[sdiy] Ground Loops?

[CHoaglin at aol.com]

I'm cabling a whole rack of gear out to a patch panel that's in it, and so 
far I've done one end of each of the cables. (these are 1/4, unbalanced), Now 
the jack ground is tied to chassis ground on many of the units in the rack, 
and the whole rack is metal. Unless I'm mistaken, the path through the rack 
frame between pieces of gear is one ground path, and cables going to a patch 
panel or between pieces of gear would create another one, thus a ground loop. 
The cables are only 40 inches long at most, but I'm still wondering whether 
there might be problems with noise from this and I should leave them 
unconnected on one end. If so, which end makes more sense, at the patch 
panel, or at the equipment, or does it matter? I was thinking of letting them 
float at the panel end and just using them to extend the ground out from the 
jacks on the gear.

BTW, if anybody needs 1/4" plugs, try Ray White Audio (RAYKRJ at Concentric.net)
I paid $110 for 125 pieces of 1/4" mono, all metal, and they're good quality.

-Chris
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