I recently bought a bunch of outlet testers by Klein Tools. They are $20 at Home Depot.

These orange ones replaced the old yellow ones that I’ve had for many decades. The difference is that the new ones have a text readout in addition to the three-light pattern that shows missing ground, reversed hot and neutral, etc.

Why is this important?

I carry several of these in gig bags and won’t plug any audio equipment into an outlet that is mis-wired. An outlet incorrectly wired can cause damage to your equipment or injury to you. It can also be the cause of an annoying 60 Hz hum in your recordings.

45 years ago, I ran an audio retail store. We had high-end equipment on display on a wall with shelves. The units kept malfunctioning or going dead. We discovered the outlets had been mis-wired with hot and neutral reversed and a floating ground. I’m lucky someone wasn’t injured.

BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors