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Grounding the system

Dear fellow A-goners, do you have experience with independent grounding of your system?

I have a (water) radiator for warming the house close by my system in our living / listening room, and it is not a big effort to connect to it with a thin lead / cable.

I have experimented a bit, and generally found the sound to improve. I have ended up connecting all my equipment to the ground, with a "star" scheme centred on the preamp chassis. The elements of my speakers are connected also. From the star centre i have a lead to the radiator.

Results are subtle, but towards more consistency and holography. Yet i wonder since at times the sound seems a bit tame also. I may be doing this the wrong way, or not optimal.

Advice? I read about improvements from independent grounding of the whole system in the Danish High fidelity magazine some years ago, but I've not read much on this topic in US websites.

Oystein
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gs5556
1,231 posts
 
Would you be open to the idea of removing the circuit breaker and place a copper bar in its place? It may improve things sonically. You may ask if this will render the circuit unprotected and create a hazard. Well, by grounding to the radiator it would have the same effect - even if you still have the third plug connected to the outlet. Any fault current (an abnormal condition) may flow to the radiator instead of back to the panel and the circuit breaker may not sense anything wrong and will happily keep supplying the juice. There's a method of madness to all those electrical codes.

It cannot be over-emphasized: if you're not fluent in electrical safety, keep a respectable distance and always ask a professional for assistance.
joenies's avatar
joenies
258 posts
 
Hello,
If you are not getting any hum you should be OK.
I have no ground wires hooked up to my pre-amp or amp.
I have the ground wire from my cartridge going to my step-up then a ground wire from my step-up to my phono drive. The phone drive I do not have gounded to anything.
I do have a ground wire from my turntable chassis ground to a cold water pipe.
Ground and bonding is an art. It might work one way at one location and will not work at others.
Good luck,
Joe Nies
underdog
43 posts
 
Hi, I have a dedicated isolated ground for my system. Basically the ground lugs from my audio receptacles go to their own set of copper rods independent of the rest of the house ground rods. IMO this is the way to go, although many don't recommend it for safety reasons.
joenies's avatar
joenies
258 posts
 
Hello,
We have 2 different grounding systems we are talking about. One is the power (AC) ground and then the chassis ground. Your AC grounds should go back to your AC panel or approved equal. Most AC grounds come from the transformer to your service panel and then maybe tied to your cold water pipe, depends on the codes in your area. My house is on a well system with the pipe casing going down over 200ft. A great grounding system.Your chassis ground or bonding can go to a properly installed ground rod (earthing rod) or water pipe.
Ground rods need to have the soil tested and be in the ground X amount of feet to be effective.
A good book to get on the subject is " the art of grounding and shielding". Grounding can be accomplished in many different ways.
Hope this helps.
Joe Nies
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