?!

 

[HansD-NL]

Well, yesterday I had a talk with someone on another forum who thought the opposite (that the problem concerns grounding). His last advice textually was: "Another idea: connect a wire to the ground terminal of a RCA connector and plug it into any RCA connector. Connect the other end to the PC chassis or to the ground terminal of the jack. Just one wire".

Yes I know, you said that.

Since I don't have an RCA cable to sacrifice for this purpose, I simply settled on the idea of connecting the amplifier and Mac using the HDMI link that I don't use for the moment (the audio connection remains made via USB-C/SPDIF-Toslink). The interference problem with neon tube has indeed disappeared thanks to that HDMI connection, which supports the grounding issue.

Yes that is a logical conclusion.

 

[Sake]

You may try the configuration like the image. You only need 1 RCA connector, add a wire on the outer ring ( ground ) and use a ty wrap or some good tape. You may connect the attached wire to the amplifier same way. Connect ONLY the - wire wrapped to the amps -rca. Do not put the whole plug into your amp. Leave the RCA cable only connected to your Wiim device. The other end of this RCA cable should not be connected to anything.

If you have unused rca plug ( for soldering purposes ) you can use that as well. Probably it looks a bit nicer that way

 

[JAB]

And send a good prayer, you are dealing with 230 V.

 

[Sake]

And send a good prayer, you are dealing with 230 V.

How do you mean dealing with high AC current?

RCA connectors usually do not transfer any higher voltage than approx 500 MV