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Lowering House Grounding Impedance

So, I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’m pretty happy with the pieces of gear in my system. I know, I’m surprised too. Recently, however, I read about lowering the impedance to ground as a potential improvement and thought I’d give it a try. I’ve done quite a bit of tweaking to get to where I’m finally happy but I had never really looked at the grounding situation for my house, other than to make sure the utility panel was tidy and connected up right. In reviewing my house’s grounding to earth situation, I found that it didn’t have one! My house was built more than 50 years ago and they relied on grounding to the cold water pipes. This was fine while there was 100 feet of 3 inch copper pipe running to my well but when we replaced that pipe with plastic my grounding was gone. Initially, I drove two 8 foot copper clad grounding rods and bonded them together and grounded the external utility panel to them. I was really surprised that the difference the good grounding made to my system, it really removed a layer of haze that I didn’t know was there. Like cleaning a window that is already fairly clean, just added clarity. As I understand it, the lowering of the ground potential is what is responsible for the increase in sound quality. Has, anyone else experimented with improving their ground situation? 
hollandw
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jea48
4,446 posts
 
builder3119 posts12-08-2018 6:30pm

Jim, interesting, and I don’t know the answers. I wish I had a better understanding of the real world differences and interactions of the grounded (neutral) and grounding conductors. Thanks for the link, I’ll check back.

I wish I had a better understanding of the real world differences and interactions of the grounded (neutral) and grounding conductors.

The "Grounded Conductor" (neutral conductor) and "Grounding Conductor" (equipment grounding conductor) are at the same zero potential at the main electrical service equipment (main electrical panel) where they are both connected together. If RFI/EMI is on the service entrance neutral conductor wouldn’t it also be transferred onto the grounding conductor (equipment grounding conductor)?


hollandw OP
30 posts
 
There are so many things that inexplicably affect the sound of hi-end audio it can just about drive you nuts. The good low impedance earth grounding I established for my house made a positive difference we could easily discern. But of course that wasn’t good enough, I had to screw with it to see if I could make it even better. And, of course, I screwed it up and had work to get back to where I was before. 
I had a good ground established, with two 16’ foot rods bonded together, connected with 4 gauge stranded copper, clamped to the rods. I’d heard that solid core could be better, so I bought 25’ of solid core and some exothermic single weld cadweld devices (these things are pretty cool, they use a pyrotechnic material to form a welded bond inside a crucible between the rod and wire). I added the wire on top of the stranded, in parallel. End result was that the benefits I’d realized disappeared! I’m guessing some sort affect occurred due to the bare wires touching each other before the rods, or running parallel, or both. So, I ended up gambling and leaving the solid core and ripping up the stranded. The end result is that I think I’m back to about 98% of where I was. The main impact has been to bass and, in careful listening, I think I’m still just a tad light on the lower bass from where I was after my initial installation of the low impedance earth grounding. I’m going to try a couple more things and then just buy some more 4 gauge stranded and put it back the way it was if I’m still not happy. Don’t you love this hobby? 
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