2020 Mac Mini (Intel) - Ground Loop Troubleshooting

[barrows]

I grounded my Mac Mini (I have since moved on from it) by making a simple grounding cable which plugs into one of the unused USB jacks.  The cable just has a single 18 AWG wire, terminated to the USB "A" plug ground connection on one end, and a three pin AC cable on the other end with the wire terminated to the ground pin.  I was making a number of wiring changes at the time, so I cannot say whether this resulted in sound quality improvement, but from a technical perspective it  stops "high impedance" leakage currents from the internal SMPS from escaping.