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A Second Noise Floor?

We hear the term, “noise floor” being casually tossed around and it has taken me years and thousands of dollars to figure out what it is and how it impacts the music I listen to.  Then…the floor drops from under you and you’re forced to look at it again to relearn what you thought you had already understood.

My previous understanding was that there was erroneous electrical signal being propagated, absorbed, emitted, etc, that was veiling or hiding frequency within music. It is noise, but not an actual audible sound. I had understood and heard how that acted on speakers, components and amplifiers.  There was a variety of products and tweaks that could reduce the “noise floor.”  Over the years, as I added equipment, products, upgrades and tweaks, I started noticing what emerges when the noise floor drops. Micro details and/or instruments, larger and expanded sound stage, and more realism to the tone of the sound, like the timber of vocals or the metallic, vibrating decay of a piano note.

That’s when it happened. I discovered there was another “noise floor” being impacted that I didn't know existed.

I discovered that my power distributor, the Shunyata Venom V16, has an external chassis ground connector.  This is part of their CGS tech and it isn’t advertised on the product; yet there it is, ready to be used. It is marked for Earth Ground and not Chassis Ground, which I thought was odd; in engineering, those two symbols are not interchangeable. I built my own external Earth Ground Box and created a custom cable to connect the box to the power distributor.  I wasn’t expecting any real benefit, but it was DRASTIC! So drastic in fact, that it destroyed my understanding of  the “noise floor.” The instant I plugged it in, the sound changed.  Snare drums, cymbals, tambourines, xylophones, and various other percussion instruments didn’t just show up in the background.  They came in front and center in the most in-your-face way that it completely altered the majority of the music I listen to. Vocals were clearer, resolute, and separated pin-point from all the other instruments in a 3D space, and not in a subtle way.

I thought, there was NO WAY, bleeding off excess electrical signal into ground is going to suddenly make micro details louder and more evident without changing the volume level of the lead singer and other instruments.  It didn’t make ANY sense…until I realized an important detail.  My music isn’t pure analog; it’s digital. O_O That meant, there was another “noise floor.”  The digital “noise floor.” Packets of information not only relay what instrument/sound is played, but what position it is in and how loud it is. My computer is plugged into the same power distributor and is therefore benefiting from the Earth grounding box. It must be allowing a cleaner distribution of digital packets over USB to the DAC and the DAC is then able to generate and create a more accurate analog signal.

At least, that’s what makes sense to me.  I could be very wrong; but how else do you explain the drastic changes?

128x128guakus

Showing 9 responses by guakus

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@lowrider57 

I created a system and added photos I took while I was making it.
 



guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@lowrider57 

Sure, why not?  It's a MASSIVE banana plug.  I thought about posting a comparison picture.  It's 3 x the size of what you normally see.

I plugged in using a banana plug, but it will accept spades.  Those can easily stack. :)

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

You're creating an array, sort of like an antenna.  I don't think it's 100% necessary to have the bare wire, but a lot of designs I saw had something similar.  Bare copper wire coil is cheap and easy to get :).  I also got some copper tape just to be extra sure. The one feature that was absolute is the "U" or "V" shaped piece of copper that attaches to the back wall and the banana binding post.

That external twist nut is fine.  It just means you use a spade rather than a banana plug :).

I have seen folks even attach a box to the negative post on each speaker. O_O  I was actually thinking of doing that for my floor standing system at some point.

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@oldhvymec 

It took me quite some time to figure out what to fill these boxes with. The entire point of Earth grounding is to have a semi-conductive filler that can safely disperse electrical energy. The industrial premium blend tends to be charcoal and salt and some have quartz.

I bought a bag of Hawaiian Charcoal Rock Salt. I also used rock salt, the kind you use with making ice cream; they are very large grains. I also used tree charcoal, broken into various sized pieces. I also used copper clippings from a 24 gauge copper wire.  Then, I literally went outside and took a few spoonfuls of actual local dirt. I put all this in a bowl and mixed it up.  Ratio wise, I think it was 80% Hawaiian charcoal salt, 12% tree charcoal, 5% rock salt, 1% copper filings, 2% dirt.

On the 2nd box, I took a quartz crystal that was still attached to rock and I placed it at the bottom, directly on the copper plate.  It was then surrounded by raised copper plates and the main copper wire coming from the banana plug. That box was connected banana to banana.

I have actually been thinking of upgrading that grounding cable. I want solid copper banana plugs and try for an 8 gauge copper wire. :)

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

I made two boxes, actually.  The first box was made for my custom cable to allow the ground loop spades to bleed off. The 2nd box uses the same design, however, only connects to the power distributor via Banana Plug. The first grounding cable I made was done using a 16 gauge tinned copper wire and an all copper male NEMA 5-15 amp connector.  The other end was a banana plug and that went into the box.  The other connected to the power distributor (to now use the common ground.) 

The Venom V16 has an external port that accepts a standard banana plug, or could be attached via a spade.  When I made the 2nd box, I had room to make some improvements.  The banana plug I used was MASSIVE.  Easily three times the size of the first ones I used.  It's binding post was very thick, which made it hard to drill holes into the copper plates. It was worth it, because it is highly conductive.  Also, for the ground wire, I used 12 gauge braided copper in an 8 inch length.  My understanding is that you want the fattest possible cable at the shortest possible length.

 

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@lowrider57 

I am not sure how.  The pics all have to hosted, I can't just insert or drop them in. :(

Any ideas?

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@4krowme 

Agreed, each geographical area has a completely different mineral mix.  I had no conception on how each compound impacted sound quality, or even if it does. Technically speaking, the engineering at work here is drawing out excess electric current or signal and dissipating it as fast as possible.  Sort of like a poultice drawing out poison from a wound. (not the best visual there, sorry ;) )

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

Awesome!  Glad to have been of help. :)

guakus's avatar
guakus OP
351 posts
 

@tksteingraber 

Yes.  The heavier gauge made a difference.  However, just having a heavy gauge plug wasn't enough.  I was originally using 12AWG tinned copper wire with what I originally thought was a high-definition, gold-plated, banana plug.  I was changing the wire to 10AWG OFC and when I was trying to reattach the plug, it snapped. I discovered that the inside of the plug was plastic.  It was gold plated plastic :(.  So, I get some hefty Media Bridge banana plugs that I was able to determine is solid copper and gold plated.

So, once I changed this wire out, the sound quality was far better.

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