I put two Black Boxes in my SUV and went for a very long drive. I could not believe what it did for the sound of my system in it. Good God, I need Black Boxes in my ride!! Fortunately they are easy to move. In the tightly sealed cabin of the SUV it is really obvious what they do. I am at a friends house right now and just one of them transforms the sound of his system. We are listening to Tool and it’s perfect. One does the job, Centered between the speakers, Inline between them. Weird.
2 Likes
Darn, I was hoping to get a Stealth from your garage sale one day.
2 Likes
That BB position is what works for me as well. You would think that in an area of max standing waves would do the most cleanup but there you go. Old dog with a new trick.
2 Likes
I switched GroundMaster City from PSM-156 to RouteMaster a couple of hours ago, and I plugged the grounding cables into P15, BHK pre, and DS MK2. I heard improvement. But for whatever reason, this is a different type of improvement. The chassis grounding gives a more relaxing and smooth sound than with PSM/City setup. It is also gradual and subtle (unlike cables). With the PSM-156 (Signal/earth ground?), the improvement is more on clarity and reduced noise. In fact, the volume seems louder, but I do not hear it from the RouteMaster setup. It is quite interesting the same City gave me two different types of improvements with these two different routes. But it seems the PSM/City combo is more easily audible. But I wonder in a different system, will RouteMaster/City setup have a different result from mine. 
I will switch cables to the streamer, switch, and DS MK2 to see if I will hear a bigger improvement later.
3 Likes
How many green cables do you have? How are they terminated?
From manual:
http://www.puritanaudiolabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/RouteMaster-Usage-Notes.pdf
The box came with three cables, two are RCA and one is an RCA cheater. I am undecided if I should order more. I will experience with different locations.
But I am sure I need another City.
2 Likes
I look forward to the day your two black boxes come and nestle in my set up. I have a lot of reverb reduction work to accomplish before you head to the hinterland.
2 Likes
1 City/PSM-156 (Earth Ground), exactly like me
2 City/RouteMaster (Signal Ground), CAD GCs in my case
Don’t know the RouteMaster but reading the guide on their site, I think that it makes sense when ALL the components of a system are connected to it via their proprietary ground wires (of equal length). And the RouteMaster is also connected to the City.
If you want going even further…you can add other RouteMasters (and Cities for each of them):
A) RM for digital components using RJ45 and USB (MK II - Lumin - switch - PST FW port) > Signal Ground
B) RM for analog components using RCA (BHK Pre - M1200s here ask PS Audio if unused RCA input is ok, I used them with CADs boxes without any problems) > Signal Ground
C) RM for all the units of the system using SPADES > Chassis Ground
Mmm it seems a lot of boxes and green wires, indeed. Maybe the best strategy requires a step by step approach.
1 Like
If you only have one 156 then what are you going to do with the second one? Modify a cable to try with PP.
1 Like
Curious to know how your friend and you are feeling about the BBs. And their set up.
Please tell me that you have already tried other Synergistic Research passive acoustic things, and they don’t work! Can’t imagine myself sticking HFT little buttons around the walls of the room and even worst on the speakers.
1 Like
Thank you Luca, I’ll keep your post. This grounding solution can get complicated. Now I need a bunch of additional green line and more boxes. I’ll start with one more City first!
1 Like
I can use the RCA cheater to connect to a screw on the back panel of P15. It seems to doing some nice things. I’ll try to find a longer screw to provide better contact.
What is this? Can you share a pic?
It’s a wire loop at the end, and I’m not sure where I read it that it’s called a RCA cheater or RCA loop.
Didn’t PSA have a ground lug that they sent out to owners of one of their amp models to use with REL subwoofers. If I remember right it replaced one of the back chassis screws. Don’t remember which amp it was but all of them would have needed them due to their lack of true ground on the speaker terminals.
That will be nice, I need to find out from PSA.
Going through the search function it appears they were providing it to BHK amp owners. If James finds they still have them they may send you a couple and maybe tell you the name of a vendor.
1 Like
This is what they have at Parts Connexion. The one in the middle might do the trick.
1 Like
I replaced one of the back screws of P15 with a homemade grounding post. I found a silver jumper that was used for my previous speakers. This should work fine:
The end result is below. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. It was dark in the back of rack and I could not keep my hand still.
2 Likes
I tried the Tower thingy and that didn’t do anything I could detect. I am going to try the funny little buttons though. Hopefully they do nothing.
3 Likes