I tried plugging in a portable MD player to the empeg aux input but the sound is suboptimal. It seems ok with another chassis grounded device, though. Would it be advisable to ground the AUX input leads when using a portable MD or tape player?
Thanks,
Mark

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Basically - yes. The inputs are designed to deal with a ground differential (eg, from another head unit) but not a totally floating one. Connecting the ground of the aux in to empeg chassis ground helps in this case.

Hugo

Hugo, doesn't this imply that you should be including three sets of grounding leads with the sled, rather than two?

No - the aux input is designed for other head units to feed into. In this case, there is no need for any other grounding - the circuit works as intended. If you're feeding walkmans into the aux input, it will work but requires a good ground from somewhere.

Hugo

So, as long as you have installed the grounding leads on the outputs (say, to the amps) then an input device with no earth reference is effectively referenced to the earth that way?

(obvious ignorance now showing)

No, all the grounds are separate :)

Hugo

I was reading this thread and I noticed I forgot to add my update. I soldered a thin wire to the outside (shield) of each of the AUX RCA connectors twisted them together and grounded them to the frame that holds the empeg sled. Sound quality is now terrific! I have a small Sharp MD unit that sometimes plug in and it sounds fine. I even tried a friend's Rio player via the empeg aux and it was ok, too.

Thanks for the tip Hugo!

=Mark


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