[Boodle]

Still analyzing and experimenting when I get spare time. Like all other tweak material, actual placement is really important. I did run into a find with crystals but still need more time to wrap my head around it. Do you have a link to the Tweek Geek info regarding the QSA gemstones?

https://tweekgeek.com/collections/tweeks

 

[kenincalgary]

As cdacosta posted some time ago, this is a very effective location. Try connecting another box to this and see if you hear an improvement. I have 3 ground boxes connected in series to my xlr IC and each one made a big improvement.

 

[Boodle]

Still analyzing and experimenting when I get spare time. Like all other tweak material, actual placement is really important. I did run into a find with crystals but still need more time to wrap my head around it. Do you have a link to the Tweek Geek info regarding the QSA gemstones?

 

[MattSPL]

@cdacosta

Would you

As cdacosta posted some time ago, this is a very effective location. Try connecting another box to this and see if you hear an improvement. I have 3 ground boxes connected in series to my xlr IC and each one made a big improvement.

I have the 2 boxes connected together at the moment, with all the cables connected into the bigger box, giving like a star ground connection to reduce the potential difference between components.

 

[Boodle]

Having second thoughts on quartz chip bags -20 gm, one on top and one below input side of ground box. This changes the imaging - more up front and loss of refinement and depth but dynamic. So I have gone back to one small quartz bag under the ground box input side and one on top of the Eversolo streamer left side . Much more 3 D and superb resolution more like live and stunning depth. Tomorrow i will try and move the quartz bag to the rear of the GB to see the effect. At the moment i cant ask for more resolution. Will try to piggy back second ground box on the one filtering the Odin xlr. Problem with GB is once you have heard what one does you want more and more everywhere.
Try “ Sky is the same colour everywhere” by Toumani Diabete, available on Qobuz, good to assess depth and top end resolution.

 

[MattSPL]

Having second thoughts on quartz chip bags -20 gm, one on top and one below input side of ground box. This changes the imaging - more up front and loss of refinement and depth but dynamic. So I have gone back to one small quartz bag under the ground box input side and one on top of the Eversolo streamer left side . Much more 3 D and superb resolution more like live and stunning depth. Tomorrow i will try and move the quartz bag to the rear of the GB to see the effect. At the moment i cant ask for more resolution. Will try to piggy back second ground box on the one filtering the Odin xlr. Problem with GB is once you have heard what one does you want more and more everywhere.
Try “ Sky is the same colour everywhere” by Toumani Diabete, available on Qobuz, good to assess depth and top end resolution.

I have 1 pink quartz crystal about 1 inch diameter in each ground box. Seems to be a decent balance to the sound.

 

[cdacosta]

@cdacosta

Would you

I have the 2 boxes connected together at the moment, with all the cables connected into the bigger box, giving like a star ground connection to reduce the potential difference between components.

I am not sure exactly what you are asking. As a rule of thumb I only will mix components going to the same/one box if 1) total weight of the components do not exceed the weight of the ground box by more than 5 to 1. 2) will only mix all of the same signal class, meaning all digital or all analog. I do not recommend mixing analog and digital signals.

Also from all of my experimentation, sounds best if each component and signal type (digital, analog and AC ground) had its own ground box.

I do recommend for interconnect pairs that both legs have their pair terminated at the same box if possible. This is assuming the box is big enough, 2Kg+.

 

[MattSPL]

I am not sure exactly what you are asking. As a rule of thumb I only will mix components going to the same/one box if 1) total weight of the components do not exceed the weight of the ground box by more than 5 to 1. 2) will only mix all of the same signal class, meaning all digital or all analog. I do not recommend mixing analog and digital signals.

Also from all of my experimentation, sounds best if each component and signal type (digital, analog and AC ground) had its own ground box.

I do recommend for interconnect pairs that both legs have their pair terminated at the same box if possible. This is assuming the box is big enough, 2Kg+.

I won’t mix AC Earth with any signal ground. When I tried the AC Earth on the ifi AC purifier, I only had that connected to the Ground box.

At the moment I have 2 Ground boxes linked together, but have all signal(Analogue and Digital) connected to them. This was advised by a dealer in the UK who makes his own Ground boxes as it keeps any potential difference in the ground plane as small as possible.
I realise this is the opposite of what you found in your testing, stating that analogue and digital should be separated and I will test this method next.

I have gradually added more cables, starting with just 1 connected to the Dac’s digital rca input. Every time I added a cable, even to the Analogue outputs, the sound improved.
I also tried shielding the cables with RFI cloth and tape, but this didn’t sound right, so I removed it.

 

[cdacosta]

I won’t mix AC Earth with any signal ground. When I tried the AC Earth on the ifi AC purifier, I only had that connected to the Ground box.

At the moment I have 2 Ground boxes linked together, but have all signal(Analogue and Digital) connected to them. This was advised by a dealer in the UK who makes his own Ground boxes as it keeps any potential difference in the ground plane as small as possible.
I realise this is the opposite of what you found in your testing, stating that analogue and digital should be separated and I will test this method next.

I have gradually added more cables, starting with just 1 connected to the Dac’s digital rca input. Every time I added a cable, even to the Analogue outputs, the sound improved.
I also tried shielding the cables with RFI cloth and tape, but this didn’t sound right, so I removed it.

Good, you are starting to experiment and understand what the cause and effect is when something different is tried. Often what seemed kind of obvious regarding a certain cause and effect, nope turned out to be different with ground box applications.

The more you experiment the more “huh?” Moments you will experience.

Yes, I found shielding anywhere within or around the ground box or cable build to hurt performance. This is very easy to test within your setup or GB build.

 

[MattSPL]

Good, you are starting to experiment and understand what the cause and effect is when something different is tried. Often what seemed kind of obvious regarding a certain cause and effect, nope turned out to be different with ground box applications.

The more you experiment the more “huh?” Moments you will experience.

Yes, I found shielding anywhere within or around the ground box or cable build to hurt performance. This is very easy to test within your setup or GB build.

Yeah, really interesting all this ground box testing, but very time consuming.

Do you think doing the cable mod on interconnect’s between pre and power amp would be worth it? In my case it would be between dsp and active speakers.

 

[cdacosta]

Yeah, really interesting all this ground box testing, but very time consuming.

Do you think doing the cable mod on interconnect’s between pre and power amp would be worth it? In my case it would be between dsp and active speakers.

Works spectacularly from DAC to amp. I would say worth trying for your use case but no idea how will effect the performance until you try it.

 

[MattSPL]

Works spectacularly from DAC to amp. I would say worth trying for your use case but no idea how will effect the performance until you try it.

Thanks, I will give it a try, but need to order more cable, spades and banana plugs.

 

[cdacosta]

Thanks, I will give it a try, but need to order more cable, spades and banana plugs.

My recommendation for optimum performance when building ground cables (or anything to do with ground boxes), is stay away from solder. Use solder-less connectors. If you have the minerals to make my Cable Enhancement wraps you should try it. Will greatly enhance the performance of a ground cable.

 

[cdacosta]

Experimented a bit with these small crystals. It seems like they exhibit a resonant frequency which does effect what is heard. What is hard is the same crystal will yield or offer a different sonic character depending on where within the system it is placed. Even touching a crystal to a single footer under the amp can be heard, the change is slight but is there. By placing against the footer and removing, doing this over and over again to confirm there is a audible sonic character change. So far it seems best application is by or with AC power and possibly digital signal. Have not tried DC like is suggested by Tweek Geek yet. Best practical use seems will take a lot of experimenting. Having a hard time fully understanding what the crystal is doing yet. So many questions popping in my head.

I have experimented in the past extensively with exotic wood and how the vibration frequency can be transferred to electronics or say a component chassis. Very similar to wooden instruments and how the wood effects the sonic character of the instrument. Feels like to me this is what the crystals are doing. But again, not sure yet.

EDIT: Also easy to overdue if too much of the crystals are used vs say a single small crystal. Seems that a single crystal will yield a slight change in a specific frequency range vs man small crystals over saturating that frequency band. Need to think of how this can be used effectively as a tuning tool.

 

[MattSPL]

My recommendation for optimum performance when building ground cables (or anything to do with ground boxes), is stay away from solder. Use solder-less connectors. If you have the minerals to make my Cable Enhancement wraps you should try it. Will greatly enhance the performance of a ground cable.

I must try the cable enhancement wraps. I’ll see if I’ve enough minerals left.