Entreq Tellus grounding

[caliaripaolo]

thank's Spiritofmusic.
I also received an Eartha Silver RCA. My intent, if everything will be as expected, will be to add an Atlantis Minimus and to add a second combo for Totaldac Reclocker.
I think such kind of items are more effective in case of small audio signals (like for Pre, DAC...).
I have already treated the AC/ground with an isolation transformer, Elrod Gold PC, Akiko gears and Nordost Qk1, (all of them with more or less great results) but this thread was so interesting which I had to try Entreq items.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Agree w/you, my major revelation was grounding the preamp/now dual mono line stage, everything else has been built on this. Go for the equivalent of your pre first.
Common consent is that going for the biggest ground box you can afford first is best, i.e. Silver Tellus+Atlantis trumps Silver Tellus trumps Silver Minimus, even if only one component is being grounded. But Minimus should give you a good flavour.
Despite Miguel of Troy not recommending balanced power, I can confirm a combination of balanced/isolated transformer and Entreq works a treat. Your transformer will sort the power coming into your system, Entreq will help after that esp w/component-borne nasties swirling back to the mains and btwn components.

 

[LL21]

...just arrived Minimus Silver for my Totaldac d1 Dual...I understood which to obtain the maximum effect, it has to be connected for 2 days minimum?

in my experience of 3 times with grounding (starting from unhooking the whole thing)...

- 15-20 minutes: you should start to hear it
- 3 hours: definite improvement of solidity, intensity of music message
- 48 hours: continued refinement of above
- 2 weeks: last little bit of perfection and stable

 

[Mike Lavigne]

really strange. but a data point.

last night I received the 1.65 Eartha Atlantis RCA cable.....but only one. I had been using the -2- 1.65m Eartha Apollo cables connected to one unused RCA input on each channel of my dart preamp.....and then connected to the Silver Tellus box.....one cable attached to the two farthest apart terminals. so leaving the Apollo's where they were since last Friday night, I connected the single Atlantis to one unused RCA output on my Playback Designs MPS-5 and then the '2' spades from the Atlantis to the 2 inner terminals of the Silver Tellus.

then I listened.

slightly congested, lacking sparkle. reduced flow. this was on digital. I tried vinyl.....not a whole lot better. this was worse than prior to hooking up the Entreq Friday night by a good margin. I listened for 2 hours, sometimes critically but it was not working. I'm very attuned to my system and it's very consistent with the isolation of my power grid and my barn being a stand alone structure in the middle of 5 acres in the mountains.....so it's very rare for it to go 'off' for no good reason.

I was a bit tired and thought maybe it was just me. I listened for awhile more, I had a beer (not my typical thing to do but what the heck). not much better.

then I pulled out the Atlantis cable, not really much better....maybe a little. I shut things down for the night, and then this morning I got up later than typical and did not really listen closely in the morning. now tonight it's all back and then some, sounding super, super. better than ever. the same tracks that were not working last night were now free and alive sounding.

quite the roller coaster.

maybe my particular system needs 2 cables or it's all sh*t. or maybe it was just me.

anyway......a data point.

you have to listen, this stuff is not plug and play.

 

[mauidan]

really strange. but a data point.

last night I received the 1.65 Eartha Atlantis RCA cable.....but only one. I had been using the -2- 1.65m Eartha Apollo cables connected to one unused RCA input on each channel of my dart preamp.....and then connected to the Silver Tellus box.....one cable attached to the two farthest apart terminals. so leaving the Apollo's where they were since last Friday night, I connected the single Atlantis to one unused RCA output on my Playback Designs MPS-5 and then the '2' spades from the Atlantis to the 2 inner terminals of the Silver Tellus.

then I listened.

slightly congested, lacking sparkle. reduced flow. this was on digital. I tried vinyl.....not a whole lot better. this was worse than prior to hooking up the Entreq Friday night by a good margin. I listened for 2 hours, sometimes critically but it was not working. I'm very attuned to my system and it's very consistent with the isolation of my power grid and my barn being a stand alone structure in the middle of 5 acres in the mountains.....so it's very rare for it to go 'off' for no good reason.

I was a bit tired and thought maybe it was just me. I listened for awhile more, I had a beer (not my typical thing to do but what the heck). not much better.

then I pulled out the Atlantis cable, not really much better....maybe a little. I shut things down for the night, and then this morning I got up later than typical and did not really listen closely in the morning. now tonight it's all back and then some, sounding super, super. better than ever. the same tracks that were not working last night were now free and alive sounding.

quite the roller coaster.

maybe my particular system needs 2 cables or it's all sh*t. or maybe it was just me.

anyway......a data point.

you have to listen, this stuff is not plug and play.

First, it would be helpful if someone that knows how to use a multimeter (if you can't do this, please don't try doing something complicate like operating a moving vehicle) could determine if the the four grounding terminals on the Silver Tellus are connected to one another.

I'm guessing that they are.

So, Mike connects the $1.6K Atlantis cable to his Playback Designs MPS-5, and it sounds like crap.

The Playback Designs MPS-5 has a switch mode power supply (SMPS), so its noise is now on the same signal ground plane as the linear power supply in his dart preamp.

He pulls the Atlantis cable connection to his Playback Designs MPS-5, and overnght the noise on the Entreq ground plane dissipates and everything sounds super in the morning.

Take two aspirins and get a serparate Entreq box for your digital components with SMPS.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Fascinating Mike. Mauidan may be onto something.
For my part, I've had a similar experience to you. Most everyone else has had great experiences w/Atlantis leads, but my albeit short trial was negative. Was getting (and still do) great results w/Apollos, but when Fraser the UK rep came over and swapped them out for all Atlantis', my system took a downturn, v.much like you described - in my case slurring, overly warm - almost felt like I had a poor tube amp in my rig. Switching back to Apollos, and order restored.
Lloyd esp believes Atlantis leads are King, and it may be that going all-Atlantis' w/the add on Atlantis Tellus box will get the best out of these choices. Or maybe mixing Atlantis and Apollo leads isn't so good.

 

[Barry2013]

really strange. but a data point.

last night I received the 1.65 Eartha Atlantis RCA cable.....but only one. I had been using the -2- 1.65m Eartha Apollo cables connected to one unused RCA input on each channel of my dart preamp.....and then connected to the Silver Tellus box.....one cable attached to the two farthest apart terminals. so leaving the Apollo's where they were since last Friday night, I connected the single Atlantis to one unused RCA output on my Playback Designs MPS-5 and then the '2' spades from the Atlantis to the 2 inner terminals of the Silver Tellus.

then I listened.

slightly congested, lacking sparkle. reduced flow. this was on digital. I tried vinyl.....not a whole lot better. this was worse than prior to hooking up the Entreq Friday night by a good margin. I listened for 2 hours, sometimes critically but it was not working. I'm very attuned to my system and it's very consistent with the isolation of my power grid and my barn being a stand alone structure in the middle of 5 acres in the mountains.....so it's very rare for it to go 'off' for no good reason.

I was a bit tired and thought maybe it was just me. I listened for awhile more, I had a beer (not my typical thing to do but what the heck). not much better.

then I pulled out the Atlantis cable, not really much better....maybe a little. I shut things down for the night, and then this morning I got up later than typical and did not really listen closely in the morning. now tonight it's all back and then some, sounding super, super. better than ever. the same tracks that were not working last night were now free and alive sounding.

quite the roller coaster.

maybe my particular system needs 2 cables or it's all sh*t. or maybe it was just me.

anyway......a data point.

you have to listen, this stuff is not plug and play.

I have had reports that Atlantis earth cables can sometimes be system dependent as Marc reports and it looks as if Mike's experience also bears that out. I don't know why but it's an interesting example of the most expensive not always being the best. I have not heard of any similar problems with the Apollo earths. Clearly a case of trying both before buying.

 

[dmnc02]

Like Dan, I am more inclined to believe that Mike's negative experience reflects the need to avoid using the same ground box for both digital and analog components, which was a caveat mentioned multiple times in earlier posts. I would be very wary of connecting my phono stage and DAC to the same ground box, just as I am wary of plugging them into the same AC line.

But this stuff definitely needs some careful experimentation: I did notice some of the congestion that Mike mentions when I grounded a single channel on my line stage and when I tried grounding a pair of outputs rather than inputs.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

First, it would be helpful if someone that knows how to use a multimeter (if you can't do this, please don't try doing something complicate like operating a moving vehicle) could determine if the the four grounding terminals on the Silver Tellus are connected to one another.

I'm guessing that they are.

So, Mike connects the $1.6K Atlantis cable to his Playback Designs MPS-5, and it sounds like crap.

The Playback Designs MPS-5 has a switch mode power supply (SMPS), so its noise is now on the same signal ground plane as the linear power supply in his dart preamp.

He pulls the Atlantis cable connection to his Playback Designs MPS-5, and overnght the noise on the Entreq ground plane dissipates and everything sounds super in the morning.

Take two aspirins and get a serparate Entreq box for your digital components with SMPS.

I do have a Fluke 87V True RMS Multi-meter.

 

[caliaripaolo]

in my experience of 3 times with grounding (starting from unhooking the whole thing)...

- 15-20 minutes: you should start to hear it
- 3 hours: definite improvement of solidity, intensity of music message
- 48 hours: continued refinement of above
- 2 weeks: last little bit of perfection and stable

Thank you LL21, I will test it during the WE.
So, seams like a capacitor which takes time to load.
Each time you disconnect, you have to wait these delays to be effective?

 

[caliaripaolo]

Like Dan, I am more inclined to believe that Mike's negative experience reflects the need to avoid using the same ground box for both digital and analog components, which was a caveat mentioned multiple times in earlier posts.

this is very strange.
Normally, without ground box(s), they are connected to same ground!!

 

[caliaripaolo]

I do have a Fluke 87V True RMS Multi-meter.

esoteric multi-meter Mike
Happy to see you here,
Paolo

 

[dmnc02]

this is very strange.
Normally, without ground box(s), they are connected to same ground!!

Even with the ground boxes, everything is still ultimately connected to the same AC ground. But signal grounding seems to provide a more direct path to intercept noise before it can affect components.

 

[allvinyl]

this is very strange.
Normally, without ground box(s), they are connected to same ground!!

FYI - it is the mfgrs position that for best performance, digital and analog should, ideally, be on separate ground boxes.

John

 

[dmnc02]

How is the 'signal' made, what is it?
Keith

Keith, I do hope your question reflects a genuine interest. Look at section 5 on the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_(electricity)#Electronics.

 

[rockitman]

I was listening last night and marveled at how low the noise floor was.... when the music wasn't playing or pauses between tracks or the music itself and volume still up to listening level...90-95dB..I could hear nothing. It was like the stereo was turned off. Amazing what this stuff has done. Due to this real reduction in noise I am experiencing, I find that I need to turn the volume up a bit more than before the grounding boxes were installed....now that the noise floor has dissolved into a dark abyss.

 

[dmnc02]

I was listening last night and marveled at how low the noise floor was.... when the music wasn't playing or pauses between tracks or the music itself and volume still up to listening level...90-95dB..I could hear nothing. It was like the stereo was turned off. Amazing what this stuff has done. Due to this real reduction in noise I am experiencing, I find that I need to turn the volume up a bit more than before the grounding boxes were installed....now that the noise floor has dissolved into a dark abyss.

I am looking forward to receiving my second pair of Atlantis cables for the phono stage tomorrow and seeing what it does to the noise floor with vinyl.

 

[rockitman]

I am looking forward to receiving my second pair of Atlantis cables for the phono stage tomorrow and seeing what it does to the noise floor with vinyl.

I'm finding it to be significant. I can barely hear the rolling surface noise on clean vinyl...a noticeable drop for even the AF1.

 

[dmnc02]

I'm finding it to be significant. I can barely hear the rolling surface noise on clean vinyl...a noticeable drop for even the AF1.

Can't wait

 

[LL21]

I was listening last night and marveled at how low the noise floor was.... when the music wasn't playing or pauses between tracks or the music itself and volume still up to listening level...90-95dB..I could hear nothing. It was like the stereo was turned off. Amazing what this stuff has done. Due to this real reduction in noise I am experiencing, I find that I need to turn the volume up a bit more than before the grounding boxes were installed....now that the noise floor has dissolved into a dark abyss.

awesome...congrats and enjoy.