[Grom]

I recently purchased a park if sennheiser HD650s, an audio technica LP3 and a Spartan Helot 2x tube amp on the recommendations of everyone here - and they’ve worked great! I’ve just hit one small (and sort of stupid) obstacle; where do I put the grounding wire?

As you can see there’s no grounding terminal for me to tighten it on to.

Would it be okay for me to just unscrew a screw and tighten the grounding wire like that? The screws seem like they may be too small for the wire. Thanks for everyone’s help and I appreciate it greatly!

 

[silent-circuit]

Shouldn't need a grounding wire - I'm guessing you got that pair of RCAs from a turntable?

 

[Kishimotosan]

It should already be grounded through the electrical plug there in the back.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

slip it on one of the chassis screws

 

[earmonger]

If I'm reading the LP3 directions correctly, you only need to ground if there is a ground terminal on the amp.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/support/audio-solutions-question-week-set-lp3-turntable/

1. Connect the turntable’s attached RCA cable to your desired powered speaker or stereo receiver/amplifier. For audio devices that have a separate ground terminal, connect the spade lug on the RCA cable to the ground lug on your audio component to help minimize hum.

Do you hear any hum when there's nothing playing?

 

[Grom]

If I'm reading the LP3 directions correctly, you only need to ground if there is a ground terminal on the amp.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/support/audio-solutions-question-week-set-lp3-turntable/

1. Connect the turntable’s attached RCA cable to your desired powered speaker or stereo receiver/amplifier. For audio devices that have a separate ground terminal, connect the spade lug on the RCA cable to the ground lug on your audio component to help minimize hum.

Do you hear any hum when there's nothing playing?

Not really! I think it’s all okay. I just didn’t know if there was something I was doing wrong haha

 

[tomb]

Not really! I think it’s all okay. I just didn’t know if there was something I was doing wrong haha

It sounds like you're using the built-in phono preamp from the AT-LP3. If that's the case, there is little need for additional grounding. That grounding wire has been standard for many decades with unamplified phono output. Phono preamps use so much gain that it works best to have the phono cartridge grounded directly to the phono preamplifier. Otherwise, the hum can be intolerable.

All of that is already provided by the built-in phono preamplifier in the Audio-Technica turntable.

If you ever decide to use a separate phono preamp (either as a separate component or as a part of a Pre-amp/Receiver), then you will definitely need to use the ground wire. Chances are very great that a separate phono preamp will have much higher quality than the built-in one in the AT turntable. There will definitely be a terminal provided in all of those other cases, however.