CAD Ground Control is Stereophile Product of the Year

I have to agree, and Puritan City/Ground Master setup works better than any of my fuses😁 Smoothness is the key benefit in my case.

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I have never taken mine out. I should try that.

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Due to a kind of buffered effect you need to remove it:

  • night time between 2AM and 5AM but not if it’s raining
  • putting it outside your house at least 75 miles
  • changing your clothes and having a cold shower
  • removing dust and molecules bigger than 0.2 micron around the room
  • waiting at least 3 months…

… before critical listening.

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It’s a good thing that I don’t have CAD😁 I’ll continue to use Puritan since it does help to some degree. The biggest advantage of GroundMaster/ City is they are small to hide behind the thick posts of my rack. That’s a endgame for me on this grounding thing.

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One day I will remind you of this phrase!

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Do you use one of GC1s connecting to your amp? From reading the CAD paper, the grounding devices are more effective for noisy components such as streamers and switches. I wonder if amp would benefit from them less than sources?

PowerZone did not like my new grounding box, the sound seemed worse. I also tried connecting the green wire from RouteMaster to PZ to form a star ground configuration, and I could not convince myself that I heard any difference. I will experience it more tomorrow.

I ordered two more Xangsane ground boxes. I am not sure where to use them yet, but it will probably be on M1200, on MK2, or on switches. But I am still using RouteMaster/City for other components, they seemed making little difference in SQ after Xangsane GB is in the system. It reminds me of your similar experience with CAD.

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I use the Synergistic Active Ground Block SE for my signal grounds (but not on the amps). I have been musing about adding a CAD or other mystery powder box to it…

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To summarize my experience:

  1. (PARTIAL) CHASSIS STAR GROUNDING
    MSB PowerBase chassis (ground lug) > Russ Andrews wire > PZ (ground lug)
    MSB Amp (ground lug) > Russ Andrews wire > PZ (ground lug)
  1. SINGLE COMPONENT SIGNAL GROUNDING
    #1 GC1 > CAD ground wire (spade) > MSB DAC PowerBase chassis (signal lug lifted from chassis lug)
    This is a pic of a Premiere DAC not Reference, but this could clarify the 2 lugs concept on their PowerBase chassis

    #2 GC1 > CAD ground wire (BNC) > MSB DAC chassis (unused BNC)
    #3 GC1 > CAD ground wire (RCA) > PST (unused RCA)
    #4 GC1 > CAD ground wire (USB) > Innuos Statement (backup USB port)
    #5 GC1 > CAD ground wire (RJ45) >Tempus switch (unused RJ45 port)
    #6 GC1 > CAD ground wire (RJ45) > Router (unused RJ45 port)

Each GC1 is acting as HF draining dedicated device for each single component.

I’d have the chance to connect a second component for each GC1, having all of them a second port available. I tried this way but at the end of the day I preferred keeping all the components well separated one from each other, not connecting two things to a same GC1 box. A radical solution.
This is the reason why I love the little GC1s compared to bigger brother GC3, which sports 6 ports but is less flexible in separating chassis from signal ground connected components.

  1. ADDITIONAL GROUNDING
    CAD USB Control plugged into a Innuos Statement unused USB port
    This is a very expensive but very effective little tool, I would have used also with other components if other USB ports were available.
  1. PURITAN GROUNDING
    MasterCity >Russ Andrews wire (banana/banana) > PSM-156 (ground lug)

This conditioner is on my second rack on the side wall, feeding:

SOCKETS SET UP
I have 5 dedicated lines in the room, each one with SWS NCF Furutech single wall Schuko socket.

Front wall
#1 feeding PZ > MSB DAC + MSB Amp + PST
#2 feeding the upcoming soon MSB Digital Director (I was told to keep it separated)
#3 unused

Side wall
#4 feeding PSM-156 > Statement + Tempus PSU + Router Sean Jacobs PSU + Gold Note TT PSU + Gold Note Phono Pre
#5 GM City plugged in

As you can see I don’t use the CAD boxes for amp and I don’t use Puritan grounding City with PZ as well.

Hope that helps.

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Very sophisticated grounding setup that I need some time to digest. But I have a better understanding of signal ground vs chassis ground separation. I’ll start simple first. Thanks!

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I’d suggest you to start with 1 ground silver box you have already purchased connected to:

SIGNAL
MU2 unused port and listen
or
LHY switch unused RJ45 port and listen

CHASSIS
Both M1200’s ground lugs together to the same silver ground box (if possible) and listen

I also think that you’d have to follow the same rule (separating chassis from signal) using your Route Master. Connect only unused signal ports OR only chassis lugs and listen.
Stay with the set up you like more by ears. If no one of the 3 above mentioned connections is able to bring you benefits… oh well when is expected your Muon Pro to arrive???

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I’ll try those grounding arrangements.

My dealer said he will ship Muon filter to me first today, but I have not received any tracking information. He said he has not received the cable yet so I’ll get that later. I may need to text him again to find out if it was shipped out actually.

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I am in the ā€œJust buy better components and quit all the tweakingā€ camp.
Until later today when the Grid Protector arrives.

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If Grid Protector can really be considered a tweaking thing actually…

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Thank you Luca for your little introduction to grounding a system. You have to hide a lot of boxes. :joy: I ordered two boxes like Donald has, two of the round silver ones and two of the Xangsane Blackhole ones. Once these are there, I can experiment a bit. I may need a selection of different plugs. I had also considered grounding my speaker cables with a solution like this. The Furutech DSS-4.1 speaker cables have a copper foil as a shield. Maybe I’ll try connecting a ground box there and see if it makes a difference.

Or I’ll leave all the nonsense and get the EMI Protector. Maybe then you won’t need earthing boxes anymore?:thinking:

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I give up with you and Donald, tweaking guys!

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I had almost forgotten about the AliExpress grounding boxes until Donald reported a positive effect. I think that Donald, me and some guys who don’t give up hope want to get away cheaper.:joy: The offer on Black Friday was tempting. Okay, in retrospect I also thought to myself: Andreas, save yourself the effort, time and money for an EMI protector or one of the many other Schnerzinger . :roll_eyes:

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:laughing:

Didn’t you realize that you have become the ā€œmasterā€ in this forum on the cost-on-object-level tweaks? We are small potatoes that are still playing with little toys, and once in a while we find some cheap thrill that makes us so happy. You, on the other hand, start with top toys at the highest shelf. The speed of upgrades can match racers on Fast and Furious too. :flushed:

Of course, we have learnt so much from you. So, keep going into the unknown world, Captain Luca!

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No, no I respectfully disagree, I’m still a newbie here.

I’ve only had great teachers like you, Vince (where are you lately, by the way?) and our mentor Al!

Need I remind you the PZ and F30 big purchases in front of you now? Nah! And Andreas’ fancy power strip and cables? No, no… tweaking is an attitude, don’t try to find excuses, my friend!

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Oh man, that is a fantastic way to convince ourselves to dig deeper! :laughing:

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Following your instruction, I removed the RCA ground wires from MK2 and PST, and I have all grounding wires (from RM/City) connecting to surfaces of LHY Switches, M1200 ground posts, and PZ ground post so all wires are for chassis grounding. The only signal ground is from Xangsane silver box to MU2. But the spade connector is clamped outside of RCA connector, so I am not sure if the wire is actually connecting to Signal or to Chassis. No matter, Once I get the new grounding boxes, I will use the RCA cable for MU2 to ensure it is signal ground.

I did not hear a huge difference frankly, but without mixing chassis and ground the sound has improved slightly. I need to listen more to confirm. PZ seems to like this arrangement too. Again, the improvement is slight. The biggest improvement remains to be MU2 with Xangsane box.

Edit: The change of grounding arrangement seems to take a long time (over an hour) to settle. The SQ sounds better than one hour ago. I will listen more tomorrow with and without grounding PZ.

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