CAD Ground Control is Stereophile Product of the Year

Accessories and Tweaks
144

Excellent report! When I moved more components into PSM-156 a few days ago, the magic was lacking somewhat. But I now believe it was because Puritan needed more time to break in. The SQ from MK2/M1200 with it has improved more than earlier too. I switched back to Telefunken NOS tubes in M1200 and I like it much better now and the magic is back.

Are you not using the power plant at all now? I may add one or more components into Puritan to see if I like it better this time.

The seller of GroundMaster City/RouteMaster combo is in CA, so I should get them this week. Reading from their site I realize I can not connect three peices together. I will either use City with PSM-156, or to use it with RouteMaster. I will find out which way I prefer. If I got lucky, I may not hear any difference; then I did not waste too much money (got a good deal on the top of good deal). :grin:

145

Donald, you and @luca.pelliccioli are a wealth of experiential knowledge on this forum.

Do me a favor, if/when you have pulled the plug on regenerators for a while, toss them back into your systems and let me know if you still think you improved the overall performance of your kit without them.

Personally, I sometimes struggle discerning the difference between better and different. Usually, I can only stop obsessing over a given change after I go back to what was (when practical to do so) and listen with an ear toward feeling a sense of loss in fidelity or enjoyment of the music.

Keep up the great work and Happy Holidays.

Scott

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146

Happy Holidays too!

There is a fine line between better and different sounds, and often they are hard to tell initially. Your suggestion is a good one. It is easy to improve a system from low resolution level to a higher level, but at a certain point the changes are just changes.

The power generator vs. power conditioner is a great example. Between the two there is a point of balance, and it is often based on personal choice. Simply stated, do you want clearer and cleaner sound, or do you like ā€œwarmerā€ and ā€œlifelikeā€ sound (may not be the best terms, but hard to describe a good feeling).

I used a good power conditioner in the past, and when I switched to P15 I just loved it. But in terms of filtering out background noise, a good power conditioner will do a better job. The Puritan line of conditioners is one of the best and is cheaper than my old one that was not half good. So, I may have to experience more to find a balance to my liking.

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147

Real interested in your thought on the GM city, Luca, have been considering it for my system

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148

Couldnā€™t agree more! Each time I went back and forth between Puritan and P20 with the MSB DAC I liked the Puritan, on the other hand each time I did the same experiment with the server/streamer I liked the P20.
This is the reason why I was using both of them during last 4 months.

Recently I tried something different, unplugging the P20 from the wall and using only the Puritan with all the digital components (DAC, server/streamer, switch and PSU feeding the router). It means that I should inherently consider it as a temporary test, because intended just for streaming playback, not using cd transport, pre-phono, preamp and turntable at all. My goal was to better understand the effect on the digital path of grounding devices, the new CAD GC1.1 and the coming soon GroundMaster City.

What surprised me was the immediate result, in fact a very clean and dynamic sound was expected to be honest, I was supposing at the expense of organic, natural and lifelike feeling. I was wrong.

Next step, in my plans, is testing the GM City ability (or not) to bring improvements. Having the signal ground managed by the CADs and the earth ground managed by the City (connected to the ground lug of the PSM 156 which is feeding the digital components). Hereā€™s the reason why I temporarily switched off the P20, not at all to compare the UK conditioner with the Boulder beast.

I think that also Donald in a similar way could test the difference between signal and earth ground, connecting and comparing the City + PSM156 (earth ground - via power cords plugged into it) vs the City + RouteMaster (signal ground - via ground wires connected to it). Yes, one or the other, not at the same time, unfortunately.

After my tests it should be clearer to me if the different grounding devices worth or not my attention, and at what degree.

As always happens in our hobby, suddenly I received the Stealth cable ordered last October and I did the worst thing possible, I immediately hooked it to my network, couldnā€™t resist! Iā€™m an audiophile (and a newbie), not a scientistā€¦ sorry.

So I stopped any critical listening and simply started to enjoy the music, forgetting what I was hearing and all my purposes.

When (and if) my grounding rabbit hole tests will be ended, donā€™t worryā€¦ the P20 will be plugged back to the wall.

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149

Alas, such is the nature of the beast. (At least with many of us.)

Enjoy the ride (and the music).

Thanks Luca.

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150

I did not mention this earlier, but I have moved BHK pre into Puritan PSM-156 since last night. I have been listening to this setup since last night and the combination sounded nice, that was until I moved the pre back into P15. The improvement in sweetness and fullness was more than I remember before. So far, the MK2 and M1200 in Puritan is still the best combination in my system.

The mix of conditioner and generator is very system dependent. Luca and I used to have very similar systems, but his is vastly different from mine now so it is not a surprise we do not reach the same conclusion. My system still mostly consists of PSA components, and there is a built-in synergy using their power plants. In another system PSM-156 could be better suited or not (ask Al).

151

DAC sounds better for both of us, something in common, like in the old days!

And we are still waiting for the same Cityā€¦ who knows?

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152

The Puritan system and the Shunyata system work exactly the same on the same principles. The only difference is the price - which is spectacularly different.

The CAD seems a rather less flexible product.

I use a Puritan PM156 in a very favourable mains power installation. Iā€™m tempted to get a City just to give it a try, and connect it to the PM156 ground.

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153

favourable? I consider it the best on the forum!

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154

Tonight, the system sounds glorious, this was from my wife, not from me.

The Puritan PRM-156 with Classic+ cord has been in the system for one week, and I can confidently say that there was incremental improvement on every day of the week. My wife just came back from Aisa, and she noticed the system sounded better on the first night, and she did not even ask me how much I wasted this time. That could only mean a stamp of approval from her, which rarely happens! :grin:

I do not think the break-in is done yet, because every time I turn the system on it seems to sound better than the last time.

If you are using a PSA power plant, adding this conditioner will make a major improvement in clarity, dynamic (especially with amps in it), and deep dark background. The trick is to find a good balance between the two, because I do not think one is necessarily better than the other. Most likely a combination of both will bring the system to the next level.

I gave my impression of the best combination with mostly PSA gear in my system, and Luca gave his opinion on a possible better combination with his evolving system. Another system will have a different result, I am sure.

I will have a GroundMaster City and a RouteMaster arriving soon. From what I heard they supposely bring Puritan to an even higher level, I cannot wait. :man_dancing:

156

My system sounds exactly the same for the past two days, so I think Puritan PSM-156 has done break-in. Itā€™s good timing since I should receive GroundMaster City and RouteMaster tomorrow, along with my Christmas wine order. Tomorrow will be a good day.:man_dancing:t2:

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157

Glad to know, canā€™t wait to hear your comments and share our first impressions at the same time. Mine shouldā€™ve been here yesterday, then today, then tomorrow. Bah!
I also scheduled on Wednesday another visit of my electrician (heā€™s so patient with me!) with a new electrical engineer to take some measurements of my dedicated circuit and especially of the ground.

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158

Hopefully you will get it soon. It will be interesting to see how does it integrate with your CAD grounding devices. Will it even make any difference?

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159

Frankly I have few expectations, but the cost is worth the challenge, Iā€™m curious, being a beginner myself who wants to learn. I love falling down these audiophile rabbit holes!

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160

I agree for the price itā€™s worth the experiment. Even if I donā€™t hear any drastic improvement as long as it does no harm it will stay in place but it just means I wonā€™t buy a second one for the other 156.

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161

Even CAD boxes cannot instantly provide a night and day difference. But every time I added one:

  • I had the sensation of enjoying a calmer and more revealed presentation, a sort of increased pleasure that came from being more in contact with the music, after a few days
  • I immediately felt the lack of something when I removed one, as if the sound was wrong, polluted by an unpleasant state of mind that managed to ruin its perfection, so to speak

Do you know a good psychiatrist?

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162

Several actually but donā€™t think they can help with our problem. Good thing my wife just ignores it.

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163

I am enamored with my CAD Ground thingy. They donā€™t hit like a pair of Magic Black Boxes. Few things do.

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164

Can you elaborate on the concept further?