Yet another groundbox, but this Setchi is quite special
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
Interesting- I got a PM from Edward last week who said he was in the NY area for two weeks and he would like to come by for me to try the Setchi devices. I wrote him back and said sure, but would it be OK if I tried them blinded? I never heard from him again. Disappointing.
Hi Marty,
I did not get a PM reply and I just checked my gmail Junk folder and also no e-mail from you.
I have no problem with blind tests although I personally do not use them as I don't have the patience. I also know that sighted tests by a typical audience can be fooled and I personally have been fooled by sighted tests but not that often.
I will also state unequivocally that Setchi's don't work everywhere. There is one customer with two stereo systems, one at home and one in the office. The Setchi's work in one place but not the other.
I am sending you a PM with my schedule, and lets see if we can meet up. I am interested to discuss with you what you think might be going on in the field of grounding boxes and to have an exchange of thoughts about possible theories.
Best Regards,
Ed
You weren't surprised were you?
If all these tweeks worked, the recordings would be better than the live performance.
It just baffles me that manufacturers of $5000, $10,000, $50,000+ components wouldn't include these and other little tweeks as integral parts of the component's design if they were genuinely needed or if they actually did something other than make you feel better that you spent the money on it in the hopes of getting some improvement.
I seriously doubt that a box filled with sand, sawdust and metal filings can do better than a properly star-grounded system.
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Blind test with my wife to hear differences with entreq minimus on negative speaker plug of the amp is perfectly heard by her
Edward,
I owe you an apology. I checked my sent private messages and for reasons I do not understand, it is not there! I am sure I pushed the send button but apparently that message is in cyberspace somewhere or I am just an idiot and erased the message inadvertently. Hence my sincere apology in the public domain. I shall pick this up privately ASAP.
Marty
Marty
Gary,
I must admit, I would have less interest if it weren't for the fact a lot of good listeners think there just might be something to these ground devices. My bias is that without any unusual accoutrements, there is often a small DC voltage difference (mV) between gear chassis and line ground even with star-grounded systems. Connecting a modest cable between the chassis and line ground (even the cover plate screw), absolutely causes the voltmeter to read "0". (Roger recommends using large copper gauqe arc welding cable for this purpose such as 4 or even 2 gauge!). Two minor caveats. First, even though most gear circuit board grounds are attached to chassis grounds, I don't understand why such voltage is there to begin with. Second, I'm not sure that "0" mV doesn't mean there couldn't be microvolt or nanovolt differences the meter is not sensitive enough to detect even on the lowest scale setting. That said, I do think my sound has improved albeit nominally as a result of that inexpensive exercise. I'm not sure how much more blood can be extracted from that stone with Entreqs/Tripoint/Setchi but I'm willing to be convinced. The bottom line, I'm interested in trying some of these devices, but will certainly not spend money to buy one without trying one first.
Marty
I got 2 A2's for my amps and 2 D2's for my digital
For the first 2 hours, things sounded pretty disappointing..kinda of veiled/muffled. Really strange. Then things changed rapidly. Different sonic areas started going good/fair/good, almost like a sine wave across the musical spectrum. After 4 hours or so things got pretty level. And improved. Most noticeable is clarity and foundation. Today its even better. Listening to The Wall right now...not the greatest album for sonics but its so much clearer today....especially turned up.....the harshness at loud volume is gone! Pretty impressive.....
Ground star is not a magic stick. Although it will solve the low-frequency ground loops in many cases the ground line will introduce RF noise in the system, as this line is shared between many types of noisy equipment. The EMI/RFI noise bandwidth we are talking about goes as high as 5 GHz.
Sometimes people forget that a typical audiophile listening room is not an isolated bunker in the middle of a desert.
I had a similar experience as to the roller-coaster ride of fair to good to fair and then eventually great.
I had a D2 and a D1 on my SGM and T+A DAC 8 DSD.
I was loving what it did for my system.
Then I added two A1 Spade on my two mono amps. I am not sure I like it better with them on the amps or with just the other two Setchi alone. I will need to a/b it for a bit. Perhaps the A1 is not a good match for my amps and I need an A2.
You have to try for your self and see in your system.
Now for the, I don't believe I just heard that. If you have not tried it already take the Setchi blocks and put one or two on their side vs flat. You will hear a different perspective. I did this today when Ed came by for a visit and I could not believe what I heard by just changing how the Setchi are laying on the equipment.
Looking foreword to more of your impressions.
I like the Setchi standing upright/on their side more.
And please try them on your fusebox/breaker-box too. (http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?24083-quot-Grounding-quot-your-Home-Fusebox-Breaker-box)
It's fun!
Dear Sir,
You are a very open minded person. I am one of the happy users of these devises. Iam not going to try to convince anyone to use them. Like I have said before elsewhere, I would opt for a diy approach to manage grounding if 1) I know how to do it effectively like RogerD 2) my premises allow me to do (my listening room is in an office building and 3) if it could provide the kind of realism, the sound as dimensional object like they way some of these devices do to my system at the moment. I did try changing equipments many many times. Amps, preamps, phonos, tts., cables. Not once did I get big sound improvement in realism like putting these devices in. The two reasons that keep us debate how silly these kitten litter boxes are (as one may say), is because of its exorbitant price and the fact that you are unlikely to hvae a chance to demo in your own system. Look at CS footers for example, 300 bucks a pop and the most skeptics audiophiles in this forum jumped in a second. This is an interesting hobby where we upgrade an amp from $20,000 to $50,000 to get the sq improvement the size of an orange, but our perception of kitten litter box get in our way so much we say bye bye to the sound improvement the size of a melon.
Just an opinion from a silly fool.
Tang
+1.
Master Tang,
I think it is helpful to have fools like you and I, and also scientists such as Marty for a bit of tempering. Marty can circle like an Eagle above, looking for morsels to eat, but being selective.
you and I sit there just experiencing without our brains getting in the way and who knows what we might stumble upon. then if we don't die from our meal, Marty might swoop down and give it the smell test before nibbling.
best regards,
Mike
my intent was respectful reverence for your serious commitment and approach, but I will respect your wishes going forward.
Pink Floyd .. The Wall ? I 'll have to disagree on the sonics part . It's just a spectacular album , sonically and musically . Are you referring to the LP , I am able to derive much pleasure from its lowly redbook CD.
+1.
I have a pretty good pressing of 'The Wall', and also the last 2 reels (the second disc) of 15ips, 1/4" low gen master dub and i'd call it 'outstanding' for late 70's prog rock. while it is heavily (even extremely) multi-tracked, it is all analog as far as I know. you have to be in the right mood for some of it.......
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