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Do better ingredients make a better Ground Wire?

We have all heard the slogan "Better ingredients better Pizza". If this is true with Pizza, how about applying this Principal to a DIY Ground wire I pondered. So I set off on a journey to find out if using better ingredients (wire) would make a better ground cable. My finding of course only apply to my system in my listening room using my ears (my wife and my Beagle dog don't count). But they heard the difference as well. To say this was a short trip is an understatement. To say that the two versions I made more than held there own is an even BIGGER understatement. One version uses solid core Silver wire. The other version uses a silver & Palladium mix. I made 4 of each kind, both versions terminated using a pure 8 awg copper spade. Do better ingredients make a better Ground wire. In my system, a very understated YES!!!
jejaudio
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
I have some that are 2.5 inches loop length 5 inch long total cable and they sound better than the 12 or 14 inch cables.
Five inches just happens to be the wavelength in free space of a 2.4GHz WiFi signal. It also corresponds roughly to the wavelength of a signal induced and propagating in a wire at some cellphone frequencies.

The close spacing of the parallel conductors, and/or the fact that they are shorted together at the speaker terminal, probably results in dissipation of some of the energy that may be in the vicinity due to wifi or cellphone signals (notwithstanding the fact that the 6Moons review quotes one of the Audio Prism partners as denying that its effects are due to rf filtering).

Why any of that would be audibly significant, however, is beyond me, as is the mumbo jumbo in the review about ground plane effects.

Regards,
-- Al
jejaudio OP
110 posts
 
Ozzy, both the solid core Silver and the stranded Palladium & Silver wire are both around 14 awg thick. So that's 14 awg x 4 in one 8 awg pure copper spade.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,612 posts
 
Jejaudio, I am using a 24 gauge pure silver wire that started out 24" long. Folded it 3 times to make a 6" length. Then made a loop out of that making it about a 3" loop. Then I used a bannana plug on the end.
Not sure if this is equivalent to yours but it sounds pretty good.
Great tweak and is easy to experiment with.
elescher's avatar
elescher
114 posts
 
I agree with the OP in that I have experimented with different types of wire that attach to my two grounding rods outside of my house. I have a dedicated isolated ground for my system. Grounding is a very tricky subject and changes in the gauge of wire, what the wire is made of, which components in your system are grounded and which are not, all make a profound difference. There are no sure answers as to what wire is best to use for your system or which components to lift the ground are in your system because no two are the same, and neither is the electricity coming into the house. That being said, I wouldn't recommend attaching a ground wire to a speaker binding post.
jejaudio OP
110 posts
 
Hi, Almarg. Your hypothises (educated guess) is as good as I have heard. Dissipation of outside noise, Radio waves, EMI-RFI,or even absorption or filtering which is denied in the review as you pointed out is on the table. I just don't know enough about this kind of thing. But I'm with you on the length being a major part. But I do know what I hear. So there is no law of physic conflict between my right and left brain. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
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