All grounding schemes from component to earth have different levels of impedance (ground potential). We know this much.
By no means am I an expert, but by wiring each component’s chassis
(earth ground) to the grounding box and adjusting the settings, the
theory is that an equal impedance to ground can be achieved.
https://www.synergisticresearch.com/isolation/ground-isolation/grounding-block/
http://www.graniteaudio.com/zero/index.html
Where’s millercarbon when you need him?
millercarbon was early on the scene:
"How?" is the refuge of scoundrels. "Does?" is all that matters.
Don't take that the wrong way. Not saying "how" doesn't matter at all. But we all know, or should, the tremendous number of people who use "how" as an excuse to avoid even trying to find out if it "does". Not to belabor the point but instead of simply trying and listening and finding out they dig in and fortify and argue to the death, never giving any credence to the fact a whole bunch of people are saying yes indeed it really does work.
The hallograph thing right now today is being ridiculed by one of the prime examples of closed-minded foot stamping on the ground stubborn insistence we prove "how" before he will even consider "does". That is what I mean by scoundrels.
The hallograph, the ground box, and a whole bunch of other seemingly silly stuff all have one thing in common: they are plausible. That's not saying they DO work, but rather that if you know enough about the physics and electronics of sound it is easy to see how they COULD work.
We never do prove if something works by thinking and talking. That is the realm of scoundrels. We prove if something works with testing by trial and error. The exemplar of a scoundrel is georgehifi. The exemplar of a tester is Chuck Yeager. I trust at least some of you are able to discern the difference.
So how exactly is it plausible for a box of dirt to lower the noise floor? Well, lowrider57 is right. Just please don't shoot me over it.
The way I think of it, the environment is saturated with all sorts of electromagnetic radiation. We like to call it RFI but the R stands for radio and that means megaherz but electromagnetic radiation spans a spectrum it is not all radio frequency so I like to keep an open mind and think of it as just plain old electromagnetic radiation.
Now if you know your EE101 then you know whenever any electromagnetic field crosses a wire it induces a current in that wire. This is how transformers, generators, phono cartridges, etc work. Happens with every wire. Every bit of metal, really. Every wire and metal in your system then is like an antenna channeling noise into your music.
So that is one way the earth ground box can work, as a sort of drain for this unwanted noise. Think of the noise as rain. The more drains the less water on the floor. Most of us have a great big one right in the middle of the room. That's your normal earth ground, the 3rd prong on the plug. Doesn't mean a little one over in the corner won't help.
But then we have the problem of the floor never being perfectly flat. The slope of the floor is impedance. If the floor was perfectly flat, the electrical impedance, the resistance of this tiny current going to ground was perfectly equal everywhere, then we could use lots and lots of drains no problem. But it is not. Some floors slope every which way. When this happens if you have more than one drain you get water (current) sloshing around and what do we call that? Everyone all together now: ground loop hum!
But there's another less well understood way the earth box could work. Notice some of these boxes they are telling you to fill them with different minerals and stuff. There's people like mahgister putting rocks on wires. What is up with that? Are these things related?
I think they are. Certainly plausible. Remember, the signal is not just in the wire. It is a fluctuating field. It emanates all over the place. These probably are all nothing more than different ways of tuning, or what mahgister calls embedding, the system to its environment.
With this one, you don't have to spend hardly a dime to try it out. Shovel some dirt, sand, rocks or whatever into a tupperware bin, stick a wire in it, connect the other end to your whatever. Go and listen. You will see.
Beats the hell out of being a scoundrel.
