If you are using a passive piezo pickup, and sometimes with an active system, you may hear some AC power line hum if your system is not grounded. By grounded we mean connected to a piece of equipment such as a mixer, powered speaker, or amplifier that has a 3-wire grounded mains line plug. In normal use ToneDexter will be connected to something which is grounded, and you will not experience any hum. But if you do hear hum when training using just headphones, plugging one of the outputs into a grounded system, such as an audio interface or mixer, will eliminate the hum.
Plugging into two different destinations, say a stage amp and mixer, each with its own ground reference, would normally have potential to suffer from a ground loop. ToneDexter eliminates this possibility by lifting the ground to the DI XLR jack, when you plug into the main ¼” out jack. This is the right thing to do if both destinations are grounded, which is normally the case. If only using one or the other output, it should be hum free. BUT, if you then plug into the 1/4” out jack and either don’t connect it, or connect it to something ungrounded, even if the DI XLR output is connected to a properly grounded system, you will have an ungrounded situation since plugging into the 1/4″ lifts the ground to the XLR output.
SUMMARY: if using one or the other output alone, make sure the destination is grounded with a 3-wire pronged line cord. If using both outputs together, the 1/4″ output (or the Aux output) destination must be grounded to avoid noise in both outputs.
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