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Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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AFAIK Kirchoff's Laws are completely true.

Attaching an insulated wire of any sort, including one soldered to a battery, to one speaker post or one amplifier output post, only affects the circuit behavior if there is a current path through the wire.

At low frequencies and with typical insulation, there is no current path and the tweak has no effect. Otherwise Kirchoff's current law is violated and we are in the realm of paranormal behavior. The explanations advanced previously (pool of extra electrons, etc.) do not address Kirchoff's current law and invite violent objections.

However, at radio frequencies the stray capacitance of the tweak wire plus whatever is soldered to it will allow another path for current. This does not violate Kirchoff's current law.

I'm satisfied based on my experiences that RF noise affects sonic performance with at least some audio equipment. RF noise may enter a power amp through the output terminals. Making a change that affects only the RF behavior of the amplifier-speaker circuit may change audio performance.

Generalizing this is difficult as different power amp designs have different pathways for connecting audio ground to chassis ground, different conventions for how the speakers are driven (negative terminal at virtual ground or at negative one-half of the signal with respect to ground), and different sensitivities to RF noise. Thus, it is not surprising that some folks would find improvement with this tweak and others find nothing at all.

Use caution in experimenting with direct connection of the speaker or amplifier output negative terminal to amplifier chassis or AC safety-earth. The amp may be damaged or destroyed.

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