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Grounding the system

Dear fellow A-goners, do you have experience with independent grounding of your system?

I have a (water) radiator for warming the house close by my system in our living / listening room, and it is not a big effort to connect to it with a thin lead / cable.

I have experimented a bit, and generally found the sound to improve. I have ended up connecting all my equipment to the ground, with a "star" scheme centred on the preamp chassis. The elements of my speakers are connected also. From the star centre i have a lead to the radiator.

Results are subtle, but towards more consistency and holography. Yet i wonder since at times the sound seems a bit tame also. I may be doing this the wrong way, or not optimal.

Advice? I read about improvements from independent grounding of the whole system in the Danish High fidelity magazine some years ago, but I've not read much on this topic in US websites.

Oystein
o_holter

Showing 2 responses by joenies

joenies's avatar
joenies
271 posts
 
Hello,
If you are not getting any hum you should be OK.
I have no ground wires hooked up to my pre-amp or amp.
I have the ground wire from my cartridge going to my step-up then a ground wire from my step-up to my phono drive. The phone drive I do not have gounded to anything.
I do have a ground wire from my turntable chassis ground to a cold water pipe.
Ground and bonding is an art. It might work one way at one location and will not work at others.
Good luck,
Joe Nies
joenies's avatar
joenies
271 posts
 
Hello,
We have 2 different grounding systems we are talking about. One is the power (AC) ground and then the chassis ground. Your AC grounds should go back to your AC panel or approved equal. Most AC grounds come from the transformer to your service panel and then maybe tied to your cold water pipe, depends on the codes in your area. My house is on a well system with the pipe casing going down over 200ft. A great grounding system.Your chassis ground or bonding can go to a properly installed ground rod (earthing rod) or water pipe.
Ground rods need to have the soil tested and be in the ground X amount of feet to be effective.
A good book to get on the subject is " the art of grounding and shielding". Grounding can be accomplished in many different ways.
Hope this helps.
Joe Nies
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