[cdacosta]

One question; Is it safe to connect a grounding box to a spare 6,3 headpone jack on a ss amp?

should be if it stereo plug on the ground box cable is wired on ground pin only.

I have no idea how those boxes are designed, but are you using the cables that came with or sold with those Chinese made boxes? If yes, these are the silver plated cables, correct?

How are these ground box cables attached to your amp and other components? Meaning RCA to input or output or alligator clip to chassis or?

 

[cdacosta]

Wanted to drop a quick update or PSA. I decided not to wait and mod that PC power cord. It has been so long I forgot how complicated these IEC plugs are. Do not bother using the same plug if you try this mod. Instead get one of either of these:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...t_main.11.15dc1802NEozZ8&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

or

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...t_main.23.15dc1802NEozZ8&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

I ordered two sets in the first link a week ago knowing I was going to do a bunch of these mods.

 

[greenblured]

should be if it stereo plug on the ground box cable is wired on ground pin only.

I have no idea how those boxes are designed, but are you using the cables that came with or sold with those Chinese made boxes? If yes, these are the silver plated cables, correct?

How are these ground box cables attached to your amp and other components? Meaning RCA to input or output or alligator clip to chassis or?

silver cables ( not silver plated) . $25 -1/2 m connected to the boxes with banaplugs. Streamer,routers and modem connected by USB. RCA to dac and alligator clip to switch. Have a $55 AWG14 silver rca for the dac on order. Hope i don't hear a difference. Will save me money.
The amp has a pass through output. Tried both neg and pos with a "rca-cap" soldered to the cable. Probably not ideal. They sell cables with 3,5mm jack. Have to use a 3,5/6,3mm adapter though.
The small boxes are without any inside copper plating, but the two larger ones are copper plated.

I tried the different boxes with a Chord Qutest in my main system. Rca with BNC adapter and USB inputs. No improvement in SQ to my ears.
The benefits i can hear using the boxes in my bedroom system are a better sence of depth and imageing as well as removal of glear and harshness in "hot" recordings. Seems to help "drain" HF noise from components.
In my system the wireless Asus routers benefits the most from connecting a grounding box.

EDIT: The first small box i bought with the cheap silver plated cable. The second one with the upgrade silver. The copper silver plated is clearly inferior to the silver. Not recomended imo.

 

[cdacosta]

silver cables ( not silver plated) . $25 -1/2 m connected to the boxes with banaplugs. Streamer,routers and modem connected by USB. RCA to dac and alligator clip to switch. Have a $55 AWG14 silver rca for the dac on order. Hope i don't hear a difference. Will save me money.
The amp has a pass through output. Tried both neg and pos with a "rca-cap" soldered to the cable. Probably not ideal. They sell cables with 3,5mm jack. Have to use a 3,5/6,3mm adapter though.
The small boxes are without any inside copper plating, but the two larger ones are copper plated.

I tried the different boxes with a Chord Qutest in my main system. Rca with BNC adapter and USB inputs. No improvement in SQ to my ears.
The benefits i can hear using the boxes in my bedroom system are a better sence of depth and imageing as well as removal of glear and harshness in "hot" recordings. Seems to help "drain" HF noise from components.
In my system the wireless Asus routers benefits the most from connecting a grounding box.

EDIT: The first small box i bought with the cheap silver plated cable. The second one with the upgrade silver. The copper silver plated is clearly inferior to the silver. Not recomended imo.

It is cool to hear from others that have tried any ground boxes. With a well designed ground box (which includes cable) should improve the Chord Qutest, so this is interesting. I do recommend cable rolling. I have found that the cable (wire and connections) and how/where the device is installed make 50% or so of the performance of the device. So far I have found the following wire to sonically be the best:

* 12ga or larger diameter high grade copper, stranded (finer the strand the better), mixed diameter stranded even better
* Thin gauge wire are not as effective as 12ga. to 10ga. Also the thinner wire usually sound imbalanced across the frequency spectrum.
* I have had mixed results with 4N silver and silver 5N Cardas. In different diameters (from 32ga to 22ga) mixed to get a larger gauge. Tonally imbalanced. But might work well mixed with copper, have not tried that yet. May also perform better if pre-cooked on a cable cooker, not tried that yet either.
* Stranded outperforms solid core
* Silver plated copper sounds horrible in my system. Especially those $6 - $10 Aliexpress cables or the by the foot silver plated cables that are listed as higher grade on Aliexpress. I tried a few and did not like any of them.
* Solderless connections outperform soldered connections

So far the best performing wire for the money I have found is the copper 2.0 sized ( which is 14ga.) dual twisted, giving an 11AWG. 1m to 1.6m in cable length. Sonically has outperformed everything I have tried so far, which is about 20 different wire from different brands. Very balanced, superb performance overall and inexpensive. I buy it here:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255...st_main.5.726a1802V5yIOt&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

 

[cdacosta]

Earlier today modded the Ali Nordost Odin 2 power cord that goes from a balanced power unit to PC (source). This balanced power unit has a ground box plugged into the same duplex this Odin 2 power cord is plugged into. This mod is done at the IEC end of the cable. I wanted to see if filtering both ends of the cable and both components made a difference? Because of how heavy both units are I decided to have both have their own 3.5kg ground box. I guessed that filtering right at the IEC input of the PC may make a difference.

The power cord I modded previously that goes from the wall to the main PLC that powers the system shares a ground box that filters the main PLC. I expected at least a moderate break-in before being able to evaluate. But oh boy, the system sounds insane. Man I love these ground boxes. Hands down best investment of time and money since I have been in this hobby. So much fun!

I am not aware of a retail product or hobbyist that has tried Installing the ground box cable at IEC end. But since the AC end is already being filtered, this made sense to me. I figured if I did not like it I could take it out. This is not leaving my system, no way. I am really curious what it all will sound like after break-in?

I am waiting for more of the 6N wire and connectors to arrive so I can mod the Odin Gold power cord that feeds the amp. I will again mod the IEC end. I need to know how far I can push this.

 

[cdacosta]

For those that do not know how or has not built many cables. This is if you are going to use sleeving, whether it be cotton (which I recommend) or techflex and heat shrink to secure. Most will use a heat gun to shrink the heat shrink. You will need to protect the sleeving from burning or melting during shrinking of the heat shrink. What I do is use Teflon plumbers tape which can be purchased at any hardware store for $1 - $2 a roll. The Teflon will not burn or melt and will protect the sleeving during the heating and shrinking process. Trick is to start applying the Teflon tape just under the heat shrink so there is no sleeving exposed to the heat from heat gun. See included pics of the cable I built earlier today. The heat shrink I use is Polyolefin 3-1 adhesive heat shrink. Once you completed the shrinking of the heat shrink you can immediately remove the Teflon tape.

 

[DecentLevi]

Well guys just reporting on a small misadventure. I bought this transparent nickel copper shielding here to try on the ground boxes. Wrapped 2 boxes as shown, and after a long listening session and another the next day with fresh ears, conclusion is it just adds unwanted brightness.

not recommended

No loss because the sound I'm getting with 4 ground boxes on my ESD mat on their own separate wooden table +1 box with full copper foil shielding sounds quite masterful to me.

 

[Dandoudou]

I received this 16 kg grounding box from SuperBuy this morning.
It came with DC cables.

 

[cdacosta]

I received this 16 kg grounding box from SuperBuy this morning.
It came with DC cables.

I think you mentioned that you purchased the Aliexpress 6N stranded copper I recommend. If you did, you should compare a dual twisted like I suggest to the cables that came with the ground box. May surprise you the difference the cable and connections make.

 

[Dandoudou]

I think you mentioned that you purchased the Aliexpress 6N stranded copper I recommend. If you did, you should compare a dual twisted like I suggest to the cables that came with the ground box. May surprise you the difference the cable and connections make.

I ordered the box a month and a half ago, but I did not order the 6N stranded copper yet.
I'm reading your posts, and I see that you are having new discoveries. So, I decided to buy the cables and the connectors after receiving the box in order to apply to it your latest recommendations.

 

[bodiebill2]

Any views on this? I take Xangsane seriously...
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Euv2BnD

 

[cdacosta]

Here is an update and thoughts for the cables I modded to have a ground box cable to filter signal or earth ground. I modded 4 cables so far. All four of the cables modded the performance was elevated. No downsides I can detect with any of them. The digital SPDIF RCA Odin 2 is very nice after mod. The Custom Alan Maher power cable was also elevated in performance.

But the outstanding performers are the Odin 2 power cord and Odin 2 XLR balanced interconnects. Not even burned-in, they are just stunning performers. Possibly they are performing so well because of where they are installed? I have mentioned it before but for clarity this is where they are installed:

* Odin 2 XLE balanced interconnects: Between DAC and amp, mod is at output or DAC end.
* Odin 2 power cable: Between balanced power PLC to PC. Mod is at IEC end. Note the PC has a good power supply. For anyone wondering, the power supply is a EVGA PS-650 Platinum. I got this power supply because it is supposed to have one of the lowest ripple specs, low noise and is suppose to be very good with voltage stability.

Both the DAC and the balanced power PLC is already being filtered with ground boxes. The two above Odin 2 cables have their own dedicated DIY boxes each. The performance difference with either of the cables after modding and adding a ground box is not close to subtle. Obviously very difficult to express in words what I am hearing, so lets try this... Ever put on a pair of designer say $200 plastic (not glass) polarized lens sunglasses? Then put on a pair of $500 Maui Jim sunglasses with glass lenses? The clarity, color purity difference is obvious and instantly apparent. This is what modding and adding the ground boxes did. They enabled a level of clarity, depth, layering and pitch black background into music, movies, vocals, etc. that I have never experienced a cable change can provide. Noise degrading the system is obviously being removed. And I already had 10 other ground boxes in the system that already took the system to where I never thought possible. Like I wrote earlier, just stunning. If you already have these two cables, like how they perform, and want to elevate their performance, this is it. I recommend before replacing the cables or the component that they are hooked up to, do what I did first. My highest recommendation! And I will assume the same mods will work on any power cord or interconnect.

I am trying to patiently wait for parts to mod the Odin Gold power cord on the amp. I am very curious as what this will do. Peace...

 

[DecentLevi]

silver cables ( not silver plated) . $25 -1/2 m connected to the boxes with banaplugs. Streamer,routers and modem connected by USB. RCA to dac and alligator clip to switch. Have a $55 AWG14 silver rca for the dac on order. Hope i don't hear a difference. Will save me money.
The amp has a pass through output. Tried both neg and pos with a "rca-cap" soldered to the cable. Probably not ideal. They sell cables with 3,5mm jack. Have to use a 3,5/6,3mm adapter though.
The small boxes are without any inside copper plating, but the two larger ones are copper plated.

I tried the different boxes with a Chord Qutest in my main system. Rca with BNC adapter and USB inputs. No improvement in SQ to my ears.
The benefits i can hear using the boxes in my bedroom system are a better sence of depth and imageing as well as removal of glear and harshness in "hot" recordings. Seems to help "drain" HF noise from components.
In my system the wireless Asus routers benefits the most from connecting a grounding box.

EDIT: The first small box i bought with the cheap silver plated cable. The second one with the upgrade silver. The copper silver plated is clearly inferior to the silver. Not recomended imo.

I'm getting a very noticeable improvement filtering my Chord Electronics Mojo 2 with one of my custom ground boxes, connected by wrapping a copper cable that comes direct from my ground box (the one CDA recommended) around the outside of a 3.5 to 6.5 mm adapter which is for its' ground connection. I further stabilize it with silver Faraday fabric tape and alligator clamp around everything just to keep it in place. It really adds a lot of realism / color and vibrancy to the full sound picture. Maybe try connecting a ground box to one of the other outputs of your Quest DAC, and try a cable like the one CDA recommended. Direct contact is better than using adapters, You can Jimmy rig it.

PS - ground boxes may not make a difference for a wireless system. You ain't using Bluetooth headphones, right? LOL

 

[bodiebill2]

I received this 16 kg grounding box from SuperBuy this morning.
It came with DC cables.

I received mine from SuperBuy today, Same weight and built, just a different looking case. Mine has a plate "Union Audio - since 1999".

It is getting quite woody here:

L to R:
- LessLoss power distributor with dual 640X firewalls
- 16 kg ground box
- DIY power strip with LessLoss Firewalls inside and three different sockets to experiment/tune with

And...

DIY quadruple wall outlet with 4 sockets (of which 3 different ones), plus connection for a ground box.

I must say that the improvements become more and more incremental... I have a feeling of having reached the plateau that I wished for... Of course I know this is usually proves to be just a temporary delusion

I have not connected the big grounding box yet. The included stock cables look serious, I guess silver plated. I got versions with a spade on one end and a banana on the other, plus adapters that turn the banana into a gripper. These terminations are not very convenient for my devices, so I may re-terminate one side. And I will I use cdacosta's recipe to create additional 11 awg cables by winding together two of 14 awg stranded cables ftom Ali.

 

[greenblured]

I'm getting a very noticeable improvement filtering my Chord Electronics Mojo 2 with one of my custom ground boxes, connected by wrapping a copper cable that comes direct from my ground box (the one CDA recommended) around the outside of a 3.5 to 6.5 mm adapter which is for its' ground connection. I further stabilize it with silver Faraday fabric tape and alligator clamp around everything just to keep it in place. It really adds a lot of realism / color and vibrancy to the full sound picture. Maybe try connecting a ground box to one of the other outputs of your Quest DAC, and try a cable like the one CDA recommended. Direct contact is better than using adapters, You can Jimmy rig it.

PS - ground boxes may not make a difference for a wireless system. You ain't using Bluetooth headphones, right? LOL

My decription of my bedroom system as "wireless" may not be very accurate. The chain is as follows; ISP modem with stock smps + Ifi DC iPurifier-2 > Supra cat8 > Asus AX-GT6000 wireless router powered by a LPS > 2,4GHz wifi signal > Asus AX86U wireless router powered by a LPS (set up in media-bridge mode) > Supra cat8 > Netgear GS-108 > Supra cat8 > Netgear GS-108 (both switches powered by a LPS) > Supra cat8 > Ifi Zen-Stream (powered by a LPS) > Supra Excalibur usb cable > Cambridge Audio Dac Magic100 (powered by a LPS) > Supra EFF-ISL interconnects > Beyerdynamic A20 > HD600/HD800.

My main system is wired from the AX-GT6000. The 2,4GHz band is is used excluvsively for Qobuz streaming to the bedroom system. Jplay controller on IPad Pro is using the 5GHz band (Shared with other wireless clients).

I have connected grounding boxes to the dac, streamer, the last switch, both routers and the modem. As mentionded in previous post, in this chain the boxes on the routers makes the most impactfull improvements. Running tests shows improved latency and jitter over boths bands when a grounding box is connected to the main router.

Today I retested the Qutest with a grounding box (the 2,2 kg i normaly use on the AX86U). Used the usb input with a usb-a to usn-b adapter. I don't have a propper usb-b cable.What i heard was a brighter sound. Not sure i liked what i heard. More testing needs to be done. A box without copper plating inside may be a better choice? It's tempting to just purchase the Entreq Micro kit fot the Qutest as I am not a DIY'er.

My main system in whitch the Qutest sits def. benefits from the grounding boxes on the main router and modem. Of course power conditioning/management, cabling and so force are equally important.