Thats a complicated question.@cdacosta & @dougms3 I'd appreciate your input on something I'm contemplating if you don't mind.
I've got a Puritan PSM156 power conditioner en route, along with their reasonably priced but well regarded grounding accessory (the 'Ground Master') that attaches to the ground terminal on the PSM156.
The Ground Master (GM) box has an 'output' connection that is intended to be connected to a dedicated copper ground rod hammered into the earth in the usual manner, Puritan's advice being to locate this ground rod a good distance away from the ground rod used as the safety earth one's house's mains electrical system. The GM contains high pass filtering that passes only frequencies greater than 50/60hz so is not a route for grounding mains AC mains frequency current and is (theoretically) as a result safe. The theory is it effectively grounds not only noise on the ground wire of the PSM156 received from the connected devices but any noise on the ground wire of a building's mains wiring, whatever the source - the grid and/or other devices connected to household mains.
See my post here on the Puritan thread for more info and a Youtube link that clearly demonstrates the audible benefit of grounding vs not.
I'm prepared to try the ground rod route, using good quality cable along the lines of what you described for grounding boxes (and/or what the guy used in the vid - 10 gauge silver-plated copper cable), and potentially 'seasoning' the earth into which I insert the ground rod using some combination of the minerals you have found work well in grounding boxes to enhance its conductivity, not to mention watering it liberally. If I got really carried away I might even use a second ground rod.
Some thoughts occurred to me:
Appreciate any thoughts or guidance you may have on this.
- that I could potentially just skip the ground rod and use a high capacity ground box - if the latter was easier, though could this have safety implications?
- assuming no safety issues the downside of using a ground box might be that it would have finite capacity to which the grounds (or at least the >60hz noise on the ground wires) of the six devices connected to the PSM156 would be connected - could this be an issue
- use of this grounding of the ground pins of connected AC cords would be in addition to my grounding of the signal circuitry of my devices using grounding boxes e.g. to outer ground of RCA connector. Does this create any conflict or adverse consequences or is it purely complementary?
To be honest, its difficult to theorize which would be more beneficial unless you try both to find out. This is all uncharted territory since your application is very specific.
For me, I'd just go with the ground box because of convenience. Its not practical to connect a grounding rod to the audio system. I always wanted to try adding additional grounding rods to the electrical system to see if it yields any benefits but I live in an apt.
Additional or even excess grounding shouldn't cause any adverse or negative effects to the audio. How much is too much is hard to say, since I've never tried to reach a limit.
PC case is the ground. You can connect it to one of the bare metal screws on the case.Logic says all grounds are connected, so should yield same results. Real world umm no. Thanks for the reply. When I have time I will look into this further. Inexpensive enough to try.