Do grounding boxes improve sound?

[@soyboy3274]

i love that you answer all these questions! i myself am a hobbyist and speaker enthusiast and your videos have helped me a lot! thank you for putting out so much good content!

[@NiclasMardfelt]

CAD and Entreq make modern version of these products. All listeners and reviewers seem to like them a lot. Listen for you self. Read the reviews. However Paul has got a point, maybe the grounding do not get perfect, but the current might flow easier and the background noise gets lowered. Paul should try one of these out. It is PS Audios active mains conditioning vs the ground boxes passive way. The alternative is filtering, which weakens dynamics. The best combination for most systems aought to be power regenerator, dedicated mains line and ground boxing the components. Costly but improving quietness and dynamics. It is tested with success. Paul has more information regarding this on PS Audios forum.

[@esotericaudiophile3884]

I spent around 6 months developing "Virtual ground" boxes, It's a special pseudo-science device that seems impossible to "Do anything". After all, a nice solid earth ground is hard to beat right? Well, after 6 months of research and development, I created many devices that can totally transform, clean and manipulate AC signals to give "The perfect" sound! Call it the grail? Anyways, I will not elaborate too much on "Snake Oil" that actually works! hehehe! Fast forward, I have 2 major patents that will revolutionize audio as we know it! It maybe the end of ultra expensive cables as well... Coming 2019...

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

LOL *_Snake oil_*

[@Dirtyhealz]

@@esotericaudiophile3884 any updates on this?

[@yourdiytechlife]

Great subject. My biggest issues with grounding problems were always in automotive systems. Aaagghhh it could drive you crazy chasing grounding problems. When I started using the star system things usually cleared up quickly.

[@FunkyGene]

Easy grounding box/ recipe 🤣 I have finnaly made a working grounding can. I started by using an old steel chaffing container and drilling a hole to put a 2 inch long bolt in. I then lined the can with aluminum foil. Next I made a piece of foil into the shape of a sine wave. Fold it together accordian style and thread a nice copper wire through it, if it is a high enough gauge it will be able to just poke through the foil, if not use a scre driver. Place the foil inside so you can see the sine wave. Wrap whatever cord you have left in any random order. I made a flat coil at the top and at the bottom with the rest of mine. Now for the mixture. I got some quartz sand from my local fish shop by the scoop,get some of that it will pretty much be the base of your mixture. Use a lead pipe and a steel pipe to get metal shavings with a rasp or grinder. Next I used a broken bong and grinded it down to dust. After this u can either cut up some nickles and throw em in to the mixture as well. Your last item is the little white things that come in potting soil u can buy em at any home store. Mix all these together and put them in the can. Tap the can so everything settles. I saturated the mixture with mineral oil. How I connected it to my stereo was easy, use a modded pair RCA cables with the negative prongs attached into the receiver, next connect the severed end of that cable to a spade and bolt it to the grounding can. Hope this works Do it at your own risk Happy listening👂

[@FunkyGene]

Bryston B60P Custom Electro Voice OB's Technics 1200mkii with an unmarked Stanton brush cartridge

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

Ah, *Ground* - the subject of much myth, misinformation, and snake oil. The two primary concepts needed for audio are: 1) Star Grounding. Yes, it’s true, it’s real, and there are very good reasons why virtually every serious recording studio is star grounded. 2) Ground loops & ripple current. This is a different beast entirely to Mains Ground. Snake Oil salesmen like to conflate & confuse Mains Ground issues with Signal Ground & Ripple Currents. Almost all equipment, no matter how well grounded to the Mains Ground, will introduce mains frequency hum & harmonics thereof into signal ground by way of imperfect power supplies & filtering. The problem is compounded when different devices have a potential difference between signal grounds. The solution is total galvanic isolation - either via transformers or optically via opto isolators or digital optical. *_Everything else is snake oil_*

[@prashanthb6521]

Thanks !

[@philipmarz707]

sometimes you need to start with the basics. making sure the building grounds are clean and tight at the incoming power to the building, at the grounding rod connection. Also make sure all electrical connections are tight within the breaker panels. Any loose connections on the line side will have the same effect as a loose ground. Another overlooked area is weak ballast in fluorescent lighting. An easy way to figure if any loads within the building are causing problems is to run your system through a computer with an app that has a scope. if noise is there you'll see it then start turning things off one at a time. While ripping vinyl to my computer there was alot of noise. The problem was loose wires at a couple wall plugs, the breaker panel and a bad ballast at an under counter light. Try it, you might be surprised.

[@luomoalto]

Philip Marz What do you mean by “run your system through a computer”?

[@philipmarz707]

@@luomoalto This was in the mid 90's so I don't remember exactly how I set it up. I believe I used Nero editing program and the on-board sound card. I had other sound cards but it's not necessary for this purpose. I believe I used an auxiliary output from the receiver to an input on the sound card. The scope in the program showed constant noise with no music playing, that's when I started hunting while watching the scope. It's a simple process of elimination. I turned all lights on then off one at a time. Took a table lamp around to all wall plugs. Any induction run motors in the refrigerator, furnace or air conditioner caused noise also, while ripping vinyl I'd turn those off. Grounding is important so it all needs to be checked back to the clamp at the grounding rod going into the ground.

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

So much B.S. in the audiophool world. Go to any guitar forum or KZbin and search “How to eliminate guitar rig hum”. You’ll find actual real world answers from professionals dealing with it every day in different venues with all manner of power supply issues. Here’s a hint: transformer isolators

[@esotericaudiophile3884]

Virtual ground boxes give about a 5% change in dynamics and clarity! A small change but, better than nothing! I have designed several and have validated them on several systems (6 months of R&D, Extensive A/B) . 2 patents!

[@dannywoods3928]

"5% clarity"!? What exactly is the clarity scale?

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@dannywoods3928 I'd be asking Julian Clary, but keeping a suitable distance.

[@esotericaudiophile3884]

@@dannywoods3928 , validated A/B testing even blind... The 5% is what my hearing can tell if I were to rate it! For some less and some higher. Took feedback from 5 ordinary listeners, they rated the improvement from 2% to 10%. I gave what I heard as far as audio improvement to be 5%. Now this is only for a complex virtual ground invention, I got other devices that manipulate enhance audio AC signals that are say 10%- 30% improvement levels. I'm hoping to launch these new Patents 2019... Well see what happens? I will say this... Not all snakes are poisonous! (higher transparency ,with holographic articulation, tighter bass response)

[@orangejjay]

@@esotericaudiophile3884 Here we are, three years later. You release anything yet?

[@alcamacho1844]

@@orangejjay Yes, quietly. There have been a huge amount of improvements since then. What I now call SAT, Super Analog Technology. I wish Paul would send me and email and I could go to his place and demonstrate the armada of products I now have... It would be so kool to have PS audio take over my technology! I'm not confident to approach him, because of the whole snake oil Rap opposition.

[@moonlight-kh6uz]

“A cable is a source of potential trouble connecting two other sources of potential trouble.” This joke among electronic system engineers is worth keeping in mind. Any signal accumulates noise as it flows through the equipment and cables in a system. Once noise contaminates a signal, it's essentially impossible to remove it without altering or degrading the original signal. For this reason, no system can be quieter than its noisiest link. Noise and interference must be prevented along the entire signal path. Delivering a signal from one box to another may seem simple, but when it comes to noise, the signal interface is usually the danger zone, not the equipment’s internal signal processing.

[@wilcalint]

I think Pauls answer here is pretty much right on. The challenge I've had in my career is getting a good what I call a "driven" ground. You employ a service that literally comes out with a truck with a drill and they drill a copper rod into the ground. Depending on what kind of ground it is depends on what kind of ground your going to get. Most homes use the incoming copper cold water pipe for the ground and that's pretty good. The National Electrical Code defines what it is. This looks pretty good: standards.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-standards/standards/web/documents/interpretations/ir536.pdf

[@jonathansturm4163]

For a decent ground an earth made with stainless steel rods driven into soil mixed with bentonite and salt, and kept constantly moist is hard to beat. Copper tends to corrode quicker than SS.

[@robertkat]

In any audio equippment grounding is most important. There is a chassis ground and a circuit board ground. Not the same. Do not short them.

[@martybousum1010]

Thanks for pulling back the curtain!

[@gizmobowen]

Paul, I was in the service in England for a couple years. I had heard many of the accents and thought I had understood most of them. Well, I went up to Edinburgh for New Years one year and had the same experience you had. A nice waiter came up to me to take my order at dinner and I couldn't understand a single thing he said! Love the country and the people, just couldn't always figure out what they were saying.

[@williamevans9426]

Great to hear some no-nonsense jargon-free advice, on a wide range of audiophile topics, from a genuine expert not trying to sell, sell, sell. Many thanks!

[@orangejjay]

He is legit trying to sell sell sell. The whole point of these videos and their forums is to draw in potential customers as well as maintain the custom cult/fanbase. Don't be so stupid as to think it's anything but that. Doesn't mean their products suck or are good, that's separate. But don't pretend the CEO of a company, who's getting paid to make these videos, is doing this strictly for fun.

[@williamevans9426]

@@orangejjay A fair comment, Mr Fatts! In retrospect my comment was, indeed, quite naive (actually surprising for me - I must have had a gullible few minutes)!

[@wilmerwong9313]

Grounding box is just a box, need to connecting to ground (either signal ground or AC ground) that's why call it "grounding" box, and it is not connecting in series, therefore nothing "go through" as said in the video, and grounding box is not working as "grounding", it can't replace any "ground", so there is nothing related to safety ground or star ground, personal I don't think this video really answered to the question, because it is going to a wrong direction... I will suggest Paul try to get one "grounding box" to do some test, there are lots of other brands in this world far much cheaper then those well known big money brands

[@glenv6]

I have built several gainclone amplifiers and have found that adding a tad of schmutz to the star grounding scheme has resulted in a super quiet amp.

[@stoicroman9423]

Thats exactly what I did. My Nordost dealer tried to sell me his magic box and cables that adds up in excess to 10k, the unfortunate thing for him is I knew how to ground coz I'm a biohacker. Common sense tells me to use the star grounding method and when I did a AB test of my grounding vs his grounding box, it is completely identical and costs me less than 100 bucks to do it.

[@connorduke4619]

Why don't you label your method the "Ultimo Enigma Grounding Box - Platinum Edition" and undercut Nordost by 50%? :D

[@Error2username]

The magic juice😂 i love it

[@FairyNL]

Stupid question from me. I have a Rotel RC1590 pre, RB1582mkii amp and a B&W DB4S. Only the amp has ground, but the pre and sub don't (oh and the DDC and PC). Only the preamp has a grounding pin (for turntable ?), I cannot connect ground to the amp without tampering with screws. I did have noise issues with the sub when the trigger cables come together at the preamp. For safety I will not break the ground with the amp, but what is the best practice to ground because the balanced cables also act as ground so do the trigger cables. I have less problems when I connect the sub trigger via the amp's passthrough trigger connection. Some people say I need to ditch the trigger cables and switch manually....

[@dannywoods3928]

Two wires, three wires. Both are grounded cables.

[@turcinovic90]

My guess is that question was if grounding loudspeaker boxes improve sound! Loudspeaker chassis, to be precise!

[@RobWhittlestone]

No, "grounding boxes" are a thing. See www.russandrews.com/system-grounding/ for example.

[@chefchutardo5215]

looking for a 3 pin electrical plug. you had like 10 on the wall outlets 😆

[@paulwibb.8944]

Only if you have a ground,, problem, otherwise NO.

[@claydavis4554]

I tried the tissue box in my chain, and I heard nothing....

[@BlankBrain]

Yes, it's a noise reduction device. Works perfectly.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@BlankBrain Ah choo!

[@BlankBrain]

@@jonathansturm4163 Gesundheit!

[@chinesepopsongs00]

Funny how he tried to stay polite and serious when talking about this. Its obvious that the fancy wooden boxes try to cover up as the real reason why star shaped central grounding works. And that all just to sell something more expensive then needed.

[@orangejjay]

Yup. Just like a PS Audio Power "Regenerator."

[@Tbonyandsteak]

Grounding all boxes together should also make the system more stable. Best with an actual ground.

[@jonathansturm4163]

But only if you avoid connecting them such that there's a loop. Easiest to avoid with star topology as Paul says. When you wire one piece of gear to the next in a chain there's an ever present danger that either you will have the chain break leaving two sets of gear isolated from each other, or that you will make an inadvertent loop. Loops hum badly.

[@Tbonyandsteak]

@@jonathansturm4163 never heard that. Grounding is always good, You know DC can charge. Only heard Experts reconmend it and experience good result. However many have different opinion in grounding. Some in AC and some in DC. Which may be the reason some have bad experience with it.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@Tbonyandsteak I got my grounding (pun intended) with RF circuits where relying on the chassis for the ground connections was a bit fraught. Having a designated connection point on the chassis for all ground connections, star topology, prevented hum induction problems and other injected RF mayhem. In audio it was a common problem back in the 70s whenever you changed equipment that earthed differently to what you had used previously. Finding where to break the loop was often time-consuming. And some call it The Good Old days... I miss them about as much as I'd miss an extra hole in my head.

[@ryanray6215]

Grounding boxes don't or do improve sound , but the noise harvester , that's the different story lol .

[@bilguana11]

Ultimate Outlet. Snakes in a box? I have two and still use them because I paid for them but I have never heard any improvement.

[@endofword2012]

Maybe it is like crystal orgonite resin stuff ??? BUT, ground is a reference 0 and you can't go under 0. it is only an Audiophile Jewellery

[@metnoc10]

Well, Ive tried Entreq grounding boxes and they work for sure.

[@Acura1NSX]

Per Paul.... "the ground boxes do work, but I do not believe it"

[@normanbott]

Don't feel bad Paul - I'm English and I can't understand some of our strong local accents. When I first started work, the accents only 25 miles away in the Black Country were nigh on unintelligible for several months. I felt such a fool asking people to repeat things.

[@jonathansturm4163]

I take it you were from the south...

[@normanbott]

@@jonathansturm4163 No, actually. It was another part of the industrial Midlands. In those days, local dialects could vary enormously within a 25 mile radius... It's less so today as a result of increased mobility and diversity.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@normanbott I'm from Nuneaton in Warwickshire so I know what you mean. My family were among the many rats leaving the sinking ship of Great Britain in 1965. I am now a happy adopted Tasmanian even if it does mean that most mainland Australians think that means I possess two heads! Two heads are better than one :-) I still correspond sporadically with a friend from primary school and nothing he says makes me even think of visiting the UK, never mind living there ever again.

[@normanbott]

@@jonathansturm4163 Yes, you stay where you are, it's descending into an awful mess in the UK.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@normanbott I will take your word for it; I don't need to experience it for myself. OTOH we appear to be descending into our own mess here too. It would appear that nowhere is immune from the inability to descry that what's happening elsewhere can also happen here.

[@Tubetinkerer]

Pooring some conductive fluid on your equipment, will also eliminate all hiss, hum, rumble, interference, and other unwanted sonic artefacts. Works best on poweramps. ;)

[@swinde]

This may lead to a side effect of large quantities of lighter than air particles rising from the amplifier along with some sharp crackles and pops, but this will settle out and afterwards there will zero annoying hum or noise coming from the equipment. However, this is SO effective that even the music cannot be heard.

[@Tubetinkerer]

Swinde Nevermind the pesky details. It's the result that counts. 😁

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

All of my gear is in a Mercury bath, including the speakers. Unfortunately every person who has visited to listen to it died shortly thereafter

[@jonathansturm4163]

Speaking personally, I only ever wear fully-earthed silver-mesh underwear when dealing with my sound system, or computers.

[@BlankBrain]

... and during lighting storms.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@BlankBrain That's when I stay inside my Faraday cage of a home! And turn off all my sensitive electronic gear.

[@andydelle4509]

One misunderstanding in audio circles is the Earth as a ground. The Earth ground has nothing to do naturally with man made electrical systems. The only time the Earth ground comes into the circuit is with lightning and radio. Now we do Earth ground our electrical systems for safety purposes but beyond safety reasons, an earth ground is not required. The proof of this is a plane, car, or any portable electronic device - no earth ground there yet look at all the complex electronics in a car, plane, or your smart phone. The idea that the Earth is some magical sink hole to dump equipment induced electrical noise into is false. Some RFI, lightning, yes. But you can't fix an audio system ground loop by merely tying to the Earth ground. It does work sometimes but that's because you corrected the ground loop back to the electrical service ground which is also tied to the Earth. The Earth just didn't "soak up" the hum. And what some audiophile press advocates is highly dangerous. That is to drive in a separate ground rod for your audio gear. This is against electrical code and quite dangerous. While you can have multiple ground rods, they must be bonded together by a minimum #6 wire, then it's deemed safe. The most glaring danger of isolated ground rods is lightning. A ground strike can induce thousands of volts and amps BETWEEN the two ground rods due to the Earth's resistance. Think about that voltage and current between the AC power cord ground and your separate signal ground. Your gear could literally explode and surely start a fire. Best to leave building ground system to licensed professionals. As for these "ground buster" boxes, all they are is a star ground setup. Inside there is just a heavy wire connecting all the terminal posts together. Anything else in there is just snake oil. They do work sometimes but you can do the same thing with nothing more than a simple wire nut or better yet build your own box with $10 to $20 in electronic parts!

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

Andy Delle

[@andydelle4509]

@@CrackerboxPalace777 : Electricians do not deal in signal grounding. They mainly ensure the installation is up to codes. That is why it's important for a novice to avoid tampering with building grounding systems. Grounding boxes can work as I described. I think I made it clear as to the snake oil aspects. Do you need a grounding box? No, you can accomplish the same thing with careful grounding layout. But the concept of a grounding box is not snake oil. It's basically a star grounding system. The snake oil comes in the price and junk science often applied. I design studio and mastering facilities for a living over the past 35 years. I understanding system grounding quite well. In addition I have also designed and built many pieces of custom broadcast gear. My home system is extensive: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHawpqSlaJ2fgJI

[@oysteinsoreide4323]

Actually I have no grounding on my audio system at all.

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

Oystein Soreide

[@andydelle4509]

@@oysteinsoreide4323 Exactly my point. Earth ground is not necessary for any audio system. Only for safety reasons if via a three prong AC plug.

[@GOONMOTORSPORT]

Do audiophile Q tips improve our listen quality ?

[@adotopp1865]

Yes ,when they are used to clean out the debris in your ear canal

[@cornerliston]

I like your honesty. It's fresh in the world of high end audio and its certainly better to sell thing proved by knowledge. I often believe that “improves the sound” is mistaken with “changes the sound”. That would be a lot more honest for (most?) companies in audio to say instead. With ground sure that makes an improvement. But ground is easily solved having balanced ins/outs/cables isn't it? (Spoiler: You don't need a $1000 interconnect for this.)

[@peter71ify]

Yes it does.

[@esotericaudiophile3884]

Yup, they do! I design several and they do work at the quantum level! Mine give about a 5% improvement in clarity and dynamics!

[@jameswyllie9608]

I learned something love the vidieos keep them coming

[@adotopp1865]

I bought a copper grounding block and wired it to the outside via the air brick in my house . I've got a earth rod to put in the ground outside . I intend earthing the chassis of some of my gear to see if there's any difference. What does anyone think to this ?

[@juliaset751]

Ado topp, this might be worth pursuing. My electrical box has an 8’ long copper ground rod driven into the ground right under the main box, but I have often wondered if a separate ground rod with wires connected to HiFi chassis would make things even better.

[@adotopp1865]

@@juliaset751 8 foot! that's a long rod. Could you connect to this instead of getting a separate one? (that are normally about 4 ') A Hi-Fi friend of mine had a seperate Mains Circuit and Earth rod installed by an electrician the Electrical Grid earthing is different in different part of the world so you have to check it's safe and you don't earth the whole street via your amp.

[@juliaset751]

Eight foot is what code required in Phoenix, AZ, USA at the time I built my house about twenty-five years ago. For chassis grounding that would probably be overkill. Four foot seems like enough for chassis grounding. I would probably stick with a separate ground rod though, just to have them not connected at all. This would also probably not require any bells and whistles; since it’s not an electrical ground-just a chassis ground, no permits, electrician, etc.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@juliaset751 Phoenix, AZ is I understand very dry like much of Australia in the summer. In such conditions an earth made as I described elsewhere in comments made with multiple stainless steel rods driven into a hole backfilled with bentonite (a type of clay) and salt works wonders. The bentonite retains a lot of moisture and the salt (NaCl) improves conductivity. Mine has three rods about 1.5 m (4 feet) long. It's what we used to make to improve SW reception when I was into such things. I recalled it as being called a Buxton Earth, but Google seems to disagree. 67 year old brains...

[@juliaset751]

Only 67, you are a tot.

[@Montreal_Audio_Systems]

grounding is super important no loops or hums are so so important

[@garykarlin1777]

I have a relatively inexpensive product that will make your system sound orders of magnitude better. Please respond for details. (Teaser: it does not consume AC power)

[@garykarlin1777]

I'm serious;

[@fabiankonrath2804]

Gary Karlin is it a battery?

[@garykarlin1777]

No, it's an herb

[@fookingsog]

You're better off building a Faraday shield cage around your sound room and grounding everything to earth ground! Neutral = ground, Ground = safety ground. Problems arise when there is a voltage difference between neutral & safety.

[@Jimmeh_B]

there is always a potential difference between neutral and earth.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@Jimmeh_B I just measured mine at 0.00 volts. Maybe it's because I live in a Faraday cage. My home is clad with corrugated steel.

[@MrPeeBeeDeeBee]

@@jonathansturm4163 Wouldn't your floor need to be metal too?

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@MrPeeBeeDeeBee I dunno. It seems to be quite effective at preventing AM radio and mobile phone signals. Unfortunately. Something I had not anticipated at the design stage.

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

Mark Knopfler’s studio *_is_* an actual lead-lined Faraday cage on all six axis’, with proper star grounding on all power and signal grounds.

[@ericelliott227]

I have no issue either with ground boxes, etc. If it truly works than it truly works. The line gets crossed at the point at price. “Snake Oil makers and sellers can use all the pseudoscience and made up words they like, it is up to the buyer to educate themselves even just talking to someone honest in the know will do the job. The line gets crossed for example, at the point of charging $400 for an item that cost all of $24 to make whether it works or not.

[@catified2081]

If your worried about ridiculous tweaks like this then it's not a hobby anymore it's borderline mental illness and you need take a break from hifi. It's the same as believing if I put a racing stripe on my car it will go faster.

[@thegrimyeaper]

If you ground your car it'll stop humming though.

[@jonathansturm4163]

Er... are you saying star topology doesn't work? Seriously? I'd say you never experienced ground-loop problems, the bane of my life in the 1970s!

[@thegrimyeaper]

@@jonathansturm4163 Bane of my life in the 80's, 90's, 00's and 10's.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@thegrimyeaper Apparently PS Audio has a tutorial on dealing with the issue. Yep! Here it is: www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-to-find-and-fix-hum-extended/ I haven't read it, but Paul is entirely correct in today's Ask Paul. Star topology works much better than Xmas tree.

[@jamesplotkin4674]

@@jonathansturm4163 No, Paul definitely does say it's the best way.

[@rabokel]

Ha, the scotish accent, i love it

[@twochaudiomg2578]

P S , Nope didn't answer mine Go outside pound a 4 foot rod in the ground. Ground to rig. that's in a nut shell It works better then those corner traps you engineered. In the big rig room. With all the Audio Research running the IRS's my humor is not very good.

[@RobWhittlestone]

Yay, great to see a relatively unfiltered reaction from Paul who is such a gentleman. :-) My personal take: noisy ground is bad, clean ground is good, star grounding is good. I personally believe (but have not yet tried) system grounding can usually be improved on and that it yields a darker background and consequently more low-level detail. Here's a grounding box vendor, www.russandrews.com/system-grounding/ They also have a white paper downloadable PDF why it's a good idea. What's stopping me: my system is already a ton of spaghetti cable (at least 3 power & signal) and now every component should get yet another cable. My wife will go nuts. All the best, Rob

[@raypetro]

I either sold or throughout all of my PS audio crap because you know this won’t work and I can’t trust you anymore. Just say a beer man

[@BlankBrain]

If they're adding liquid nitrogen to cuprate-perovskite ceramic conductors, maybe they have something!

[@jonathansturm4163]

I thought the idea of cuprate-perovskite is that it's superconducting at ~80 K, well above liquid N at 77 K. If it's already superconducting, why would you want to cool it further?

[@BlankBrain]

@@jonathansturm4163 I meant that they would have to supply liquid nitrogen to make it superconducting; a cool audio solution.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@BlankBrain Gotcha. I hadn't thought it through adequately. I'm a little reluctant to _get into liquid N_ though, if you see what I mean :-)

[@BlankBrain]

@@jonathansturm4163 I got to work with liquid N when I had a part-time job in a research lab when I was in HS and college. We had lots of it to cool high vacuum systems. A Tek storage scope had a trigger problem when it got hot. I set a Styrofoam cup of liquid N on the scope case over the trigger circuit and it worked!

[@bc527c]

You made yourself blush. ;) It's pretty darned easy to build a grounding box if you want to try it out, research the magic mineral formula... put a bunch of it in a cigar box, run a super low impedance ground wire into it and I guess you then run that outside to your custom array of silver coated grounding rods....... That would be your basics. Instead of doing the video edit snake overlay thing, you could give a nod to our (ancestral) near neighbors and just wear some sort of super green St Patty's Day outfit, replete with rubber snakes stapled to it (OK, yeah, you can hot glue gun those on). Just make sure the outfit is properly grounded.

[@janinapalmer8368]

There are two levels of grounding in any one piece of equipment... 1) Chassis ground and 2) signal ground Using all balanced signal lines with chassis grounded shielding and keeping all interconnections as short as poss all should be good . Signal grounds ( if using RCA unbalanced lines ) should form a Mecca earth structure ( Paul says 'star' ... same thing ) which should terminate as far down the signal lines as poss .. Grounding boxes are a big hoax .. they are a supposed to be a final 'fix' for desperate Audio Fools who will part with any amount of $$$'s just to keep themselves from going totally insane !!

[@jonathansturm4163]

"Grounding boxes are a big hoax..." Maybe a little hoax? I'd never heard of them before today.

[@saint6563]

Paul, If you really want to 'shut them down'; make a unit that works, w/o BS, & at fair price-point. TY

[@rd264]

years and years ago very late one night when the moon was full and the neighbors were hopefully fast asleep, I did a terrible thing. I buried in the backyard .........an iron rod. I connected to this rod a thick blue jacketed copper ground wire and ran it from the rod to the ground screw on oa 'dedicated' wall outlet for my super expensive ok stereo. WARNING: a 'dedicated' line may be overexciting to stereo nerds. This outlet is connected by a "dedicated" 30 amp romex line that I installed connecting to a dedicated 30 amp breaker in the house fuse box. This is what stereo nerds gush about as a "dedicated line". Heres the point of all this nerdology: the ground from the stereo runs straight to the rod. it is not connected to the breaker box. It is only connected to the iron rod. This was a lot of work and very dumb. DO NOT bother with this 'dedicated line business because LIFE IS SHORT . Just buy an expensive PS AUDIO box that regenerates your filthy AC.

[@timtsang168]

look at Paul , he was so embarrassing. . .

[@PebblesChan]

Ground is a good place to grow carrots and potatoes.

[@QoraxAudio]

A McGowan who can't speak Scottish. Lol, silly Paul! 😜

[@hifitommy]

Paul, in the last part of your presentation, you revealed your extended contact with Arnie. Schmutz. a Yiddish word that's part and parcel of the Judeo/Medical jargon of the San Fernando Valley. Arnie was friends with Vince Fennel, MD (whom you may also know) , a radiologist that bought ServoStatik SN001 from Arnie and John Ulrick. i worked for the radiology group that Vince was associated with and we are friends. ...hifitommy

[@Paulmcgowanpsaudio]

Yes I know Vince and that whole crowd. I miss them all.

[@davebrown3230]

Like a KY jelly lube job ?

[@jonathansturm4163]

Wrong box. Try turning her over!

[@BetterISupposeYeah]

love it

[@peasant12345]

Do dark matters improve sound?

[@blitzbbffl]

Snake Oil salesmen...tread lightly.

[@adotopp1865]

Is this because they might slip?

[@blitzbbffl]

@@adotopp1865 😁

[@Rodarwah]

eh! ther is a snake here ;)

[@tomtaylor7292]

Stoned again DOH,!!!!!! Lazy,,??? That's being stoned fu Yu matey,,!!! Quantum,,???? You've smoked to much Bob your tripping matey deffo,,!!!

[@russredfern167]

American isn't English

[@jonathansturm4163]

Oh but it is! Just English that was last spoken in England three centuries ago. Don't worry though. They might catch on eventually.

[@CrackerboxPalace777]

There is only the Queen’s English, and error

[@peasant12345]

Do dark matters improve sound?