[cdacosta]

2.5 mm stranded (7 S. Silver cores) Xangsane

Link to this wire so I can study it?

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Are you referring to Mundorf solder?

Yes. I had to use it on both ends this time (Monosaudio RCA and Viborg banana plug)...

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Link to this wire so I can study it?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801840926381.html

could be purchased cheaper ...

 

[EDhaenens]

I installed the DIY cable wraps on my cable feeding the power strip from the wall socket. That cable is a real Furutech Nanoflux (non NCF version) with a noise filter in the middle of the cable. That noise filter is the place where I wrapped the bags around. I used these Ikea bags…

There are small and big bags in the box. I filled the small one 3/4, closed it and double wrapped it with the bigger bag, then I placed the bag under the power cable. Next I made another bag in the same manner and placed it on top of the cable.

The complete weight of the cable wrap…

Installed it looks like this…

When listening I took away and reinstalled the bags at least five times to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. The effect is more than subtle but less than ‘wow’. I heard a deeper and more realistic soundstage. I tried it on different locations on the cable but in this way was the best.
I also used a magnetite bag on my tv cord, where the effect was at least as big. That ac cord is a normal 2-prong cord.

 

[cdacosta]

I installed the DIY cable wraps on my cable feeding the power strip from the wall socket. That cable is a real Furutech Nanoflux (non NCF version) with a noise filter in the middle of the cable. That noise filter is the place where I wrapped the bags around. I used these Ikea bags…

There are small and big bags in the box. I filled the small one 3/4, closed it and double wrapped it with the bigger bag, then I placed the bag under the power cable. Next I made another bag in the same manner and placed it on top of the cable.

The complete weight of the cable wrap…


Installed it looks like this…


When listening I took away and reinstalled the bags at least five times to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. The effect is more than subtle but less than ‘wow’. I heard a deeper and more realistic soundstage. I tried it on different locations on the cable but in this way was the best.
I also used a magnetite bag on my tv cord, where the effect was at least as big. That ac cord is a normal 2-prong cord.

Great idea, have not tried the wraps on my video monitors.

So for the power cables you tried these DIY AC wraps on would you say they improved the performance of the power cable?

For me, the effect is about 1/3 of a ground box. How would you compare the effect vs a ground box?

 

[EDhaenens]

Great idea, have not tried the wraps on my video monitors.

So for the power cables you tried these DIY AC wraps on would you say they improved the performance of the power cable?

For me, the effect is about 1/3 of a ground box. How would you compare the effect vs a ground box?

Yes absolutely, it has improved a msrp €3500 cable. Yeah, a ground box delivers more improvement and to say it is three times better would not be far off.

I can’t really see difference in picture quality but it does improve sound quality on my tv.

 

[cdacosta]

Yes absolutely, it has improved a msrp €3500 cable. Yeah, a ground box delivers more improvement and to say it is three times better would not be far off.

I can’t really see difference in picture quality but it does improve sound quality on my tv.

Glad to know you tried the wraps and shared your experience with them. For a few dollars, and a few mins to make and install, they are a nice tweak.

 

[DecentLevi]

So I went with a new idea of placing a large slim bag of magnetite powder under my power strip to see if it does anything positive. This is my secondary power strip for mainly non-audio accessories. My main system is fed by a multi-thousand dollar power conditioner, Aliexpress aftermarket cables and a few cable wraps.

Being a mainly non-audio AC path, I was surprised this made a difference! Details are popping out with even more life than before and quite a magic vivid organic experience! This is of course on top of innumerable of other system tweaks.

Do note this is a magnetic compound so I would discourage placing it any closer to components with complex circuitry of any kind. And I have already moved that power supply shown farther away from the bag that you see.

 

[cdacosta]

So I went with a new idea of placing a large slim bag of magnetite powder under my power strip to see if it does anything positive. This is my secondary power strip for mainly non-audio accessories. My main system is fed by a multi-thousand dollar power conditioner, Aliexpress aftermarket cables and a few cable wraps.

Being a mainly non-audio AC path, I was surprised this made a difference! Details are popping out with even more life than before and quite a magic vivid organic experience! This is of course on top of innumerable of other system tweaks.

Do note this is a magnetic compound so I would discourage placing it any closer to components with complex circuitry of any kind. And I have already moved that power supply shown farther away from the bag that you see.

Interesting, when I have more time I will goof around and try different applications. In coming up with using Magnetite with the AC cable wraps I noticed the effect is very different than using magnets. The basic concept is to break up the magnetic field generated by the flow of electricity. By breaking up the magnetic field the electrons flow is improved. Magnetite just works better in this application than anything else I have tried so far.

As a thought experiment... The question I would have is why would what you did for non-audio related accessories effect the audio system? The logical thought would be less distortion fed back into AC circuit that likely your audio system shares. So the AC power that is being fed to the Furman PLC (which powers your system) is cleaner or less distorted now. Theory could be total crap LOL, but makes sense.

 

[cdacosta]

Just tried different gauge wire size at the ground box to internet wall coax outlet. This box has a copper 5-way binding post. Baseline before trying a couple other gauge sizes is the Aliexpress 6N dual twisted 14ga. (11ga. aggregate) wire I use and recommend. Very balanced to start but was curious...

* Switching to 14ga. (so just one 14ga. leg): looses body, so not as balanced. Less nuance and detail. Less detail layering. Looses a bit of separation and space in the presentation. Bass slam or punch is diminished.

* Switching to triple 14ga. (9ga. aggregate): more mid bass body and bass thickens. Not for my system, but if a system needs more body maybe.

* Switching to four 14ga. (8ga. aggregate): Too much mid bass, bass and sub bass. Balance is awful, mid range and up frequencies become smeared and there is loss of detail across the frequency spectrum.

Have not tried this yet but I am thinking adding one pure silver 5N+ 18ga (or 16ga.) may add top end spice. Or for a sweeter top end adding a single 18ga or 16ga. silver/gold blend may be interesting. This would take the total aggregate to 10ga.

 

[cdacosta]

Another power cable mod, adding a ground box cable to the power cord. What is interesting about this mod is it confirms that ground box filtering is very localized.

The power cable modded is a clone Aliexpress Furutech PS-950. When I first got it, it looked identical to a real one. That surprised me. I took it apart to inspect, Nano Liquid and to check it was wired properly. This cable does have a copper shield attached to the AC connector end. The wire inside the cable is marked Furukawa and is this wire:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...sea!US!2108204459!&curPageLogUid=nqQMUyEoQPh7

The clone Furutech PS-950 power cable I got was this one, from this seller May 2022:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251...49e21802AVqSg4&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

I plugged it in to the PC and it was really dark (HF roll off), sounded off. Never let it properly burn-in, sounded horrible compared to anything I have on hand. So I stuck it on my wife's PC to burn-in. Thinking if the cable just sucked I would re-purpose the FI-50 (black ones) connectors. Fourteen months later for the ground box projects I did just that, re-purposed the connectors.

Fast forward to now. One of my balanced isolation PLC power the DAC, Router/modem SMPS and iPower X SMPS for the ifi SPDIF iPurifier 2. Unfortunately this unit only has one AC duplex outlet which has two outlets on it. I have three devices I need to power from this PLC. I also have a real Furutech TP60 I do not use because it never did anything for me/never impressed me. So I modded it. This TP60 only supplies power to the two SMPS. So on the Balanced PLC one of the outlets power the DAC, the other now has this modded power cable going to the Furutech TP60.

Anyway, this Isolation PLC has a ground box that is attached via a solderless spade to the PLC's copper binding post. The copper binding post is wired to a star ground point inside the PLC. What I decided to do was mod the clone Furutech PS-950 cable and have a ground cable going to the binding post also. This way the ground box filters the internals of the PLC, outlet directly which the DAC is plugged into, and the power cable. Amazingly worked like a champ. With only a couple of hours burn-in, no HF roll off and sounds way more balanced. Bass frequencies sound tighter and hit harder than before. More like a JL Audio 10' sub, where before it was more leaning toward a REL 10" sub when listening to EDM (which is what I am listening to now). Everything else sonically is very similar, except depth of staging. Sounds that fade forward and back go deeper or further away. So I have to see how the burn-in effects this.

Sorry if the above sounds confusing.

For reference the EDM I listen to is this type. Most of the ones I listen to are 320kb, but even at 128kb or 192kb from YouTube there is a lot of detail/information in the recordings:

 

[cdacosta]

Tips and general guidelines on modding cables to have a ground box cable to attach to a passive ground box.

* I recommend modding cables you already like. By adding a ground box to filter the cable (and usually also component output stage or power supply), will only improve on the performance of the system. I have yet to experience any negative effects of filtering a cable. I have also never experienced the mod to do nothing. Meaning the modded cable has always improved system performance.

* Remember to allow time for burn-in of the new cable (wire and connector) and ground box to settle in. Likely immediately you will hear a sonic upgrade, but takes time for it all to settle in.

* I recommend the first cable to mod is the main interconnect between DAC and amp. This is a system transformative mod.

* When modding an interconnect (XLR or RCA) or digital SPDIF RCA, use one 14ga. 6N copper OCC stranded wire for the cable. The ground box cable is wired to Pin 1 (ground) of the XLR and negative on a RCA connector. Add the ground box cable to the source side of the cable. This way the output stage of the component and cable is filtered.

* When modding a power cable, add the ground box cable to earth ground on connector. For power cables use the dual twisted (11awg) 6N copper OCC stranded wire. Add the ground box cable to the side you want to filter. Does not matter if the power cable has a shield, whether it is a floating or connected shield.

* Use Furutech Nano Liquid if you have it.

* If you want a more professional look and want sleeving for the ground box cable, use cotton sleeving. PET sleeving or Techflex will add a slight smearing effect.

* I recommend to only use solderless connectors for the mod or ground box cable termination. Solder will degrade performance. The clone Furutech solderless RCA, banana, spade and FI-50 connectors perform well, are easy to work with and are inexpensive. See included pics of the cables that I modded for examples of finished cables. These cables are in my system.

 

[Tangram1]

Tips and general guidelines on modding cables to have a ground box cable to attach to a passive ground box.

* I recommend modding cables you already like. By adding a ground box to filter the cable (and usually also component output stage or power supply), will only improve on the performance of the system. I have yet to experience any negative effects of filtering a cable. I have also never experienced the mod to do nothing. Meaning the modded cable has always improved system performance.

* Remember to allow time for burn-in of the new cable (wire and connector) and ground box to settle in. Likely immediately you will hear a sonic upgrade, but takes time for it all to settle in.

* I recommend the first cable to mod is the main interconnect between DAC and amp. This is a system transformative mod.

* When modding an interconnect (XLR or RCA) or digital SPDIF RCA, use one 14ga. 6N copper OCC stranded wire for the cable. The ground box cable is wired to Pin 1 (ground) of the XLR and negative on a RCA connector. Add the ground box cable to the source side of the cable. This way the output stage of the component and cable is filtered.

* When modding a power cable, add the ground box cable to earth ground on connector. For power cables use the dual twisted (11awg) 6N copper OCC stranded wire. Add the ground box cable to the side you want to filter. Does not matter if the power cable has a shield, whether it is a floating or connected shield.

* Use Furutech Nano Liquid if you have it.

* If you want a more professional look and want sleeving for the ground box cable, use cotton sleeving. PET sleeving or Techflex will add a slight smearing effect.

* I recommend to only use solderless connectors for the mod or ground box cable termination. Solder will degrade performance. The clone Furutech solderless RCA, banana, spade and FI-50 connectors perform well, are easy to work with and are inexpensive. See included pics of the cables that I modded for examples of finished cables. These cables are in my system.

Instead of connecting to the ground pin of the xlr, have you tried connecting to the negative on the xlr, the same as RCA connector ?

 

[cdacosta]

Instead of connecting to the ground pin of the xlr, have you tried connecting to the negative on the xlr, the same as RCA connector ?

I have not tried that. I did it like Entreq. Even though using Pin 1 (ground/shield) works beautifully, I would be interested in knowing the difference. Have you tried it?

 

[Ghoostknight]

Instead of connecting to the ground pin of the xlr, have you tried connecting to the negative on the xlr, the same as RCA connector ?

there is no negative like on chinch, ground on xlr is the equivalent of ground on chinch

the other to signal are signal carying plus and minus voltage like for example +3V and -3V, i wouldnt connect these to a grounding box