Hi Guys,

Today we are taking a look at a couple products from iFi, all to do with grounding. This won’t be a full review, just a quick set of impressions as these devices don’t really do all that much in general, but a couple things specifically. Ground loops, lack of ground, all sorts of grounding problems can be the bane of an audio system. I’ve had lots of issues with it in my system, and it was good to try out these products from iFi. The Ground Hog, and the Ground Defender.

The Ground Hog is a set of cables, multiple different adapters, all used to provide a ground to piece of gear that might be missing it, or needing grounding in a ground loop scenario. Basically, all of the adapters can be put together in different combinations all leading to the RCA to IEC connector. The IEC connector is the same as a typical female IEC connector, it is simply missing the + and – connectors. It only has a ground pin. This then connects to your outlet or power strip, whatever you happen to be using, to provide extra grounding capability to whichever piece of gear is causing an issue in your system. For me, I had a ground loop happening with my Berkeley Alpha Reference V1 DAC. Did a bunch of testing, and what ended up solving it was the Ground Hog, plugged in via RCA to the back of the unit. The Ground Hog also has a USB converter adapter, DC space converter, 3.5mm Y converter, and banana plug to RCA.

The Ground Defender is essentially the opposite of the Ground Hog. It is a safe way of eliminating a ground loop via removing the grounding from a piece of equipment. Obviously in my case, I was needing to add grounding, so the Ground Defender did nothing in my particular situation. However, in the past I have had ground loop issues which were solves by using a cheater plug (removing the ground) which removes the earth pin. However, although this can be used to diagnose the issue, it’s not considered safe to use in the long term. You don’t want yourself to become the ground instrument for a pieces of equipment. The Ground Defender is aimed at doing this safely. If you try a cheater plug and it solves your ground loop issue, the Ground Defender would definitely be worth checking out for your system.

Both of these products from iFi can be really helpful, if you are having issues with grounding in your system. Hums, buzzes, weird noises, all can be caused by various grounding issues. I’m really happy with the Ground Hog and how it has solved my issue, and I would certainly be trying out the Ground Defender if I was needing to remove grounding from a piece of gear due to a ground loop happening. Good stuff from iFi!