DIY Ground Box Thread

[DecentLevi]

And I think the obvious question - does removing an AC faceplate or touching the external screw carry much risk of shock? If so is it advised to shut off the power first or wear gloves?

 

[cdacosta]

And I think the obvious question - does removing an AC faceplate or touching the external screw carry much risk of shock? If so is it advised to shut off the power first or wear gloves?

No, no risk of shock. You will not be touching the switch/outlet or wiring.

 

[cdacosta]

I just figured out that 1 gram or 1 gram-ish is all that is needed. Also installing at wall light switch or AC wall outlet does not matter. Just installed the same way on bathroom light switch that is not switched on. It is the access to live/Hot AC wiring in close vicinity that we are wanting to remove EMI. I knew it!

 

[cdacosta]

@DeventLevi
Rochelle salt is not conductive, this is aside being in the mineral is in a sealed bag rolled up. Once installed, because is being wedged against the wall is going no where.

 

[cdacosta]

I just installed a 1 gram at AC GFC outlet wall plate. 2 feet away is 2 SPST wall switches. I think because the wiring is so close to the AC wall outlet wiring, I had to experiment with amount used. Ended up with a 1/2 gram or less. Looks like almost no Rochelle salt in the bag and can hear the change. So less is ok, tune by what you hear.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Well l am late on the parade, simply as l has other modding tasks to complete, but you guys are so inspirational...loving the ideas.
Okay so l finally finished modding my Gustard R26, which involved moving the transformers into a different enclosure, which was all very positive.
So l then tried a bit of trial and error, l put roughly 4ish grams into a thin long wrap 6 inches long, and place it about halfway, under the pcb board. Now l was expecting this to be the wrong placement point, and it was more of a case of can l hear a instance difference. Of course the answer was yes, positive and negative, lower frequencies where fantastic, however it sucked life out of the mids and highs.
So l then moved it away from underneath the pcb board, and remembering your advise,left about a 1 inch, hit replay... and wow... Not only do l get thar incredible low end, the mids and highs and superb, music sounds more natural, and delay and reverbs and room acoustics are more apparent.
l then followed it up with some in the transformer compartment, this seem to bring more micro details in soundstages,like effects like Left to Right panning.
The most exciting part for myself, l have 8 psu's l can play with not including leads,PC etc....
l enclose photo of placement that worked for myself.
One question, should l start applying from main board first and work backwards?

 

[basillus]

Remember it is still 11.11 at aliexpress, so the basic wire of the 6N OCC groundcable @cdacosta use, is cheaper at the moment.

 

[Jake2]

Ok, so my graphite sheet ground box 'cloaking' experiment was a home run in terms of it exceeding my expectations in improving the sound. The below test was on a single Quartz Acoustic box connected to a spare analogue RCA input on my active speakers/second system. Cable was 6N as pictured + CDA wrap.

The typical improvements of higher quality signal grounding (more expansive and better defined soundstage, more palpable and textured vocals with less edginess/glare, greater bass weight and definition and a greater flow) were present and progressive:
- graphite sheets were better than no sheets/bare ground box walls
- thicker 1mm sheets better than 0.5mm (the 1mm was more balanced, much more palpable vocals)
- the more surfaces that were covered the better 5 > 4 > 2.

I was able to easily AB the above just adding and removing sheets of different thicknesses. Quick and easy to AB, easy to hear the delta.

Once I covered the last, fifth, wall with a final 1mm sheet I went wow, it was like everything snapped into place - such a full, rich, dynamic, resolving and expansive sound. Oh yeah.

I bought two thickness of graphite 'sheet' from Alix, 0.5mm and 1mm thick. See the photos of the 4 sheets from above and the two packs for an idea or relative thicknesses. The 1mm feels thicker than 1mm.

It's supposed to be flexible like the product photo but in reality it feels like stiff cardboard but is more inflexible and quite brittle, you permanently sharply crease (partly tear) it with a small amount of force or flex (such as around the corner of a ground box), and with just one further flex in the opposite directions it breaks completely off with small pieces of what seem to be layers of graphite fibre becoming apparent around the tear. The fibres are relatively soft, not at all like carbon fibre.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtISIqU

Excuse the rough tears etc and overhangs this was just a rough first test, proof of concept.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Excellent Jake.... The outcome sounds very similar to the use of Rustin G Shield over my groundbox, a definite wow moment...
Of course your using Graphite, and G Shield is also Graphite based. l believe they both do the same job on a ground box,but it backs up ,that it's not my iimagination.
Also l must hold my hand up, l have actually miss quoted in past posts about G Shield, l have claimed it had Graphene in it, and actually must have miss read the specs, it's definitely Graphite,and NOT Graphene!

At least we ended with the same results


Damien

 

[cdacosta]

Well l am late on the parade, simply as l has other modding tasks to complete, but you guys are so inspirational...loving the ideas.
Okay so l finally finished modding my Gustard R26, which involved moving the transformers into a different enclosure, which was all very positive.
So l then tried a bit of trial and error, l put roughly 4ish grams into a thin long wrap 6 inches long, and place it about halfway, under the pcb board. Now l was expecting this to be the wrong placement point, and it was more of a case of can l hear a instance difference. Of course the answer was yes, positive and negative, lower frequencies where fantastic, however it sucked life out of the mids and highs.
So l then moved it away from underneath the pcb board, and remembering your advise,left about a 1 inch, hit replay... and wow... Not only do l get thar incredible low end, the mids and highs and superb, music sounds more natural, and delay and reverbs and room acoustics are more apparent.
l then followed it up with some in the transformer compartment, this seem to bring more micro details in soundstages,like effects like Left to Right panning.
The most exciting part for myself, l have 8 psu's l can play with not including leads,PC etc....
l enclose photo of placement that worked for myself.
One question, should l start applying from main board first and work backwards?

Cool. I would still consider experimenting with less weight even down to 1 gram to compare once you find a location that reacts to the Rochelle salt.

 

[cdacosta]

Ok, so my graphite sheet ground box 'cloaking' experiment was a home run in terms of it exceeding my expectations in improving the sound. The below test was on a single Quartz Acoustic box connected to a spare analogue RCA input on my active speakers/second system. Cable was 6N as pictured + CDA wrap.

The typical improvements of higher quality signal grounding (more expansive and better defined soundstage, more palpable and textured vocals with less edginess/glare, greater bass weight and definition and a greater flow) were present and progressive:
- graphite sheets were better than no sheets/bare ground box walls
- thicker 1mm sheets better than 0.5mm (the 1mm was more balanced, much more palpable vocals)
- the more surfaces that were covered the better 5 > 4 > 2.

I was able to easily AB the above just adding and removing sheets of different thicknesses. Quick and easy to AB, easy to hear the delta.

Once I covered the last, fifth, wall with a final 1mm sheet I went wow, it was like everything snapped into place - such a full, rich, dynamic, resolving and expansive sound. Oh yeah.

I bought two thickness of graphite 'sheet' from Alix, 0.5mm and 1mm thick. See the photos of the 4 sheets from above and the two packs for an idea or relative thicknesses. The 1mm feels thicker than 1mm.

It's supposed to be flexible like the product photo but in reality it feels like stiff cardboard but is more inflexible and quite brittle, you permanently sharply crease (partly tear) it with a small amount of force or flex (such as around the corner of a ground box), and with just one further flex in the opposite directions it breaks completely off with small pieces of what seem to be layers of graphite fibre becoming apparent around the tear. The fibres are relatively soft, not at all like carbon fibre.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtISIqU

Excuse the rough tears etc and overhangs this was just a rough first test, proof of concept.

Interesting, I will order some to try. Can the 1mm graphite sheets be cut with scissors or sheet metal cutters? How do or did you permanently affix the sheet pieces to the box?

And did I understand correctly, by just placing the sheets over the surface the effects can be immediately heard?

 

[cdacosta]

Ok, so my graphite sheet ground box 'cloaking' experiment was a home run in terms of it exceeding my expectations in improving the sound. The below test was on a single Quartz Acoustic box connected to a spare analogue RCA input on my active speakers/second system. Cable was 6N as pictured + CDA wrap.

The typical improvements of higher quality signal grounding (more expansive and better defined soundstage, more palpable and textured vocals with less edginess/glare, greater bass weight and definition and a greater flow) were present and progressive:
- graphite sheets were better than no sheets/bare ground box walls
- thicker 1mm sheets better than 0.5mm (the 1mm was more balanced, much more palpable vocals)
- the more surfaces that were covered the better 5 > 4 > 2.

I was able to easily AB the above just adding and removing sheets of different thicknesses. Quick and easy to AB, easy to hear the delta.

Once I covered the last, fifth, wall with a final 1mm sheet I went wow, it was like everything snapped into place - such a full, rich, dynamic, resolving and expansive sound. Oh yeah.

I bought two thickness of graphite 'sheet' from Alix, 0.5mm and 1mm thick. See the photos of the 4 sheets from above and the two packs for an idea or relative thicknesses. The 1mm feels thicker than 1mm.

It's supposed to be flexible like the product photo but in reality it feels like stiff cardboard but is more inflexible and quite brittle, you permanently sharply crease (partly tear) it with a small amount of force or flex (such as around the corner of a ground box), and with just one further flex in the opposite directions it breaks completely off with small pieces of what seem to be layers of graphite fibre becoming apparent around the tear. The fibres are relatively soft, not at all like carbon fibre.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtISIqU

Excuse the rough tears etc and overhangs this was just a rough first test, proof of concept.

Sorry, one more question. Is the surface easily cleanable to remove dust and such? Or will a damp cloth mar the surface? If the surface cannot be cleaned without damaging, would an acrylic coating be needed and would that effect performance?

 

[basillus]

Sorry, one more question. Is the surface easily cleanable to remove dust and such? Or will a damp cloth mar the surface? If the surface cannot be cleaned without damaging, would an acrylic coating be needed and would that effect performance?

What about to put these sheets inside the boxes walls instead?
Visuel it would be prettier and then there is the WAF effect ;0)

 

[Jake2]

Excellent Jake.... The outcome sounds very similar to the use of Rustin G Shield over my groundbox, a definite wow moment...
Of course your using Graphite, and G Shield is also Graphite based. l believe they both do the same job on a ground box,but it backs up ,that it's not my iimagination.
Also l must hold my hand up, l have actually miss quoted in past posts about G Shield, l have claimed it had Graphene in it, and actually must have miss read the specs, it's definitely Graphite,and NOT Graphene!

At least we ended with the same results


Damien

Thanks Damian, it was indeed because of your experience with graphite-based Rustins G-shield that I was interested in experimenting with other forms of graphite. Reading about it graphite is used in many forms by industry to absorb EMI/RFI so sounded very promising. I also got some Y-shield paint to try. Thanks again!

 

[Jake2]

Interesting, I will order some to try. Can the 1mm graphite sheets be cut with scissors or sheet metal cutters? How do or did you permanently affix the sheet pieces to the box?

And did I understand correctly, by just placing the sheets over the surface the effects can be immediately heard?

Correct, yes on both counts. Pretty cheap so worth a shot.

Very easy to cut with normal scissors and yes the sheets are just resting on top, or for the sides in their self supporting L shapes just pushed up against the sides of the box. No adhesive yet. It is far from a perfect 'seal' or fit so expect a more precise fit with less gaps might improve things further. I should try a piece underneath too but had fo.Q underneath so didn't go there initially.