DIY Ground Box Thread

[Stellabagpuss]

Thank you for such an informative guide. I am pretty sure l can replicate with UK wiring.

 

[cdacosta]

Thank you for such an informative guide. I am pretty sure l can replicate with UK wiring.

My pleasure, enjoy! Let me know how it works out for you.

 

[kenincalgary]

Great write-up cdacosta! This tweak is 1 of 2 big improvements made to my system tonight. I managed to get all outlets and switches upstairs salted and it's everything you described. I'll be dealing with the basement soon.

Second big improvement: I treated the main ground wire going from the ground "source" to the panel like a GB wire, with a GBW mini wrap at 1 end and 2 grams of salt at the panel end. This is huge!

 

[cdacosta]

Great write-up cdacosta! This tweak is 1 of 2 big improvements made to my system tonight. I managed to get all outlets and switches upstairs salted and it's everything you described. I'll be dealing with the basement soon.

Second big improvement: I treated the main ground wire going from the ground "source" to the panel like a GB wire, with a GBW mini wrap at 1 end and 2 grams of salt at the panel end. This is huge!

Nice bro! When you do the whole house it gets better. And then you can tune for more or less body, bass slam and overall system tonal balance. Interesting that even addressing/treating different circuits can be heard and make a difference. I am interested in your thoughts after you have all the junctions treated.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

What are the ingredients for a GBW wrap, can't seem to find it..

 

[cdacosta]

What are the ingredients for a GBW wrap, can't seem to find it..

Found the original build when I introduced it. There are several posts or parts to the build. Only change would be no vinyl for covering of the wrap. Only covering I have found that does not hurt the performance is silk.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/diy-ground-box-thread.968372/page-41#post-17745070

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Excellent.... Thanks for that... Great instructions again!

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Great stuff. Who'd have thought - before reading this thread - electrical noise would have such an insidious effect on the sound and that it would hide in, and/or spawn from, and so require treatment in, such a myriad of obscure locations. And more to the point that affordable and simple counter-measures proposed here mostly by you could be so effective to deal with it.

I'm not as systematic as you - I mean I do laser focus on a particular change and variants thereof incl also doing careful AB using particular sections of certain tracks to listen for certain things like realism of a female or male vocal, attack-body-timbre-decay of piano notes & strings. But I tend to get distracted by the latest tweak and move swiftly onto that. I mean I have Mundorf foils sitting here unloved for a few weeks now.

Graphite foil sheets update
Speaking of the tweak du jour... after a lot more experimentation yesterday evening with the graphite sheets, I can confirm those 1mm thick sheets are goddamn EMI shielding/absorbing monsters. Even if it turns out they don't work as well with your ground box design (though I do hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised) I'm sure they'll work well elsewhere in folks' systems.. as per below.

The whole pack of 250x200mm 1mm thick graphite foil sheets is now experimentally deployed in my system like so:

• 1 cut up & wrapped around a ground box as pictured yesterday
• 2 stacked on/over the power cables coming out of my vertically oriented Puritan power conditioner partly with the sheet also half supported by the edge of my hifi rack (1 good, 2 better - effect was so pronounced it was like a tone control turning down the treble, rather treble edginess. Took some acclimatisation, felt too much initially)
• 2 on network switches - one on the LHY on top of the copper grounding plate that's already there & another on the Netgear
• 1 under the copper grounding plate resting vertically on the inputs to the master active speaker (they're both quite light so no issue)
• 1 at the back of the sub, vertically resting on the input cables leaning against the sub back plate (again a full frequency spectrum effect, so an upstream effect on the L&R amps/DAC/streamer)
• 2 side by side leaning against the side of my wireless router that faces the hifi (alas it's in the same room corner not ideal, I do turn wifi off from time to time when critical listening but miss the convenience)

I could hear the delta with each addition and removal. Consistent theme with the sheets was sweeter midrange (residual glare/hardness banished) particularly female vocals sounding so soft, natural and effortless; greater refinement and realism in the representation of an acoustic space - wider & deeper, more precise placement of instruments with a richer and more nuanced decay of notes; leading transients more fully drawn with layers and body, less etched leading edges. Also more life, tempo and seemingly dynamic range.

Graphite v copper sheets
Here's the interesting bit. So once again I compared to the 0.5mm sheets on several places, the 1mm still consistently better. No surprises there. Then it occurred to me I should compare to some 300mm x 300mm pretty heavy gauge 0.6mm copper sheets I have kicking around. I did so - on the Netgear switch, sub and Puritan conditioner. Another consistent theme emerged - the copper thinned the midrange a little or a lot, got a little drier, female vocals lost their charm, while soundstage scale (height & depth) and dynamics flattened.

Remarkably the delta was greatest, IIRC, with the sheets leaning against the wireless router. Where one might have thought the more potently conductive and larger copper shield would be better. Though I realise the router and sheets are fairly close to my Goundmaster external ground rod connection so maybe that's part of it, perhaps alongside some denoising of the router itself as an upstream ethernet signal source… mental note, test this again with wifi off.

The graphite sheets give my system a sweeter, fuller, bigger sound than copper sheets placed in the same locations. Idle speculation as to possible reason for this:

• graphite has RFI absorptive/dissipative properties copper lacks i.e. not just reflective
• graphite has better vibration damping characteristics, incl being softer and much lighter (it 'feels' dead/inert to the touch whereas copper feels more resonant)
• differences in their electrical conductivity - although graphite is a very good conductor, copper is two orders of magnitude (~100x) better and is equally conductive in all X-Y-Z planes, whereas I understand graphite is strongly conductive length wise within (parallel to) a rolled layer but not so much across the layers comprising the thickness, in this case 1mm.

I can see myself ordering some more of this stuff, incl trying using it inside components. It's very effective IME, it’s cheap, light and easily cut. And it’s stealthy in a Batmobile or B-2 bomber kind of way. What’s not to love? It also breaks easily if you're careless with it so spares are good.

Excellent Jake, just backs up my feelings, hopefully others will test out.

 

[cdacosta]

Excellent.... Thanks for that... Great instructions again!

Originally designed to be used with a ground cable like my DIY 6N copper dual twisted 11AWG. Adding the GBC Enhancement wrap at box end and adding a Rochelle salt mini wrap at component end will improve cable/box performance by about 50%.

Pic is of using a silk pocket square to cover the wrap for esthetics. I have a lot of pocket squares, so that is what I used to test for sonic comparison vs other dielectric material. For an aesthetic covering, so far silk is the best for not having a negative impact sonically. If aesthetics is important to you, all fabric stores sell silk or can buy pre-made thin silk pocket squares inexpensively.

 

[DecentLevi]

Popping back in here and surprised to see so much activity recently. This really is a transformational thread. Here my latest contribution: Tinned copper shielding on the ends of ground box cables.

First I tried wrapping the ends with silver faraday fabric tape, then copper foil tape, but with both I only got a somewhat more aggressive and bright sound. I thought I'd try my tinned copper shielding that I got here, which I makeshift secured with twist-ties. I used to use this to fully shield an entire ground box cable with a 'good' result, but alas after removal it did seem like overkill, partially dulling the sound. Seeing how the others made it too bright, I thought just a little of this stuff on the connector ends may be just right - and that it is! Folks I seem to have hit the 'sweet spot'. Definitely neutral, smooth, lets the full spectrum FR flow freely with so much finesse and is not fatiguing, and somehow with several of these it's as if the volume is louder (may just be perception). Definitely recommended tweak!


note: the above is actually applied to a ground box cable on the 'ground' connection of a secondary headphone output of my Mojo 2, rather than on an analogue audio cable.

Brief update - revoking my hack of mesh tinned copper shielding on grounding box cable ends. More time with the system this way has revealed, that alike the copper foil and silver faraday fabric tape, this also tilts the system too much toward the bright side. I'll be trying the bagged pinch of Rochelle salt hack instead later, with supplies incoming.

 

[cdacosta]

Brief update - revoking my hack of mesh tinned copper shielding on grounding box cable ends. More time with the system this way has revealed, that alike the copper foil and silver faraday fabric tape, this also tilts the system too much toward the bright side. I'll be trying the bagged pinch of Rochelle salt hack instead later, with supplies incoming.

Yep I found the same with any shielding material on the ground cable. For a more organic presentation, I highly recommend at the ground box end using the GBC Enhancement wrap. Rochelle salt mini wrap (1-2 grams) on the component side. The two wraps together will improve ground box performance by approx. 50%. With the two wraps, "you will hear more from the recording". The two wraps used on a ground cable greatly enhances the performance of the cable.

 

[DecentLevi]

You said 1-2 gram wrap on the component side. What is the other side? Maybe I just haven't got caught up yet.

 

[Boodle]

Originally designed to be used with a ground cable like my DIY 6N copper dual twisted 11AWG. Adding the GBC Enhancement wrap at box end and adding a Rochelle salt mini wrap at component end will improve cable/box performance by about 50%.

Pic is of using a silk pocket square to cover the wrap for esthetics. I have a lot of pocket squares, so that is what I used to test for sonic comparison vs other dielectric material. For an aesthetic covering, so far silk is the best for not having a negative impact sonically. If aesthetics is important to you, all fabric stores sell silk or can buy pre-made thin silk pocket squares inexpensively.

I removed all the Rochelle salt wraps from the system power cables and the RJ45 cable and made small 1-2 gm wraps that i have placed on light switch faceplates and power cable faceplates ( these are not on the same breaker as the system power cables). All I can say is that this relocation of salt wraps is a major upgrade and more than a turbo, it sounds like a much bigger system with absolutely no compression and unbelievable dynamics. What i did notice is that the salt wrap on any system power cable including the rj45 results in deeper bass at the cost of dynamics. So i am not using salt on any system cables.
still haven’t got round to making a GBC wrap as I am a bit concerned about security of cling film - is it not possible to make the GBC wrap with a zip lock bag only.?
Thanks for the Rochelle on light switches and other outlet faceplates Tweek, major upgrade not just a tweek. I am also using Rochelle inside the breaker panel.
btw I bought a guass master about five years ago and today I checked the emf from light switches - in the sitting room and other rooms, massive emf emission when the switch is on but reduced emission when it is off. All switches including power socket switches emit large amounts of emf. The meter also helps to identify emf hot spots along the skirting and other areas that are not visible - like hidden junctions. Do check out Guass Master.

 

[cdacosta]

You said 1-2 gram wrap on the component side. What is the other side? Maybe I just haven't got caught up yet.

Here is the original build when I introduced it. There are several posts or parts to the build. Only change would be no vinyl for covering of the wrap. Only covering I have found that does not hurt the performance is silk.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/diy-ground-box-thread.968372/page-41#post-17745070

 

[cdacosta]

I removed all the Rochelle salt wraps from the system power cables and the RJ45 cable and made small 1-2 gm wraps that i have placed on light switch faceplates and power cable faceplates ( these are not on the same breaker as the system power cables). All I can say is that this relocation of salt wraps is a major upgrade and more than a turbo, it sounds like a much bigger system with absolutely no compression and unbelievable dynamics. What i did notice is that the salt wrap on any system power cable including the rj45 results in deeper bass at the cost of dynamics. So i am not using salt on any system cables.
still haven’t got round to making a GBC wrap as I am a bit concerned about security of cling film - is it not possible to make the GBC wrap with a zip lock bag only.?
Thanks for the Rochelle on light switches and other outlet faceplates Tweek, major upgrade not just a tweek. I am also using Rochelle inside the breaker panel.
btw I bought a guass master about five years ago and today I checked the emf from light switches - in the sitting room and other rooms, massive emf emission when the switch is on but reduced emission when it is off. All switches including power socket switches emit large amounts of emf. The meter also helps to identify emf hot spots along the skirting and other areas that are not visible - like hidden junctions. Do check out Guass Master.

With RJ45 cable, you have to use .05 - 1.25 gram in the wrap. More than that and yes, sounds wrong. May be best on one side of cable or the other or both. Rochelle salt is very strong, if an application shows a reaction, always drop the amount of the Rochelle salt to tune. This is also the case with the wraps used at junction points like at light switch plates and wall outlet plates. I think most will be surprised how much of a difference 0.3 gram makes, depending on application.

That is why I highlighted the word supercharge in the DIY post title of "Using Rochelle salt to absorb EMI from your homes AC line to supercharge your audio system performance".

The more of your home's EMI different junction points along the AC wiring, regardless of circuit that is treated, the more of a system performance bump you get. Apparently does not matter if it is in the same circuit as the audio system. Must bleed over at the main panel. But unless the amounts I mentioned are used, tuning by adjusting the amount used will be necessary to keep the system tonally balanced. The junction points along the AC line of light switches and outlets were the only places I could think of that offered easy access, was safe and easy to access.

The issue with using a zip lock bag is that the closing mechanism will be too stiff to allow the bag to twist around the cable. You want the GBC Enhancement wrap to be snug against the ground cable when twisted around the ground cable. You can try it though and see how it goes.