It was definitely not meant as hyperbole. And why on earth would he be bullsh*tting? He really doesn't strike me as the type.
Do you know him personally? Then you have no idea. People BS for lots of reasons, or he may simply believe he's hearing the BS and repeating it or confirmation bias etc. I've read plenty of reviews where it appears, consciously or not, that they're actually regurgitating the ad copy that's easily found, so I give no credence to what they're purporting to hear.
There seems to be the view that the Earth is like a sponge for soaking up noise, I don't think that's the case.
Be careful messing with grounding/ earth if you don't know what your doing and can't read electrical schematics.
Especially in the US, in low voltage circuits. Grounding can mean the ground wire/earth or the - of a circuit with polarity. Same with the external grounding equipment thats sold some places meant to be connected to AC 120/230 earth.
Doing it wrong can make some interesting issues appear in circuits, and in case of failures or mishaps damage your equipment.
As general for shielding cables against EMF/EMC/RFI etc. The best solution in noise generators like VFDs etc is to ground one side of the shield in a cable from the source out to the equipment. Audio sources is not something magical that defies the laws of physics nomatter the retail price.
As for grounding loudspeaker baskets, you might as well buy some nordost flatline odin cables at 50, 000 $ a pair and some magical cable lifts for 1000$ a pop. They will likely give the same " thrilling and remarkable results" at least until a voice coil starts rubbing..
If your worried about noise etc, install inductors correctly to avoid crosstalk that is a well known source of distortion, size iron cores adequately to avoid saturation if you use them, and if you wanna take it to the next level just to have peace of mind. Remove the crossover from the vibrations induced inside the cabinet, and shield the internal wiring and vibration isolate them in ducting with a suitable fill inside.
Especially in the US, in low voltage circuits. Grounding can mean the ground wire/earth or the - of a circuit with polarity. Same with the external grounding equipment thats sold some places meant to be connected to AC 120/230 earth.
Doing it wrong can make some interesting issues appear in circuits, and in case of failures or mishaps damage your equipment.
As general for shielding cables against EMF/EMC/RFI etc. The best solution in noise generators like VFDs etc is to ground one side of the shield in a cable from the source out to the equipment. Audio sources is not something magical that defies the laws of physics nomatter the retail price.
As for grounding loudspeaker baskets, you might as well buy some nordost flatline odin cables at 50, 000 $ a pair and some magical cable lifts for 1000$ a pop. They will likely give the same " thrilling and remarkable results" at least until a voice coil starts rubbing..
If your worried about noise etc, install inductors correctly to avoid crosstalk that is a well known source of distortion, size iron cores adequately to avoid saturation if you use them, and if you wanna take it to the next level just to have peace of mind. Remove the crossover from the vibrations induced inside the cabinet, and shield the internal wiring and vibration isolate them in ducting with a suitable fill inside.
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Let's just say that if I drop that kind of coin on dubious equipment, I'm going to expect something to be blown.
I remember that. While the principle is sound, I would expect a feature like this could introduce some bad stuff in not carefully implemented by the end user.
No, electrical and electronic engineering at SA Institute of Technology, now University of SA. I did read every AES journal from cover to cover whilst I was an AES Section committee member for more than a decade, if you call that overseas education. I'm curious to know how does that relate to the topic of the thread?
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Speak for yourself. Frankly I think it's irrelevant whether I personally know him. The psychologic phenomena you speak of can be applied to anyone, including you. I'm more inclined to believe him, than you. No offence.
Edit: And not just you. Anyone saying that it's BS without having tried it.
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Using a power conditioner can make a difference. Not always, and not necessarily a lot of difference.
One would expect a person who well understands how something works, and who is focussed on functionality, would want to charge a reasonable price for their equipment. A competent DIYer could take care of power conditioning using surplus parts, or buy from whatever they have in their pocket.
One would expect a person who well understands how something works, and who is focussed on functionality, would want to charge a reasonable price for their equipment. A competent DIYer could take care of power conditioning using surplus parts, or buy from whatever they have in their pocket.
I never disincluded myself in the comment.
Fair enough. I have. Zero difference and am yet to see a reasonable electrical reason for why it could possibly make an audible difference.
Just for fun I hooked up a loudspeaker driver to a CRO to see what RFI I could pick up. With 3" voice coil and a 60MHz bandwidth I couldn't measure anything, not even 0.1mV. Granted I am not near an urban center or any major source of EMI, well except for the 12kW Selectronic house inverter on the other side of the wall from my workshop bench about 60cm from the DUT.
I guess it doesn't help that the self inductance of the voice coil combined with the screening of the pole pieces doesn't make a loudspeaker much of an RF probe. I was always skeptical about the ground connection when Tannoy introduced it decades ago, but willing to give them some latitude, less so now.
I guess it doesn't help that the self inductance of the voice coil combined with the screening of the pole pieces doesn't make a loudspeaker much of an RF probe. I was always skeptical about the ground connection when Tannoy introduced it decades ago, but willing to give them some latitude, less so now.
Years ago I had some Class D amps on my woofers that had pretty high levels of their switching frequency on their outputs up to a level that it started to interfere with my turntable. I tried shielded loudspeaker cables with one end connected to either negative loudspeaker terminal, chassis ground, mains ground or floating but it didn't help.
Than I remembered current can only flow in a closed loop so I added a ground scheme similar to the grounding of turntable cables, that is with a extra external wire. This wire is simply connected to both ends of the shield to form a closed loop. Connected this way the interfence was complety gone. It did not make a difference if I connected one end to ground or not. Can't say it made any difference in perceived sound but than again, it was only used on my woofers in an active three-way system
This worked for the 300kHz swithching frequency, no idea how effective it is in the MHz range or how effective one side grounding is in that range since I have not got the equipment to measure it.
Than I remembered current can only flow in a closed loop so I added a ground scheme similar to the grounding of turntable cables, that is with a extra external wire. This wire is simply connected to both ends of the shield to form a closed loop. Connected this way the interfence was complety gone. It did not make a difference if I connected one end to ground or not. Can't say it made any difference in perceived sound but than again, it was only used on my woofers in an active three-way system
This worked for the 300kHz swithching frequency, no idea how effective it is in the MHz range or how effective one side grounding is in that range since I have not got the equipment to measure it.
On most 1930-1960 European table top radios, the metal chassis of the enclosed electrodynamic loudspeaker(s) could be -and mostly was- electrically connected to circuit reference “ground” via a separate tag at the connection terminal of the driver.
George
Attachments
In a valve radio there is the presence of high voltages. I suspect the ground wire is a safety against transformer insulation breakdown, especially as the mountings for the frame typically pass through the cabinet to the user side.
^^ I was about to post the same safety reason. If there is another, especially one that affects audio performance, I'd be interested, especially if it can be backed up.
On all the radios I have seen in detail, not one had the loudspeaker attaching bolts approachable from outside even by accident. The loudspeaker was bolted to a wooden plate and that wooden plate was placed over another one which hid the attaching bolts, then the assembly placed behind the facia fabric grill.
The loudspeaker chassis earthing tag either was not used or was absent on the loudspeakers which had magnetic shield over their alnicos
George
The loudspeaker chassis earthing tag either was not used or was absent on the loudspeakers which had magnetic shield over their alnicos
George
