Dispelling ground myths

[Lee]

An observation from experimenting with grounding my audio cables...

I have all Synergistic UEF cables now (level 4 or Galileo) and they are all grounded, plus my components, to an SR Ground Block. It looks a little crazy to have all the thinner grounding wires going everywhere but it works very well. Much lower noise floor and much less compressed sounding system. The Ground Block plugs into a different wall outlet so I can demo the effect very easily. It's quite noticeable.

 

[Stacore]

Have just performed a nice experiment: Violated the code and lifted the motor and the stroboscope of my EMT930 off the ground (it floats now).
Gained clarity, 3d image, and very seductive sparkle to the sound!

My home conditions: The system is powered from 3 dedicated lines. Ground is the common
ground of building (I live on the 4th floor, no chance for a dedicated ground), but it is separately routed to the system.
Again violating the code, everything except the RIAA pre is off the ground, interconnects are unbalanced.
TT motor, stroboscope etc connected to the household lines not to polute the dedicated.
Most probably there was an inductive coupling of the motor/strobo to the cart/SUT, closing a huge ground loop.

Cheers,

 

[Chuck Lee]

I have an Esoteric X-03,a bit old.
I have found that the sound improves when you use the ground post on the unit and run it to a dedicated ground and not just rely on the internal ground of the power plug.
There is more clarity.
I don't look for answers as to why this is the case.
It is an observation on my part in my system.
I can also demonstrate this to my audio friends.
They also can hear the benefit of adding an extra grounding path from the Digital player.
I use a Devialet 250 Pro.
I have run my TT using it's phono stage with and without connecting the ground wire from my phono interconnect cable.
Again more clarity, more body and less noise when using the grounding wire into the Pro 250 ground pin.
So, in my case grounding benefits both digital and analog,and the better the connection to ground the better the sound.
Dedicated grounding schemes work for me.
I do not own nor have I tried any of the ground boxes or ground plug products that are popping up. I've no experience with them I won't judge.