[cdacosta]

Here is an update with experimenting on ground boxes:

* The audible effect of changing the wire only is very similar to changing the interconnect used for that component. This seems illogical but is what I am consistently experiencing.
* The effect of using ground box on router or in my case router/modem combo filtering the ground lead only on an open port dramatically effects performance.
* With a component such as a DAC with open digital and analog input or output ports, both digital and analog can be filtered. But must be with two separate grounding boxes for optimal performance. Filtering digital and analog with the same device sounds wrong or off.
* With changes such as mix of minerals or ground lead (wire and connection) takes a few days to fully develop. Initial understanding of how it sounds will be known within 10 mins to 3 hours.
* Box built like the one I recently showed, does produce a more profound effect vs jimmy rigged ( just taking a 5" or so lead and placing in a bag of the same minerals).

 

[cdacosta]

Here more interesting finds...

* Neotech Stranded UPOCC Copper in Teflon 12 AWG, which is 7N copper. I tried this wire on DAC and amp with the Furutech solderless RCA plugs I have mentioned before. Tried input and outputs. In all cases whether it is the DAC or amp, somewhere in the mid bass frequencies and up very articulate, a bit on sweeter side, good resolution, refined sounding. But the bass and sub bass is subdued a bit. The bass region's resolution is very good but not what I would hope for. Very airy top end and smooth, excellent in the vocal region. The fake Cardas Ali copper wire has bass slam, the Neotech does not. So out of wild curiosity I tried adding the 12ga. OFC VH-Audio wire to the other amp input. This means now the amp has Neotech on the right RCA input and VH-Audio on the left input, all into the same Tourmaline mix. BAM... just wow is all I can say. Listened on and off all afternoon and experimenting with shielding schemes for the this box.

No joke, this Schiit Jotunheim 2 sounds way different then stock now. The noise floor just dropped hard. I do not think I would expect a $2K amp to sound like this, definitely not a $500 amp. Timbre is amazing, but everything I cherish as an audiophile was improved. I have high quality graphite and different sizes of Tourmaline coming and is suppose to really enhance Tourmaline mixes so we will see.

* Next interesting thing is while experimenting with copper shielding for this box and mix I noticed the minerals do not like a shield, will roll off HF and dramatically shrink soundstage. So easy to hear the effects of placing the shield over, under or around the mix inside the bag. If the material/minerals or conductors are touching a copper bar or plate sounds way off, remove the plate and all good again. I am listening to this happen in real time while music is playing. So for this box there will be no shielding or copper plate inside the box. I will just work on enhancing the mix of minerals.

 

[lmfboy01]

Some Ali cables in signature for sale

 

[cdacosta]

Built the amp box. No shielding or copper plate for reasons I mentioned before. I listened to the system after unplugging the jimmy rigged setup and what a drastic difference compared to attached to the grounding mix. I now have the ground box so it is accessible for me to further play with the mix. I still have Tungsten, graphite (which is suppose to really kick it in high gear with Tourmaline mixes), Tourmaline powder, Tourmaline polished smaller stones coming from Aliexpress. Currently the material weight is about 1.3 KG. The red wire is the Neotech 12 gauge. and white is 12 gauge VH Audio OFC. Both leads are stripped back 7", wire separated apart, Nano liquid treated and going directly into the mix. Copper binding post has two 12ga. VH Audio copper 7" leads attached to it. Copper binding post is just in case I want to experiment with it later or add leads for cable wraps.

Current mix in this box (which was what was in the bag before) is:
* Black polished Tourmaline
* Rock salt
* Rochelle salt
* Shungite chips

Side notes:
- I considered techflex for the wire leads. Problem is Techflex will add to the dielectric mix of the Teflon jackets already on the leads. In my experience prototyping for manufacturers, Techflex on interconnects are detrimental to performance. So I did not want to take the time to experiment here. But would look cool.
- There is a difference in what I hear after having the box hooked up for about an hour (performance will improve over the next two days or so) vs just having the mix in a bag on top of foam. I bit more body or weight to the presentation. I will wait until it has all settled and may try tuning the wood enclosure by using exotic wood. Possibly changing the resonate frequency of the enclosure makes a difference, concept is the same as with musical instruments.

 

[Exocer]

Built the amp box. No shielding or copper plate for reasons I mentioned before. I listened to the system after unplugging the jimmy rigged setup and what a drastic difference compared to attached to the grounding mix. I now have the ground box so it is accessible for me to further play with the mix. I still have Tungsten, graphite (which is suppose to really kick it in high gear with Tourmaline mixes), Tourmaline powder, Tourmaline polished smaller stones coming from Aliexpress. Currently the material weight is about 1.3 KG. The red wire is the Neotech 12 gauge. and white is 12 gauge VH Audio OFC. Both leads are stripped back 7", wire separated apart, Nano liquid treated and going directly into the mix. Copper binding post has two 12ga. VH Audio copper 7" leads attached to it. Copper binding post is just in case I want to experiment with it later or add leads for cable wraps.

Current mix in this box (which was what was in the bag before) is:
* Black polished Tourmaline
* Rock salt
* Rochelle salt
* Shungite chips

Side notes:
- I considered techflex for the wire leads. Problem is Techflex will add to the dielectric mix of the Teflon jackets already on the leads. In my experience prototyping for manufacturers, Techflex on interconnects are detrimental to performance. So I did not want to take the time to experiment here. But would look cool.
- There is a difference in what I hear after having the box hooked up for about an hour (performance will improve over the next two days or so) vs just having the mix in a bag on top of foam. I bit more body or weight to the presentation. I will wait until it has all settled and may try tuning the wood enclosure by using exotic wood. Possibly changing the resonate frequency of the enclosure makes a difference, concept is the same as with musical instruments.

Excellent work - I missed the part about no shielding. Here is what I’m working with now and it sounds very nice, better than the Ali canister ground solution kn the Etherregen.

Conductors are Mundorf Angelique, with gold plated copper lug from Ali. 3 wires to the lug (reusing this from a prior project). Oversized teflon tube from Ali:

 

[cdacosta]

Excellent work - I missed the part about no shielding. Here is what I’m working with now and it sounds very nice, better than the Ali canister ground solution kn the Etherregen.

Conductors are Mundorf Angelique, with gold plated copper lug from Ali. 3 wires to the lug (reusing this from a prior project). Oversized teflon tube from Ali:

Mundorf Angelique is nice wire. Would be interesting to know what that wire sounds like with these devices. What gauge and where did you purchase it? Mundorf Angelique in the past was not easy to acquire. I tried shielding and copper plates with this box. Any shielding degraded the performance.

Curious, what is the mix you are using?

 

[Exocer]

Mundorf Angelique is nice wire. Would be interesting to know what that wire sounds like with these devices. What gauge and where did you purchase it? Mundorf Angelique in the past was not easy to acquire. I tried shielding and copper plates with this box. Any shielding degraded the performance.

Curious, what is the mix you are using?

Audiophonics and hificollective sell Angelique wire, along with PartsConexxion. I use it throughout the Unregulated lps I built for my server and have about 5M left over. It is 15.5awg. But I also have 18awg to play with. Will probably use the rest to rewire my mids/tweeters (18awg on the tweeter).

I will try without shielding next. Thanks for the tip!

The mix is just Tourmaline at this point. I have a bag of crushed Magnetite as well, but I cant tell if you still use it at all. I also have some quartz on-hand.

 

[cdacosta]

Audiophonics and hificollective sell Angelique wire, along with PartsConexxion. I use it throughout the Unregulated lps I built for my server and have about 5M left over. It is 15.5awg. But I also have 18awg to play with. Will probably use the rest to rewire my mids/tweeters (18awg on the tweeter).

I will try without shielding next. Thanks for the tip!

The mix is just Tourmaline at this point. I have a bag of crushed Magnetite as well, but I cant tell if you still use it at all. I also have some quartz on-hand.

Regarding the shielding, I found this out by just taking thick copper foil (what is used to line box interior) and placing it around and different part of the mix. I was doing this while I was listening and can hear the sound stage collapse and hf roll off whenever the copper enclosed the mix. Then tried placing the copper plate into mix with contact to the ground wire and same thing happened. I have so far tried this with three different mixes on two components as I am building boxes for, same thing.

In my rig Tourmaline and Magnetite do "not" sound well together. Oddly enough other minerals will mix well with either though. Amp likes the Tourmaline mix, DAC likes Magnetite, go figure.

I just found this out experimenting a few mins ago. Out of curiosity I took a small sealable baggy and filled it with Magnetite. Wondered if it would work like a Shakti Online (which have crystals in them)? Look at pic, I placed it on top of the amp power cord connector. Immediately Bass slam and articulation improved. A bit more body to presentation also. I did this while I am listening to music and the effect is immediate. Is slightly changing over time and if works like Shakti products will take a few days to fully settle in. Another way to further tune system. What I have not tried is varying the amount of Magnetite and at other areas of the system. One project at a time.

 

[cdacosta]

Ok for kicks and giggles I filled another little bag with Magnetite and placed it at the other end of the power cord. I tried placing and removing many times to see if what I am hearing was my imagination because the effect was immediate and not subtle. Not my imagination. What I heard was presentation body weight did not change but the bass and sub bass slam went away. That was the most obvious, did not listen for any period of time to try and discern any other differences because I preferred what I was hearing with just at the amp. side. So the lesson for me here is trial and error while listening for the changes.

 

[szore]

So, my humble opinion of the tape is, I think I am happy where I am at with this...I could tinker here and there; add a strip, remove a strip...but I think I'm set...these pictures show where I put the stuff...not scientific, not pretty, and certainly ad-hoc and jury-rigged, but I'm cool with it...

 

[cdacosta]

So, my humble opinion of the tape is, I think I am happy where I am at with this...I could tinker here and there; add a strip, remove a strip...but I think I'm set...these pictures show where I put the stuff...not scientific, not pretty, and certainly ad-hoc and jury-rigged, but I'm cool with it...

LOL that is a lot of that tape being used. Studying your picture I noticed two things. The first is your ground box is on its side, not sure if you have it installed this way and not sure it matters, have not seen its design. But try and de-couple the box from the surface it sits on, mine perform better when de-coupled. The other thing is your Jot 2 can get really warm, doesn't your EQ sitting on top of it effect the heat build up of the amp?

 

[szore]

LOL that is a lot of that tape being used. Studying your picture I noticed two things. The first is your ground box is on its side, not sure if you have it installed this way and not sure it matters, have not seen its design. But try and de-couple the box from the surface it sits on, mine perform better when de-coupled. The other thing is your Jot 2 can get really warm, doesn't your EQ sitting on top of it effect the heat build up of the amp?

Yes, I ordered a grounding mat, it's on it's way...

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255...2O5pJDA&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US


And the Jot2 is nice and toasty warm, very mild heat-wise actually, nothing at all to be worried about! Plus the Shiit crap is supposed to be stacked! Schiit stack!

 

[dougms3]

So, my humble opinion of the tape is, I think I am happy where I am at with this...I could tinker here and there; add a strip, remove a strip...but I think I'm set...these pictures show where I put the stuff...not scientific, not pretty, and certainly ad-hoc and jury-rigged, but I'm cool with it...

That is quite alot of tape. To make sure its not having a significant negative effect is to remove the tape and see how much of a difference it makes then reapply accordingly.

This is one of the reasons why I don't use the fo.q tape and oyaide tape on any of my audio gear or cables. Its almost impossible to find a balance between losing stage and dynamics vs noise reduction. Its just too difficult to fine tune. I removed it from all my cables and gear and only use it on wall outlets, plc and the fuse box.

 

[szore]

That is quite alot of tape. To make sure its not having a significant negative effect is to remove the tape and see how much of a difference it makes then reapply accordingly.

This is one of the reasons why I don't use the fo.q tape and oyaide tape on any of my audio gear or cables. Its almost impossible to find a balance between losing stage and dynamics vs noise reduction. Its just too difficult to fine tune. I removed it from all my cables and gear and only use it on wall outlets, plc and the fuse box.

Well, on the gr box and trnx I found that amount to improve bass. keeping the strips seperate increased layering. I took the tape off 4 xlr plugs, so that balances it. If I take off anymore tape it sounds dead. But to your point it is definitley an ongoing process...

 

[dougms3]

Well, on the gr box and trnx I found that amount to improve bass. keeping the strips seperate increased layering. I took the tape off 4 xlr plugs, so that balances it. If I take off anymore tape it sounds dead. But to your point it is definitley an ongoing process...

I think the ground box is ok, but the ares is super sensitive to the tape. The ares is the most sensitive audio device I have ever had. If you place anything on top of it, it compresses the sound, if you put fo.q or oyaide tape anywhere on it or on cables, it kills bass and dynamics.

Perhaps a good balance can be found with the tape but its easy to go overboard as it reduces noise and increases resolution while killing bass, dynamics and compressing the sound. And the noise reduction and resolution is easy to notice the increase while the degradation to the dynamics and stage are not as noticeable while the other thing is happening.