Well, I now know the problem is the maudio 410 is trying to get ground
from the firewire cable, which connects to my laptop chassis, which
somehow connects to the ground. Since the 410 power cable doesn't have
a ground plug this makes sense. Just touching the external portion of
the firewire cable to my connection on the laptop causes the static.

Has anyone used or heard of these before?

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/HumX/

This connects to the safety ground, not the audio ground. I'd like to
know how it works. Anyone have an idea?

-emde