Click Pics to enlarge.
Letter from Hong Kong (22-2): E Lo goes TweakingRevision 3/13/22: E Lo has changed the box to a wood one. Boc now housed in a Cuban Cigar Box! :-) Smoky, heh?
Inspired by mrgoodsound's post, one day after work, I went to a Hifi shop selling their own brand of tube gears and a lot of gadgets.
First I bought some spikes for my speakers at 22 USD for a set of 6. While they didn't seem to change or improve the sound, the good thing is it's easier to move around and adjust (compare to my plastic pads glued under the speakers stand's base).
Then I saw a box made of 3mm solid copper that was full of stone chips. The guy told me that it is a Grounding Box and just the copper box costs almost 400usd!
There are some really polarizing views in various hifi forums on the use of the uber expensive ground boxes like those by Entreq, Audio Revive, Synergistic Research and the latest "cheaper" one from Kojo (almost 400usd still!) Some despise these as snake oil and some claim they lead to substantial improvement in sound quality.
But it also comes to my mind that the Tourmaline stone chips sells only for less than 20 USD per kilo! So I immediately think to DIY one of my own. I bought a kilo of Tourmaline stone chip and went home and grabbed a plastic takeout box and some unused 47Lab cables that were just lying around.
Well, if I can spend less than 20 USD to experiment, if it works, it's a bonus and if it doesn't, it won't hurt my wallet either!!It took me less than 30 min to trim the cable and fill up the box with stone chips and I also threw in some RCA connectors and Wood Cubes that doctorjohn gave me, plus some black stones from a bracelet. I may put other stuffs in it later. The uy told me to fill it up to 80% and then cover it up and I did exactly the same. I then hooked the Box up to my 47 Lab Gaincard, which does have grounding posts for each channel.
Before I had this idea, I have always heard a pop sound through my system as soon as my wine fridge compressor stops. So I'm damn sure grounding of my system was poor. Part of the reason for the grounding experiment is to eliminate the pops and the box seems to work on this.
OK, enough of the preparation and words, the most important question is how does it affect the system or not affect it? It does changes the sound, and also in a good way! I immediately noticed the noise floor was brought down and details from the background that was hiding before have become so clear that ambience sound is more obvious. Music instruments definitely sound more defined. Sounds like knuckles knocking on the body of the guitar, plucking of string, and the different kits in the drum set are much easier to follow and interesting to hear/see. Without altering the sound signature, it improves the clarity of the system by a significant margin.
After I experienced the beneficial effect of Ground Box, I wondered what would it sound if I grounded my Wattson Emerson? The effect is smaller but is noticeable. Everything improves slightly in a good way! But still I don't think I 100% like what I have heard.
Have I missed anything? Oh yes, my icOn4 AVC preamp! I use the same wire to ground my Gaincard and hooked my icOn4 in series to the ground box. There's actually another huge difference! I mean it's like hearing a different system. I guess since preamp handles small signals, any minute RF will interfere and mask the final signal to the power amp.
Now the system sounded drier and less airy but instruments were playing more convincingly and obviously clearer. Bass quantity was less than before, a tad tighter though. Separation was better as noise floor was brought down further. I kept comparing and the change is not small at all! Well, it did not seem to sound quite right yet. I then detached the earth from the Emerson DAC. Instead of earthing the amp and preamp in series, I earthed them separately and, voila, everything was back to normal. Images fleshed out; separation improved; Warmth and Air returned. Seems like this is the best combination so far! One must go through trial and error. Also on a YouTube video, a guy also advises to use a meter to test the voltage drops at different points (screws, connectors and chassis) to find the lowest voltage drop for best earthing location! And the drop can be varying in each and every screw indeed!
IMHO if one takes the snake oil view since manufacturers charge outrageous money for it, one simply loses another good opportunity to improve one's system. Next, I'll get a wooden cigar box for my ground box chassis and see how it's like😉.
Now the system sounded drier and less airy but instruments were playing more convincingly and obviously clearer. Bass quantity was less than before, a tad tighter though. Separation was better as noise floor was brought down further. I kept comparing and the change is not small at all! Well, it did not seem to sound quite right yet. I then detached the earth from the Emerson DAC. Instead of earthing the amp and preamp in series, I earthed them separately and, voila, everything was back to normal. Images fleshed out; separation improved; Warmth and Air returned. Seems like this is the best combination so far! One must go through trial and error. Also on a YouTube video, a guy also advises to use a meter to test the voltage drops at different points (screws, connectors and chassis) to find the lowest voltage drop for best earthing location! And the drop can be varying in each and every screw indeed!
IMHO if one takes the snake oil view since manufacturers charge outrageous money for it, one simply loses another good opportunity to improve one's system. Next, I'll get a wooden cigar box for my ground box chassis and see how it's like😉.
P. S. I had persuaded my friend Kwong to use Earth box and he did and hooked the ground box to his Audionet SAM and Holo Spring DAC and immediately felt the improvement. He had even asked me to buy more of the Tourmaline stone chips! BTW, I bought more chips and made another ground box and hook it to my CD player and the initial impression on improvement is positive! Will conduct more listening session to confirm.
Two of my friends has already used subwoofer based on my recommendations and both are happy with the results! And they are going to try DIY Ground Box too! It's always fun if you got hifi buddies to try different things together and gain from it.
Below shows the original plastic takeout box, now replaced by a wood one shown on top
Posts
Very cool. I had borrowed an Entreq ground box from a dealer out of sheer curiosity. Maybe I used it incorrectly, but it made the sound worse. I agree to DIY if you want to try this type of tweak, as you did.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can give it try too and see if you think it works in your setup or not.
DeleteThe key element is the Tourmaline stones I guess that takes away the unwanted EMF, but I'm not a techno savvy guy in electronics.
I tried this tweak with tourmaline from Amazon--more expensive than what you quoted, but not that much. Also rough stones, not polished like yours. I put them in a wooden box and used wires from a disassembled cat-5 cable. I was afraid that the wires would slip out of the box, so I wrapped each one around a stone and buried them under the other stones. Altogether I have around 8 wires going to speakers, turntable, amps, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat I heard first was a lot more detail in the upper half of the frequency range. Really a significant change. I didn't notice more detail in the bass, though maybe I didn't make a lot of effort to listen. But I did end up turning up my subwoofer level to match the changes in the upper level. Interesting--I'll get around to trying this in my second system before long.
Sometime after E Lo published his article, I also followed suit, more like yours (article to come) but I used too small metal cans. I too noticed a little more detail in the higher frequencies. The bass has better contour but not more detail. E Lo told me to try different connections. All wired into one box may not be the best. Different ground points may work differently he said. Anyway, cheap thrills!
DeleteTry Watermelon Tourmaline INSTEAD
ReplyDeleteAfter visiting a recent hifi show, I was trying to find an answer to the difference I heard. It was like the music suddenly came alive.
ReplyDeleteAfter searching around, I came across a tweak from the 80s or 90s...someone made a antenna-like loop n attached it to a single spkr terminal. There was this rage on how some experienced a profound change in their system.
Then I asked myself - what if I connect one terminal of my in-use spkr to be terminal of an unused spkr.
I found the soundstage changed... Kinda became bigger with more space in between. More micro details?
It's not a bad thing... No point doing Ab since I can live with it.
After a while, I got used to it.