Grounding the system


Dear fellow A-goners, do you have experience with independent grounding of your system?

I have a (water) radiator for warming the house close by my system in our living / listening room, and it is not a big effort to connect to it with a thin lead / cable.

I have experimented a bit, and generally found the sound to improve. I have ended up connecting all my equipment to the ground, with a "star" scheme centred on the preamp chassis. The elements of my speakers are connected also. From the star centre i have a lead to the radiator.

Results are subtle, but towards more consistency and holography. Yet i wonder since at times the sound seems a bit tame also. I may be doing this the wrong way, or not optimal.

Advice? I read about improvements from independent grounding of the whole system in the Danish High fidelity magazine some years ago, but I've not read much on this topic in US websites.

Oystein
Ag insider logo xs@2xo_holter

Showing 1 response by gs5556

Would you be open to the idea of removing the circuit breaker and place a copper bar in its place? It may improve things sonically. You may ask if this will render the circuit unprotected and create a hazard. Well, by grounding to the radiator it would have the same effect - even if you still have the third plug connected to the outlet. Any fault current (an abnormal condition) may flow to the radiator instead of back to the panel and the circuit breaker may not sense anything wrong and will happily keep supplying the juice. There's a method of madness to all those electrical codes.

It cannot be over-emphasized: if you're not fluent in electrical safety, keep a respectable distance and always ask a professional for assistance.