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In a recent review on Entreq grounding boxes by Roy Gregory in The Audio Beat, he mentions that the first thing one should do before any other grounding tweak is to install a dedicated grounding rod that connects directly to the distribution box of your system. I use a power conditioner, not a distribution strip or box. Can a grounding terminal be added to an existing conditioner and if so how would you do it?
www.beautyofsound.com
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I run the entire system - analog and tubes - ungrounded. It's the quietest it's ever been. No plans on future grounding, at least in the current (geddit?) house.Safety be damned.
Edits: 09/25/14
Waxxy,
May I recommend grounding to a polished, contact-enhanced brass-fitting on the water-pipe beneath your kitchen sink/ bathroom basin with Teflon-covered, silver-coated, 18-gauge, copper-wire from eBay? Allowing the corruption to escape via an uncompromised water-pipe infrastructure extending miles drops the noise floor substantially more than floating (that merely isolates from domestic ground corruption).
Should you have a Mac Mini music server (computers have so much dirty linen to send out), then using the sound input jack with a 3.5mm stereo plug to connect its ground to the other unused water pipe with more of that wire produces another larger additional drop in the level of background distortion. Introduce the negative terminal of a large 6-volt battery into that wire near the Mac Mini to increase the differential and the signal-to-noise ratio improves markedly again. In four years of daily tweaking this is the single biggest bang-for-buck sound quality improvement that I have yet heard other than enclosing the Mac Mini's internal power supply with MuMetal.
Economizing with less expensive copper wire is tempting at first but it noticeably stops the reduction of ground corruption on the top end, so having done both, I would not recommend that false economy.
This tweak (only a refinement on my part) is addressed to you and any other open-minded member as I am well aware that it may be a ground too far for the safety anxieties of the majority.
Dry Ginger
Actually I have tried grounding to my main water pipe where it enters the house. I wasn't using any fancy dancy wire, just some heavy gauge ground wire leftover from a telecom contract. I also have tried connecting to a ground rod in the garden.
For me, and my system, the quietest set up by far was floating the entire rig.
I ain't never going back! Safety schmafety!
http://centralindianaaes.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/indy-aes-2012-seminar-w-notes-v1-0.pdf
go to page 29.
AB.
if you have another conductor linking the two ground rods, you have zero resistance between them and are not using your house as a resistor when there's a voltage differential at the two ground rods.
if you have another conductor linking the two ground rods, you have zero resistance between them and are not using your house as a resistor when there's a voltage differential at the two ground rods.
If the installation is done per NEC code, where the auxiliary ground rod is connected to the branch circuit safety grounding conductor, theoretically that would be true. Even then the point would be mute because the power cord safety equipment grounding conductor of any connected audio equipment would be tee tapped off of the equipment grounding conductor connection of the branch circuit safety equipment grounding conductor.
Again my problem with an auxiliary ground rod is lightning. A lightning strike can travel horizontally through the earth for many miles. Current will always take a least resistive path when one is provided. I would not want a large current flow from a nearby lightning strike to travel through a #12 awg branch circuit safety equipment grounding conductor. Also the lightning strike voltage can be 10s of thousands of volts. The insulation cover on the hot and neutral conductors of the branch circuit is rated for 600 volts.
If the OP believes the myth the earth possess some magical mystical power that sucks RFI/EMI from his audio system and wants a lower Grounding Electrode resistance to earth then I would suggest he do so at the main electrical service earth connection.
He can hire a Power Quality company or a commercial/industrial electrical contractor to check the electrode to earth ground resistance.
ANSI/IEEE recommends a ground resistance of 5 OHMS or less. NEC Code only says if the ground resistance is greater than 25 Ohms it shall be augmented by one additional ground rod. That's it. No further testing is needed. If the initial test was 100 OHMS only one additional rod is needed. End of Program. Food for thought how many residential electricians check the ground resistance? None that I know of.
Keep in mind the main purpose for the earth connection of the service neutral conductor to earth is for lightning protection..
.Henry Ott
hottconsultants.com-pdf_files-ground.pdf
Edits: 09/24/14 09/24/14
This topic of "separate" ground rods keeps coming up over and over on AA and other forums. It seems like there should be a sticky on the subject.
Per NEC Code you can drive a ground rod/s for equipment providing the ground rod is connected to the existing branch circuit safety equipment grounding conductor. The new ground rod is called an auxiliary grounding electrode. Note the new ground rod is connected to the main grounding electrode system, of the main electrical service, by the branch circuit equipment grounding conductor. This is a requirement of NEC code.
I personally do not like the idea of using an auxiliary grounding electrode ground rod. My problem is in the event of a near by lightning strike the lightning could travel through the auxiliary ground rod through the branch circuit equipment grounding conductor to the main grounding electrode system, of the main electrical service, then back to earth. That event could wipe out your power conditioner along with your audio equipment.
As for an earth ground connection? The earth does nothing for the sonics of audio equipment. The earth does not possess some magical mystical power that sucks nasties from audio equipment. It's a myth.
http://centralindianaaes.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/indy-aes-2012-seminar-w-notes-v1-0.pdf
...(or more) ground stakes sunk in the earth and connected to the EXISTING electrical system's earth system. I also understand, perhaps incorrectly, that ADDING to the existing earthing system is consistent with good AC-power practices. Years ago I added two 8-foot (?) ground stakes to my AC-power system, connecting them to the main AC-power distribution box's earthing buss. Maybe this nonsummer I'll sink a couple more in the front flowerbed and connect them to the green wire of my audio-dedicated triple lines, the exterior J-boxes of which run across the front of the house.
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Tin-eared audiofool, large-scale-Classical music lover, and damned-amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
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Tin-eared audiofool, large-scale-Classical music lover, and damned-amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
nt
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