I assume modern and even less than modern generally well designed components have “fairly” good grounding inside the chassii and, well, onto (unto?) the chassii. However since solutions that route RF noise away from chassii (from screws and connectors) are regarded as having significant audible effect, this leads me to think the internal grounding schemes could be much better and notably less expensive to implement than these after-market draining solutions…
So, with the star grounds of a component all connecting to the IEC ground pin with standard copper wire and tinned traces, we are obviously not having a low enough impedance for ground noise to the pin and often enough, onwards from the pin. The latter is solved with good power cables of course…
Ideally, shouldn’t we try to achieve optimal grounding through the IEC alone? Any reason why we couldn’t do that as efficiently as what the mentioned after-market solutions offer?
How about spicing up the internal ground paths of components with some 2 inch wide silver foil?
After market solutions are general solutions intended for the largest market segment possible. For end users, such solutions bear a lot of trial and error potential. When such solutions work for some but not so for others, and when the cost is high, some people start the snake oil debate.
However, when a designer or designers of an audio unit take proper measures to ground or isolate their own work against interference knowing points of strength and points of weakness in their design and components, they would be in a better position to do a better job (theoretically). At times manufacturers cut corners and skim on these extras.
Anyway, are there actually any high-end products that go to notable lengths with their grounding schemes, as in actually having non-standard-issue conductors and such, in meticulous arrangements?
I was only half joking about the 2 inch wide silver(-plated) foil (less wide would do), the known principles for achieving low RF impedance are kinda simple. Less simple to implement meticulously inside a crowded chassis but surely doable.
About isolation, some engineer of a big audio company in an interview was talking about a remarkable difference he heard when he had all the internal wiring of a streamer changed to shielded. And most of them were power related. Makes me wonder, how to weigh the importance of shielding power wiring versus signal wiring… I take it that in many cases it would be less detrimental to shield power wire and more beneficial to not shield some signal wires at least as heavily, considering capacitance.
Power cables that excel in draining noise to ground are seemingly doing a great job, and their potential would be much better utilized the better the grounding of the component.
It seems that a number of Japanese manufacturers have traditionally put the extra effort in grounding and isolating their products both mechanically and electro-magnetically.
The other thing is that manufacturers cannot can go 100% with bespoke parts and remain profitable. So part of the game would be selecting good suppliers for off-the-shelf parts; and designing certain critical parts that would become unique to their brand or product.