"François Yves Le Gal" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:03:31 -0500, "Robert Morein"
wrote:

Anybody ever hear of a hifi amplifier causing a house fire? If so, how
many
in thirty years?

It's actually pretty common, with hundreds - if not thousands - of fires
induced by AV equipment each year.

Televisions are the most dangerous A/V appliances, because of the ability of
high voltage to produce a substantial arc. You have to factor that out of
A/V statistics. I don't believe stereo equipment is very dangerous. Please
produce some hard statistics to the contrary. And remember, those stats may
contain boomboxes in combustible plastic cabinets. That is not the subject
of discussion in this thread.

Also, it should be noted that the incidence of fire has no relationship to
the presence of a chassis ground. You can theorize, but I doubt the
statistics break it out. The vast majority of A/V equipment made in the past
20 years is manufactured to the so-called "double insulated standard", where
chassis ground is simply not an issue. The issue with that equipment is the
circuit board material, typically epoxy paper, and the considerable use of
plastics.

The amplifiers for which I suggest the cheater plug -- as a last resort, of
course -- are typically massively made. The Parasound which did have bypass
cap ignition is completely encased in metal; the boards are FR-4. The
ignition occurred irrespective of the fact that the Parasound, in fact, does
not have a cheater plug.