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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
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,275 posts
 
Well I just posted my Review of the Ground Controls in the standard and the Reference versions in spades and RCA.
koestner
635 posts
 
Bud, I think it was stated before, but I don't understand why. I have a fully balanced amp (Wyred 4 Sound) that I run in full balanced from source through preamp to amp. Why will the GCs' do nothing in my case?
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,275 posts
 
Koestner, I run my system balanced from CD Player, Preamp, Amp and the Ground Controls work fantastic!
koestner
635 posts
 
Ozzy, where do you place them as both leads are hot, only 180 degrees out of phase from each other?

John
budp
55 posts
 
Koestner,

I have just been reporting what users have forwarded to me. The one user, with a fully differential system, reported no change at all, neither better or worse. A balanced system is not always fully differential, there can be a ground reference in the system and that is all that is known to be needed for GC's to perform. Obviously, Ozzie is having great success with his balanced system.

To date we have seen two GC's up for sale and none have been returned to us as unusable, other than the fully differential system rejection.

The RCA's do seem to take longer to charge than the spade lug items. I ascribe this to signal level and relative current levels involved, with the RCA's not normally seeing more than 3 or 4 volts peak and only ten's of ma in current.

I have noticed that the louder you play the system, over what you will normally listen to, the quicker the spade lug versions charge. This does not seem to be true with the RCA's though, or at least not in my experience. Again, I think it is related to the signal levels involved as

I would suggest that you try out a pair of standard lugged GC's. If they don't work out for you, return them and please report back in either case. The more different styles of systems that use them, the more data points we have and all information is good information.

Bud
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