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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
budp
55 posts
 
I think you may know quite a bit more than nuthin Jejaudio. Thank you for your appreciation of our efforts and, by the by, the Reference models do use solid silver speaker lugs and solid silver internals for the RCA connectors and both use Wonder solder for the connections. The "standard" units have gold plated over pure copper for the lugs or copper alloy for the RCA units

Bud
gswaul
1 posts
 
I normally don't contribute much to these types of discussions, but I felt my personal experience warranted some comment. After seeing the GC devices advertised in several magazines and catalogs, I became curious. I found the review for these in The Stereotimes and then this discussion. I decided, from the comments above, that testing this "tweak" as too simple to pass up. I took a short piece of my existing speaker cable, Kimber 8TC, and stripped it into 2 loops approximately 8-10" long. I installed them on my speakers and then ran some errands. When I returned, I was surprised to find music pouring out all over the room. The music had a greater ease and flow to it with improvements in both separation and soundstage. I have never had this experience with any other "normal" tweak and am most impressed. I don't know if this works with all systems or just some but it is certainly worth the effort to try. My electronics are Audio Research and my speakers are Dynaudio for those who might be interested. Many thanks to the developer and those of you who contributed to this thread!
budp
55 posts
 
Gswaul,

Thanks for your comments. The wire loops are a surprising change, as silly seeming as the idea is. Even more surprising is what the full Ground Control device brings to a system.. My recommendation, of course, is that you should buy a set!!!! :=)

You still have tonal vividness an even more clearly locked in dimensionality, a bit faster response and a general sweetness to the sounds still to be obtained from the standard commercial GC's.

As Jejaudio points out, better materials are important and the Reference GC is noticeably more capable than the standard units. And then there are still the amplifier, preamplifier and source GC's to explore.

Bud
budp
55 posts
 
Just to increase the Agony of those still on the fence over these small Ground Control items, here is a new review.
http://www.stereotimes.com

Bud
pixelphoto
70 posts
 
Wow! I took a 20" piece of Monster speaker cable, split it, looped it, twisted the bare ends and attached one each to my Def Tech STS speakers and zowie. After two days of listening to familiar CD's I can say vocals are more real, cymbals really shimer, guitar, drum, sax, you name it and all has more presence. This is the best tweak yet to my humble system.
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