Thanks for the excellent overview Mike.
Affordable Grounding
My Frankenstereo has assorted grounding elements behind the rack. The head end of the streaming chain is in another room. At the wall outlet, there’s Nordost QBase 4 Mk II – with a ground lug.
I tried this inexpensive grounding tweak clipped on to the lug. Subtle – but it works. More transparency. Probably similar results with the Puritan Ground Master – and other brands. Worth a try! Certainly more affordable than an Entreq. I purchased the cheapest one with the copper wire/paper cylinder. (Not a fan of silver-plated wire.)
YMMV
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Anyone in this hobby knows we have all thrown money away chasing something. The best money I ever spent was in having an electrician put in a dedicated line for my stereo equipment. Next best money was in buying a grounding box and driving a grounding rod into the ground outside the house and then running all my equipment through it. Period. The black background is stark and eerily quiet. I probably have $3,000 in these two things and I would never do it any other way if excellent sound is the goal. Just my .02 |
I don’t know what the wooden tube does, but I concur with @bolivarjoy, I had a dedicated line from the panel with true earth ground rod and hospital grade pure copper AC outlets installed. Digital source, 20 wpc 300b/845 SET tube amp and high sensitivity Klipsch Forte speakers. The dedicated line dropped the noise floor to the floor! Also powers the router, dedicated switch box, and LP supplies. I could always hear transformer hum through the speakers in between tracks or with quiet passages. Tried DC filters, USB filters, lower gain signal tubes, and even minus 10dB attenuation, still hum. Worse some days than others, quietist late at night. Once the dedicated line installed, transformer hum virtually gone, I no longer can hear from seat. Second best upgrade was a DDC between a fanless mini PC streaming source and the DAC, darker background, larger soundstage and way better stereo images. Together with dedicated line, I might actually be done…with this system anyway. Have four others I can tinker with. |
Lots of discussion of these devices, primarily DIY, here: I haven't tried nor do I advocate these tweaks but if one were to do so, I'm guessing the improvement would be more substantial with one of these. A relative bargain compared to similar offerings from Nordost and Entreq at 10 to 20 times less cost. |
A'gon user @mahgister has written here previously about devices such as this, IIRC. |
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