CAD Ground Control is Stereophile Product of the Year

Accessories and Tweaks
165

Absolutely.
Some Lads, when introduced to the concept of a non-powered, light-weight, small black box used for audio improvement are rightly thinking SnakeOil. The concept is absurd.

Others, taken in by online charlatans, buy one or two and don’t use them correctly and miss out on getting what they should out of them. It is somewhat of an unconventional device. Conventional thinking won’t do. To use it correctly one needs to have a helper or two. They can move the device around, and help observe the effect of the new location. What is nice about this is, if no person observes any changes, they can also forget about fuses, power cables, interconnects, and maybe even stereo.
It’s a huge win in the cost savings and other bothers realm.

But some of us, a large number of people I know, bring them in their rooms, move them all over the place, and learn what and maybe why they do what they do. Amusingly, these folks are so not interested in removing them.

I am in the last group. Not only can I easily hear the change, I can feel it in my chest. Right now for instance. It’s way more useful than ANY fuse. Better than any cable. But it is awesome to have fuses AND cables AND Magical Black Boxes.

Magic Black Boxes are not as wonderful as BACCH Crosstalk Cancellation. But what is?
(In the audio world guys! We can ignore other sorts of pleasures)
(Here on the gentlemanly wonderful PS Audio Forum) (Home of i2s!)

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166

Thanks, Al. Hearing that from you has pushed Black Boxes up and up on my list, once finished my network journey and grounding adventure, this should be my next rabbit hole!

Just to be sure, are you talking about these:

One could be enough or two are necessary?

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167

You could start with one. I am bringing two to a friend’s house who has one. I want to see what three do. I will report my findings.

(My end game will likely be four stacks of three in a diamond formation)

(Although I also like the idea of having one or two on a Roomba vacuum cleaner.)

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168

There is another group that has never tried and will never try them, but will talk like experts saying they’re no good.

I believe these are more effective by hanging from the roof after the floor is full of them.

Luckily there is a White Box too.

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169

Edit: I just ordered a Black Box (I couldn’t resist the advice of Al, our undisputed mentor and President!), BLACK of course!

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170

The black box will disappear in your dark room too easy. Be careful don’t trip over it. :laughing:

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171

Not sure if this was posted anywhere:

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172

The Puritan GroundMaster City was plugged into Puritan PSM-156 ground terminal for the last hour or two. At first, I was not sure I heard anything different (very sure there was none at beginning), However, now it is obviously doing something.

What I got is like the PSM-156 received a turbo booster. It sucks out even more noises than before, and every music note is delivered with more weight and with incredible clarity. This little wall plug hooked up with Puritan conditioner is simply amazing, and it is a must add-on considering its cost. Mind you I only have M1200s and DS MK2 plugged in it, and the improvement is not subtle in my system.

The RouteMaster is unused at this point. I will enjoy this setup for a couple of days to see if I will hear further improvement.

Then I will switch to RouteMaster. It came with three cables, so there are a few combinations I can try:

P15 plus M1200, or BHK pre plus M1200 for an analog tryout. Then, PST, Lumin U2 and MK2 for a digital tryout to see which one is better.

But what it ends up with will be I ordering more cables, more than likely without even trying anything yet :laughing:

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173

There is an old review online of Entreq (Poseidon ground box if I remember correctly).

There was a P10 involved and it’s performance was greatly upgraded by connecting the grounding box cable to a screw underneath the power plant.

So, my recommendation is to try to connect your P15 in its chassi.

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174

Is the chassis and signal ground actually separate? For example, isn’t an RCA Jack grounded to the chassis/earth via its mounting to the chassis? Is there an isolation layer?

175

Very promising. Thanks for sharing.

It seems that you can eventually add another City, just to connect the RoutMaster and the PSM-156 at the same time. Or even two: one RouteMaster for Signal Ground (or digital) and another one for Chassis Ground (or analog). Lot of combinations.

I’d start from noisier components, server/streamer, switch and DAC,

Enjoy!

My City is still on the way (or lost) by a local courier, bah!

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176

You are right! After I play around with the combinations with one, I will probably need another City to get the full effect.

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177

I’m starting to prefigure a sort of grounding strategy for my system:

  1. Mains Earth
  • GroundMaster City connected to the Puritan-156
  • Noisy digital components plugged into the same conditioner
  • Stealth Dream power cords feeding these digital components
  • Amp and DAC connected by a proprietary ground wire (following MSB recommendation)
  1. Signal Ground (lifted from chassis)
  • One CAD Ground Control GC1 for each single component, using only 1 wire connected to unused ports better if closer to noisy main board/chip/oscillator (BNC port of MSB DAC)
  1. Signal Ground - Chassis Ground (not lifted)
  • CAD Ground Control GC1.1 for each single component, 1 wire connected to an unused port + 1 wire connected to the PSM-156 ground lug
    (IUSB port of Innuos Statement and RJ45 port of Innuos PhoenixNET)
  • CAD USB Control dongle
    (USB “backup” port of Innuos Statement)
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178

Nice plan, I think I understand half of it😆

I checked Stealth site and their 20-20 cord is designed to be used with their upcoming power conditioner, and Dream 18 uni. Is the one to be used with amps (and adjustable for others). Are you using 20-20 with amp now? I know you mentioned it before but there are too many new things in your system so I already forgot. Did Stealth recommend it over 18?

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179

Yes I do. Dream 20 only for amp while I’m thinking to purchase during next months Dream UNI 18 for digital sources and maybe Grande Cloude (copper) for DAC.

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180

Well I guess you’ll find out what the EU market is for used Dragons.

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181

Reading from your post. I know the part that confuses me is that how do you decide which component chassis is lifted, and which is not? You’re using two grounding devices for each digital components right? Is that needed?

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182

I’ve simply asked to manufacturers, to be sure.

I’m using 1 CAD box for each component, it has 2 connections/wires available.

GC1.1

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183

Thanks! After golf today I’ll play with my simpler grounding devices to confirm what I heard last night was real🙄

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184

Stealth Audio is not a well known brand. I would not have heard of them without my involvement with George at Kyomi Audio. They don’t do well in resale do to the lack of awareness. AQ Dragons are much easier to sell. I am very happy to not have a reason to sell my cables.

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