DIY Ground Box Thread

[Jake2]

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?

The unbroken edges are very smooth and silky, almost metallic, easy to clean dust off. The torn/broken-from-bending edges/corners are rougher and would be a little vulnerable to mechanical action/abrasian. The clean precut and scissor cut edges less so. A craft knife scoring for corners would also be better.

Handling it, especially after cutting, some v light graphite grey residue is left on fingertips. Not visible powder, just grey colour.
Not sure re water, will try with damp cloth. Might need some coating for longevity.

 

[Jake2]

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

Aesthetically in person the graphite is quite visually stealthy and with its light silvery sheen looks pretty cool, better than the bare wood IMO, sort of fades away in the shadows of a shelf more so than the unpainted box does. Will take photos in daylight. But yes appreciate the uneven sides and angles and rough edges of my prototype don't exactly maximise WAF!

I will also try the Y-shield graphite paint I got, potentially using the two in combination for a more seamless finish.

 

[Boodle]

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.

Very interesting. Do you think faraday fabric will also work, available on Amazon. The shipping cost of Flexible graphite sheet from AE is £22 when the sheets cost £17.
I have placed a Rochelle salt wrap on the inside cover of the mains distribution box and it has a positive impact. Also tried a few 2g wraps on the face plate of the mains socket and it does have an effect, however our sockets here in the uk are quite different to the US ones, so unable to assess with certainty whether it has a positive or no impact.
A strange effect I have noticed with the AE Odin bnc coax from my server to the dac is that when I switch on the lamps In the Sitting room or the Overhead downlights in our dressing room the music cuts out fro a second even though all the lights are on a different breaker to the audio equipment. So any ideas why this happening would be appreciated. It does not happen with the Blackcat Silverstar ii coax cable, but the AE cable with the ground box sounds better.

 

[Jake2]

Very interesting. Do you think faraday fabric will also work, available on Amazon. The shipping cost of Flexible graphite sheet from AE is £22 when the sheets cost £17.
I have placed a Rochelle salt wrap on the inside cover of the mains distribution box and it has a positive impact. Also tried a few 2g wraps on the face plate of the mains socket and it does have an effect, however our sockets here in the uk are quite different to the US ones, so unable to assess with certainty whether it has a positive or no impact.
A strange effect I have noticed with the AE Odin bnc coax from my server to the dac is that when I switch on the lamps In the Sitting room or the Overhead downlights in our dressing room the music cuts out fro a second even though all the lights are on a different breaker to the audio equipment. So any ideas why this happening would be appreciated. It does not happen with the Blackcat Silverstar ii coax cable, but the AE cable with the ground box sounds better.

Don't know the Faraday fabric composition sorry, so unsure. But even if it had carbon content or similar to absorb rather than just reflect RFI (graphite does both I understand), the tape likely being much thinner (say 1/10th, give or take) it is unlikely to replicate the effect of the thicker graphite sheet.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Very interesting. Do you think faraday fabric will also work, available on Amazon. The shipping cost of Flexible graphite sheet from AE is £22 when the sheets cost £17.
I have placed a Rochelle salt wrap on the inside cover of the mains distribution box and it has a positive impact. Also tried a few 2g wraps on the face plate of the mains socket and it does have an effect, however our sockets here in the uk are quite different to the US ones, so unable to assess with certainty whether it has a positive or no impact.
A strange effect I have noticed with the AE Odin bnc coax from my server to the dac is that when I switch on the lamps In the Sitting room or the Overhead downlights in our dressing room the music cuts out fro a second even though all the lights are on a different breaker to the audio equipment. So any ideas why this happening would be appreciated. It does not happen with the Blackcat Silverstar ii coax cable, but the AE cable with the ground box sounds better.

Funny enough Faraday Tape does work as well, and my friend John, discovered this on his ground box, and this is what lead me to experimenting with G Shield (Not Y Shield...Not sure if that's what Jake means?)
The paint is great VFM, and from my tests,blocks signal from about 2mhz up to 4G signal.Of course you may hate the colour black, but like Jakes sheets, it does leave a fine powder on the surface, you could paint a lot of boxes with G Shield. l am really looking forward to Jake's views on G Shield, as apart from myself and my mate John, l don't know anyone who taken the plunge.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

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.

That's the plan, going to let things settle, and use small amounts, would you suggest, working from the powerboats backwards, sockets, leads ?

 

[Jake2]

Funny enough Faraday Tape does work as well, and my friend John, discovered this on his ground box, and this is what lead me to experimenting with G Shield (Not Y Shield...Not sure if that's what Jake means?)
The paint is great VFM, and from my tests,blocks signal from about 2mhz up to 4G signal.Of course you may hate the colour black, but like Jakes sheets, it does leave a fine powder on the surface, you could paint a lot of boxes with G Shield. l am really looking forward to Jake's views on G Shield, as apart from myself and my mate John, l don't know anyone who taken the plunge.

It is actually Y-Shield brand, HSF54 type, they do a range of EMF absorbing paints and other materials. Got a good deal from Amazon and free shipping which is why I went with this rather than Rustins. Will be very interesting to try.

https://a.co/d/2xkzvam

 

[cdacosta]

That's the plan, going to let things settle, and use small amounts, would you suggest, working from the powerboats backwards, sockets, leads ?

tough to say where to start aside by power and fuses. Every piece of gear, system, environment and taste is different. Key is to find where will react from EMI removal and then fine tune placement and volume. And definitely start with less like 1-2 grams. Rochelle salt can have a very powerful effect. If system tonality like moving towards neutral is happening try lower volume and distancing.

 

[cdacosta]

Funny enough Faraday Tape does work as well, and my friend John, discovered this on his ground box, and this is what lead me to experimenting with G Shield (Not Y Shield...Not sure if that's what Jake means?)
The paint is great VFM, and from my tests,blocks signal from about 2mhz up to 4G signal.Of course you may hate the colour black, but like Jakes sheets, it does leave a fine powder on the surface, you could paint a lot of boxes with G Shield. l am really looking forward to Jake's views on G Shield, as apart from myself and my mate John, l don't know anyone who taken the plunge.

I have extensively tested shielding ground boxes and in all cases so far, has degraded performance. So will see what the graphite sheets do.

 

[jean-michel6]

Call me very impressed .
I have done only 5% of what is proposed on this thread . I have used three AC wrap of 400g inoxia magnetite ( a very , very fine powder ) .
I have put it on my dac ac cord , server ac cord and ac cord of the power distribution box. ...

The result are quite impressive as this has significantly decrease the noise coming from the AC and the musicality has made a very nice progress on my system !
Thank's

This is my AC Wrap 17cm wide , 20 cm long and 400g of magnetite powder !

 

[Jake2]

Just FYI, a little more background on the graphite sheets...

'Graphite foil' seems to be the industry name. Used for thermal and EMI shielding amongst other things. Here's a US based specialist supplier of graphite products incl foil, which looks to be the same material as what I have, albeit you can select various grades of purity (up to 'nuclear' use 99.7% purity). You can order by the linear foot, 39.4" (1m) wide in different thicknesses up to 0.04" (1mm).

https://www.ceramaterials.com/graphite-foil/

They also sell a corrugated graphite tape of the same composition with adhesive I'm pretty interested in to join the sheets and maybe in component internals as well when I get to them.

A little further reading shows the way this >99% graphite content foil (on AliX or here) is produced is via 'calendering' - repeated rolling -of graphite flakes into interlocked layers. Which explains the super smooth surface and the way it sorta frays and fragments when torn. The residual <1% non-graphite content is typically sulphur used in pre-processing/creating the flakes.

https://www.sglcarbon.com/en/markets-solutions/material/sigratherm-foils-for-thermal-management/

 

[EDhaenens]

Call me very impressed .
I have done only 5% of what is proposed on this thread . I have used three AC wrap of 400g inoxia magnetite ( a very , very fine powder ) .
I have put it on my dac ac cord , server ac cord and ac cord of the power distribution box. ...

The result are quite impressive as this has significantly decrease the noise coming from the AC and the musicality has made a very nice progress on my system !
Thank's

This is my AC Wrap 17cm wide , 20 cm long and 400g of magnetite powder !

Nice! Were you able to attend to the loss of body problem you described?
I received my 6 kg of Inoxia magnetite today. Man this stuff is not the cleanest to work with. I filled some bags to be used as speaker cable wraps and my hands looked like I worked in a mine all day and it does not clean off well. I recommend handling this magnetite in a place where staining is not a problem. On the positive side this kind of magnetite stays in shape when you compress it in a bag, a bit like clay. This way it is easier to use as a wrap than sand-like kinds of magnetite. Testing will start tomorrow, I’ll keep you guys posted…

 

[cdacosta]

Just FYI, a little more background on the graphite sheets...

'Graphite foil' seems to be the industry name. Used for thermal and EMI shielding amongst other things. Here's a US based specialist supplier of graphite products incl foil, which looks to be the same material as what I have, albeit you can select various grades of purity (up to 'nuclear' use 99.7% purity). You can order by the linear foot, 39.4" (1m) wide in different thicknesses up to 0.04" (1mm).

https://www.ceramaterials.com/graphite-foil/

They also sell a corrugated graphite tape of the same composition with adhesive I'm pretty interested in to join the sheets and maybe in component internals as well when I get to them.

A little further reading shows the way this >99% graphite content foil (on AliX or here) is produced is via 'calendering' - repeated rolling -of graphite flakes into interlocked layers. Which explains the super smooth surface and the way it sorta frays and fragments when torn. The residual <1% non-graphite content is typically sulphur used in pre-processing/creating the flakes.

https://www.sglcarbon.com/en/markets-solutions/material/sigratherm-foils-for-thermal-management/

I will order 1mm sheets as you did when I get home. Just to try on the ground boxes. I have zero expectations, since so far everything shielding wise I have tried has negatively effected performance. This stuff is like $20 USD shipped for 10 1mm sheets, so not expensive.

Just for reference I have tried EMI tape, including Oyaide, copper foil to sheets, aluminum foil to sheets. With all shielding material, will shrink sound stage and effect tonal balance without any positive performance gains. Can be small pieces, panels, inside or outside the enclosure. Almost like the shielding is reflecting what the box is absorbing.

 

[Tangram1]

Nice! Were you able to attend to the loss of body problem you described?
I received my 6 kg of Inoxia magnetite today. Man this stuff is not the cleanest to work with. I filled some bags to be used as speaker cable wraps and my hands looked like I worked in a mine all day and it does not clean off well. I recommend handling this magnetite in a place where staining is not a problem. On the positive side this kind of magnetite stays in shape when you compress it in a bag, a bit like clay. This way it is easier to use as a wrap than sand-like kinds of magnetite. Testing will start tomorrow, I’ll keep you guys posted…

YES, AND ITS TOXIC, ALWAYS WEAR A SUITABLE MASK IF YOU MUST USE THIS MAGNETITE ! I have now stopped using this and prefer a grounding box from one of the UK manufacturers anyway .

 

[jean-michel6]

Nice! Were you able to attend to the loss of body problem you described?
I received my 6 kg of Inoxia magnetite today. Man this stuff is not the cleanest to work with. I filled some bags to be used as speaker cable wraps and my hands looked like I worked in a mine all day and it does not clean off well. I recommend handling this magnetite in a place where staining is not a problem. On the positive side this kind of magnetite stays in shape when you compress it in a bag, a bit like clay. This way it is easier to use as a wrap than sand-like kinds of magnetite. Testing will start tomorrow, I’ll keep you guys posted…

In fact this time I did not experiment a loss of body . My listening time was rather short today , i will do further listening test in the coming days and make ac wrap for the two remaining ac cord of my system .
This inoxia magnetite is extremely fine you have to handle it carefully and you definitely want to avoid any spill in your audio system…less than 1g will stain badly your hands .