GROUNDING

[ASRMichael]

I use Black Ravioli grounding boxes, connected to HDMI, RCA’s. With great results. 
 

My DAC has XLR connectors, I use the RCA’s, why? Because my Amp is an unbalanced design. My amp with accept XLR, according to the designer if I use XLR is needs to converted back. 

[ASRMichael]

2 hours ago, barrows said:

As mentioned, if you use single ended connections, you can ignore the rest of my comments.

Now I know what single ended means. 👍

[ASRMichael]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

???

As I said, I now know what single ended means. I didn’t know the term until you said it. Excuse my ignorance. 

[ASRMichael]

5 hours ago, barrows said:

No worries, have you tried running the XLR connections in your set up ever?  I am not sure how the inout stage in the ASR is configured, it may take advantage of balanced input, eventhough it converts it to single ended at some point: if so using a balanced connection woudl still be an advantage.

If it converts balanced to single ended through a summing circuit, the balanced connection would have an advantage, if it just uses half of the balanced signal, then there woudl probably be no advantage.

Yes tried XLR but doesn’t sound as good, that’s not because of the XLR. It’s because the RCA has direct connection bypasses the input relays or something like that. 

[ASRMichael]

@barrows you should build one & give us a review?

 

nice to hear someone else using ground rods for safety & single ground, just like me. we’ll let’s not get into that again! 😂

[ASRMichael]

Innovations/discoveries don’t come from a text book! Text book follow innovation & discoveries. 
 

We don’t know what we don’t know.

 

I encourage everyone to ask their dealer for a loan of devices before purchase. Put them in for a few weeks then remove them. I find that a better way to evaluate. 

[ASRMichael]

13 minutes ago, barrows said:

The above is entirely in error.  If you disagree, please explain the force which allows any energy to flow to a "ground box" attached to a component's ground by a single electrical wire.  There is no force which woudl make any energy, of any type "drain" to a box which is not low impedance.

I don’t know the answer to this so bear with me. When you build a ground pit with ground rods. The pit itself can be filled with chemicals/minerals. I believe this helps to give lower impedance. So is it possible the minerals used in the boxes are low impedance for ground. If so on that basis would that not explain it? 

[ASRMichael]

Products like this..like google search, literally thousands of products. Widely used in some countries for ground pits. 

 

https://www.powerandcables.com/product/earth-tapes-rods-bars-copper/marconite/

[ASRMichael]

well who knows then.....Maybe we’ll discover an explanation in time..or not! 
 

Interesting you mention about the quality of ground rods. Cheers, because I’ve seem gradual increase in resistance over the last 3 months. I initially thought I need to water the area, but actually made it worse. It’s been a really wet winter here, so maybe too much water or like you say the rod is maybe corroded. 

[ASRMichael]

Just to point out. I have dedicated mains which I class as good as it gets. Also class my system as very good and revealing, yet I still have good results with grounding boxes.  
 

As far as I’m aware there is nothing to fix in my system. 

[ASRMichael]

16 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Have you tried measuring A.C. volts between the metal cases, or the "earth" side of it's output sockets   of ALL of your gear and Mains Earth ?  You may even measure as high as HALF the actual mains voltage with some of them.(SMPS) 

No I’ve not, but could do I suppose. What exactly do I need to do? 
 

I have no SMPS on my dedicated mains. 

[ASRMichael]

13 minutes ago, barrows said:

@ASRMichael, You are using the ASR Emitter and TAD DAC still?  The pictures I have seen of the TAD show it is not grounded, I am pretty sure its IEC socket even has only two prongs, can you confirm this?  This would mean that by design it is ungrounded.  As I recall the ASR amps use battery power, is that correct, or do they just use battery power for the input stage and AC power for the output stage?  It has been a long time since I have seen one of the ASR amps, but I do remember hearing one back when they first came on the scene and it sounded pretty damn good!

I am wondering if your system responds well to a "virtual ground" box, because it is not grounded in the first place, and I wonder what TAD might say about this, as they seem to be of the belief that leaving their component floating is better.

Hi, Yes still using ASR Emitter II exclusive and TAD D1000 DAC. 

 

ASR Emitter has 2 power supplies feeding the Amp itself + 1 battery for Input stage of amp. On the back of each supplies there is a switch "Groundlift-Switch" "connects the power-ground with audio ground" "open or connected" I leave it Open. 

 

Yes TAD D1000 just has 2 prongs. I ground the key work mind you to ground spike. I'll send them an email to find out. 

 

Cheers

[ASRMichael]

Are we not on the verge here saying it’s just zero & one’s? How can it sound different? Many things we don’t understand in audio, & just because we can’t test it doesn’t mean it’s not improving the sound quality. There are many instances in our audio chain that we are not measuring. 
 

@barrows as I said before why not ask your dealer for a loan of a box & review yourself? Surely being an design engineer you’re open to this suggestion? 

[ASRMichael]

11 minutes ago, barrows said:

Actually, everything which changes sound quality in audio can be measured.  The only problem is we do not, typically, measure everything, and most of us, typically, do not know which things which need to be measured to cover every aspect of sound quality.  

the idea held by some audiophiles that there are mystical and magical aspects to sound quality which are not known is really in error.  In fact, we can measure things at much lower levels than what is even audible at all.  We just miss on how we correlate measurements with listening results, but are getting better all the time on that as well.  Some engineers are much better at measuring what does matter than others.

 

I certainly do not believe, for example, that a simple distortion profile of a single 1 KHz tone shows all that matters!  That is ridiculous considering it only addresses a single discrete frequency when music signals are complex and their arrangement in time is critical to their fidelity.  

 

But this does not mean we should distrust the measurements we do use-for example, these devices claim to reduce noise, and this is relatively simple to measure and verify.  Certainly, even if they reduce only noise at RF, any decent RF lab can verify this.  Electronic audio reproduction is not magic, it is science and engineering.

Well maybe we’ll find the next higgs boson! 😂

[ASRMichael]

22 minutes ago, Summit said:

 

Who appointed you to be the judge of what needs extraordinary proof. Many thousands have heard the effects of ground boxes. So it’s actually physically possible and just because you don’t understand how something works doesn’t mean it doesn’t.

Great point, we have thousands of people saying they hear positive improvement in SQ! But not one of the disbeliever here have even heard one! 
 

As I’ve said before, go ask your dealer & judge for yourself.