[MattSPL]

FYI CAD GC enclosure is acrylic. For kicks and grins I was going to try use an aluminum enclosure. Issue I had is with testing aluminum lining inside a wood enclosure, the performance diminished so I ended up canning that idea and stuck with pine wood.

Ok thanks for the info, I’ll have to see what to do then.

 

[Wladimir]

Hey guys, been reading through majority of this thread and some others too, but still not done yet, so please forgive me if it has been discussed before.

I think I'm getting the mechanism of action of the piezo-electric materials, but have you also described the mechanism or role in the mixture of the magnetite? When I was tweaking some other stuff within my chain, I always had to steer clear from anything that could generate magnetic fields around my cables. To the point of keeping all cables away from each other at least some inch, now you're adding magnetite to the signal path, which is fascinating to me and would like to understand it.

Have you also experimented with other piezo-electric materials to be added to your mix like topaz or smoky quartz?
And what about hematite? I can't find any mention of it, yet it is another noteworthy material.

Thanks

 

[Jake2]

Have you also experimented with other piezo-electric materials to be added to your mix like topaz or smoky quartz?
And what about hematite? I can't find any mention of it, yet it is another noteworthy material.

Thanks

I don't have a DIY ground box, just a few bought ones, I do however have several flat shaped natural smoky quartz crystals on top of my external clock enclosure, each one makes a subtle but satisfying improvement.

 

[dougms3]

I don't have a DIY ground box, just a few bought ones, I do however have several flat shaped natural smoky quartz crystals on top of my external clock enclosure, each one makes a subtle but satisfying improvement.

How big a piece of quartz are you using?

 

[Wladimir]

Yes, the smoky quartz coins generate very pleasing (natural) resonances, which get translated into the sound of all affected devices, mostly very beneficial. Around 10mm work well, but it's best to experiment with more dimensions for different application. Also the right choice of adhesive is important.

I use crystals in most crucial points in my chain, in fact I'm specializing in resonance control for the last past years, as they have profound impact on the sound as well. Apart from that, I'm also going through the rabbit hole in building and tweaking my streamers / endpoints, both hardware and software wise. And related to that, designing efficient network architectures (for audio only of course). Essentially I'm always looking for novel ways of tweaking everything to the max + 1.

Now I'm eager to learn more in this local grounding alchemy, what ingredient serves what purpose and maybe sometimes later when I educate myself sufficiently and start experimenting on my own, I might contribute with some tweak or tip to this subject as well.

 

[Jake2]

How big a piece of quartz are you using?

Here's my menagerie.. a mix of smoky, rose and clear, I like clear the least, it's relegated to underneath the OCK-2 on a piece of fo.Q. Oh yes they seem to like sitting on graphite foils.

I'm pretty new to this and had read below a certain size is better, unsure why. But I can confirm these sizes have a positive beneficial effect.

 

[dougms3]

Here's my menagerie.. a mix of smoky, rose and clear, I like clear the least, it's relegated to underneath the OCK-2 on a piece of fo.Q. Oh yes they seem to like sitting on graphite foils.

I'm pretty new to this and had read below a certain size is better, unsure why. But I can confirm these sizes have a positive beneficial effect.

Ah dammit, I already ordered 2" pieces.

Well I ordered $60 worth of crystals for some reason. Guess I'll be testing them out.

 

[cdacosta]

Hey guys, been reading through majority of this thread and some others too, but still not done yet, so please forgive me if it has been discussed before.

I think I'm getting the mechanism of action of the piezo-electric materials, but have you also described the mechanism or role in the mixture of the magnetite? When I was tweaking some other stuff within my chain, I always had to steer clear from anything that could generate magnetic fields around my cables. To the point of keeping all cables away from each other at least some inch, now you're adding magnetite to the signal path, which is fascinating to me and would like to understand it.

Have you also experimented with other piezo-electric materials to be added to your mix like topaz or smoky quartz?
And what about hematite? I can't find any mention of it, yet it is another noteworthy material.

Thanks

Good questions. I experimented with resonance tuning in the past with different quartz and exotic wood. They can slightly change tonal characteristics for a component and in turn effect what is heard.

A passive ground box does something very different. If built/designed and implemented properly removes or drains noise from line level ground. The more noise removed the lower the noise floor, the more you will hear from the original recording. Ground boxes can also be used to drain noise from AC power ground and is very effective when used with single ended and XLR signal cables. I have offered mod instructions in this thread for line level and AC power cable applications. Very effective with cables, very similar as to what Entreq does. See pics for examples.

Natural Magnetite is what I found to be most effective for the main ingredient for material/mineral mix. Seems to be the same main ingredient Entreq used for earlier generation ground boxes. The other minerals I recommend is used to further enhance and tune the audible sonic performance. Here is an example, Tungsten powder in the mix adds delicacy, beauty and refinement to the top 2/3 of the frequency range. The delicacy I speak of is the natural or realism sound of a cymbal being struck, the ting sound, the ringing within the decay. How real the sound being reproduced is. Graphite powder helps to improve detail retrieval across the frequency spectrum. I have written in detail what the different minerals do across this thread.

Quartz can be added to the mix, the effect is slight. Eventually I found was easier to tune and more effective to stick with the minerals I have listed throughout this thread. But this is a DIY project so I hope many will explore, experiment and share.

 

[Jake2]

Ah dammit, I already ordered 2" pieces.

Well I ordered $60 worth of crystals for some reason. Guess I'll be testing them out.

Lol, love the enhusiasm, in for a penny, in for a pound!

 

[Jake2]

Hey chaps, an impulse buy silver 'Grey Ghost' USB>banana plug ground cable I forgot I'd ordered arrived today (the red jacketed one). It's sonically several levels above my incumbent cheapish silver plated copper one that came with my Quartz Acoustics ground box. (I did previously buy some USB plugs to try to DIY a cable with the 6N 14GA wire but the terminations were tricky so it stayed in the too hard basket).

This silver cable (a mix of pure silver and silver coated, supposedly 5N OCC), is much more resolving and refined, better soundstage definition, greater scale and weight. A keeper. Comes in a variety of terminations.

Sure enough @cdacosta's magic wrap improved it further still - a more noticeable delta with this better cable than its predecessor. Thanks again.

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005006122654649.html

 

[cdacosta]

Hey chaps, an impulse buy silver 'Grey Ghost' USB>banana plug ground cable I forgot I'd ordered arrived today (the red jacketed one). It's sonically several levels above my incumbent cheapish silver plated copper one that came with my Quartz Acoustics ground box. (I did previously buy some USB plugs to try to DIY a cable with the 6N 14GA wire but the terminations were tricky so it stayed in the too hard basket).

This silver cable (a mix of pure silver and silver coated, supposedly 5N OCC), is much more resolving and refined, better soundstage definition, greater scale and weight. A keeper. Comes in a variety of terminations.

Sure enough @cdacosta's magic wrap improved it further still - a more noticeable delta with this better cable than its predecessor. Thanks again.

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005006122654649.html

The cables that come with the Quartz Acoustic box or that can be purchased with the GB perform poorly when I tested them. The one you have linked, the descriptions says 5NOCC silver plated. I believe that description based on the price. If you like the cable, the price is reasonable, so that is cool. Good to know the GB Cable Enhancement wrap improves performance.

 

[Jake2]

The cables that come with the Quartz Acoustic box or that can be purchased with the GB perform poorly when I tested them. The one you have linked, the descriptions says 5NOCC silver plated. I believe that description based on the price. If you like the cable, the price is reasonable, so that is cool. Good to know the GB Cable Enhancement wrap improves performance.

Cheers, yes agree the QA ones are inferior to the 6N 14AWG ones you recommended which I have several of as well as Mundorf foils I've been experimenting with recently. However they're still much better than nothing in damping my Mac Mini Roon & HQP server and/or my Panasonic OLED TV for streaming TV shows (audio out via SPDIF purifier 2), in each case via the USB port.

 

[EDhaenens]

For kicks and giggles I removed all of my rochelle salt for ac filtering (invented by @cdacosta) today. Instantaneous collapse of soundstage, diminished detail and micro detail, a big dynamics drop, a flatter and less amusing and engaging sound. This really is a must try tweak for all that didn’t already try it in some way or another. It transforms a good sounding system in a stellar sounding system!

 

[MattSPL]

For kicks and giggles I removed all of my rochelle salt for ac filtering (invented by @cdacosta) today. Instantaneous collapse of soundstage, diminished detail and micro detail, a big dynamics drop, a flatter and less amusing and engaging sound. This really is a must try tweak for all that didn’t already try it in some way or another. It transforms a good sounding system in a stellar sounding system!

Where about’s did you have it placed?

 

[EDhaenens]

Where about’s did you have it placed?

In the faceplates of the outlets around the house per @cdacosta’s recipe.