Isolation Ward From ebony pucks to magic foil, mystical and controversial tweaks.

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Speculation about the battery ground tweak

Posted by unclestu (D) on May 11, 2011 at 12:43:41

This tweak has been very interesting and intriguing ( attaching a battery with capacitors to the ground only of your component).

On one hand, it works very well on tube gear, but not as noticeable on solid state gear: adding dynamics, a seeming 2dB increase in overall volume, and far greater detail in magnifying the signal to noise ratio, at least for tube gear.

On s/s gear I can hear an increase in detail but not much gain in s/n ratio or overall volume.

I am speculating on the difference in the nature of the perceived sonic changes. I believe one of the principle differences is that tube gain stages are primarily unbalanced, while s/s stages are more balanced.
This is in regards to the power supplies: except for the negative bias voltage, most tube designs are unbalanced where only the positive voltages are critical to the performance of the amplification device. A vacuum tube essentially generates its own negative voltage from the emissions off of the cathode which in turn is triggered by the heater.

The solid state gear is dependent upon the output of the transformer, and most (at least those I've examined the internals of) have a separate negative voltage supply which parallels the positive voltage off of the same output taps of the transformer. That is, you make a bridge rectifier which supplies both positive and negative voltages. A transistor can not generate voltage within itself like a tube does.

Thus, in essence, a transistor device is in a closed equilibrium. The tube devices are not in a closed equilibrium and thus adding a source of electrons ( the negative of the battery), we are essentially unbalancing the circuit even further. The negative voltage sources in solid state essentially buffer the battery ground tweak limiting its effectiveness.

Thus far in applying the battery ground tweak to solid state devices, I find it necessary to use far higher voltages and extremely large capacitances, using as large as multiple one farad caps ( and this for a CD player!).

Initially, I thought it was perhaps due to the fact that most transistors are current amplifiers rather than voltage amps as tubes are.

At any rate comments are welcome from those who have tried the tweak.

Stu

Edits: 05/11/11

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