Grounding with a Earth box?

I shown some photos to a cousin of my studying mineralogy at university of the so call special mixture of the Entreq.He said it look like Black Iron Oxide.Sells for $100 for a 20kg bag. .Entreq sells the cheapest unit for around $800US.I shown him the ads about magnetic balance with minerals contents and he laughed.

Hi all,

I have a friend that purchased an Entreq Poseidon and swears by it. He says it makes his system sound better. I have also been dabbling in making one of these for myself. Trying to find out what’s in them is like trying to get the recipe to Coca Cola! I did finish mine however and installed it on Saturday on my system. After about 20 minutes I was able to hear a bigger soundstage and much better imaging. It made my speakers disappear in my room.

I have 2 CAD box's, a GC1 and GC3.  Brought my system to a new level!

brubin

I found this thread looking for info to build my own ground boxes. I wanted to make comments and ask questions of the people with experience but thought it would be meaningless on threads inactive for almost a year.

Firstly, there is so much misinformation in this thread I can hardly believe it. Lightning is the number one reason for a safety ground but it's not the only reason. Admittedly it's a complex issue the I dont fully understand. See Grounding and Shielding 4th ed. by Morrison.

And if anyone hasn't heard Ground Boxes and thinks they're snake oil they ought to keep their comments shorter. People are leaving sites like these in droves because it has become a waste of time. 

I don't know how these things work. But we theorize anyway. I know how interconnect is supposed to work but I know interconnect that breaks all the rules and sounds even better. I've been experimenting with various wire types on my system and the area between the conductors makes zero difference to the sound. Its supposed to make a huge difference because it's the"loop area" that determines inductance. I've learned the hard way to trust my ears and not reason with incomplete scientific models. I don't ignore them, just am not ruled by them.

The first time I heard of Ground Boxes where I actually paid attention was the OCD Hifi Guy video. Since then I've spend a lot of time looking into it. I almost broke down and bought a used one. 

Like Mikey says there are Ferromagnetic, Paramagnetic, Diamagnetic and Piezoelectric materials. You can research that yourself. I'm not going to rewatch the video but I thought he said he used a base of dirt. If so I have no idea why. 

Audiogoner tksteingraber said he researched ground soil mixtures or something and they used charcoal and salt. I had never found anything previously about that and searched it now. It looks like they also use calcium chloride (and charcoal). It said that concrete "dopes" the area for good ground. It attracts moisture and provides plenty of icons. Now I know why soil next to concrete is so cold and moist. 

That's a different thing than a ground box. I'd imagine that on most ground box designs the moisture and ion levels do nothing. On ground boxes that do use that than it is actually how they work. I read somewhere that making a salt battery might work. I wish I knew chemistry better so I'd know exactly what they meant. 

Okay. So we have all these elements. Carbon absorbs certain frequencies of EM (Electromagnetic) energy and converts it into heat. Quartz is crystalized silicon and highly piezoelectric. It converts EM energy into physical vibration. Damp that vibration and you've converted that energy into heat as well. 

I'm writing this on my phone so will do several shorter comments so I don't lose anything which would be a waste of my time. 

I was talking to someone that saw inside a base level Entreq damaged in shipping. It was basically a box of thick copper plate (price that stuff out - yikes!) with the terminal lug bolted to that. Most of the filler was a black rock (Shungite, I'd guess) and sprinkling of various metals that looked like copper, silver, iron fillings etc. This guy uses an Entreq and no power conditioner. He said the various models and generations sound different (they basically give it a warmer sound and lower noise floor). I have no idea what his system is. I asked him about the Telos GNR. It's an active unit from Hong Kong. I'd like something active because to me it should be adjustable in some way. He said he'd heard that unit and it worked but not as much as the Entreqs. 

That's part of the reason I'd like to try making one out of salt water in a water fountain container (5 gallon plastic jug). You could change concentrations or salts. 

And can anyone tell me why these have to be in a wooden box? Why cant I use a plastic pail or storage container? No body mentions this. If this works I'm going to have a lot of big ones. An over sized one for each component. 

Before I try to make conclusions I need to digress some more. Acoustic Revive makes a power conditioner called the RTP. It's made buy CNCing a pocket out of a solid block of aluminum. The minimum thickness is 1 inch. It's basically a power distribution block more than conditioner. They pour green carborundum on the bottom then take a fine grain mixture of a specific type of tourmaline and quartz and mix it with epoxy and pour it over the carborundum. Green Carborundum is actually a brand name. It's really silicon carbide. So we're back to silicon and carbon. This compound doesn't exist in nature. It's used for sandblasting and is being researched for EMF sheilding in harsh, high temperature environments. 

As far as I can tell tourmaline is just quartz with a bunch of other elements mixed in. I think they were using black tourmaline but not sure. I don't know why they aren't using Rutilated Quartz instead. It's quartz with a bunch of metallic elements embedded inside it. Maybe tourmalines are more consistent? 

So that's the Acoustic Revive. Add wires and AC receptacles. 

The CAD is supposed to be basically the same type of thing but sourced from a scientifically engineered and developed product. I think it was a ceramic blend. It's not lose. It's cut from a block. Whether it's rubberized or brick like I dont know. They said it's the same as or came from the same technology as used to ground aeroplanes. I looked into it and found nothing. 

Tara Labs, the cable maker, uses a proprietary ceramic blend to ground their cable shields. That sounds like a good idea. Usually shielding analog cables is thought to reduce air and dynamics etc. Generally a bad thing so if you can get the benefits without the negatives I'd be all for it. I talked to a dealer recently who warned me away from their cables. He deals in the very best gear so I'll take his word for it. Walked away from a $3000 used cable on his advice. Gotta trust the few who know what's really up.