Grounding Devices. Is this a real thing?

Yes, I'm not expecting an earth shattering result out of this. I did think really strongly about getting the Puritan Labs unit instead of the Russ Andrews unit but I just could'nt do the whole "dedicated earth rod" thing. Good to know that everything didn't blow up when you added the Puritan Labs unit   

I lack the equipment and knowledge to actually test the unit when I get it so I'll have to rely on my ears and on the single-blind testing with my workmate. I am not expecting massive results but it's a fun experiment as long as nothing starts to smoke.

I'm of the opinion that electrical noise in all its forms is one of the final issues to be overcome in our audio playback systems & is often the reason why digital audio playback systems are often less interesting than analogue playback systems. The problem is that "electrical noise" is generally ignored for a number of reasons - first one being that digital audio is "impervious" to electrical noise that doesn't change bits so the mistaken idea that if the digital data is delivered intact then the signal is perfect. The second problem being that "noise" is a misunderstood term - I have often seen it posted "well if I put my ear to the speaker & I don't hear noise, what's the problem - my system is noise free" They are listening to their system when it's not processing electrical systems i.e playing music - the noise that intertwines with the signal (music) is not heard as noise, as such, but rather perceived by its effect on the music itself - it can often render the music playback less interesting - a take or leave it feeling about the playback. And the really elusive bit is that this is only noticeable when such noise is removed & the dynamics & interest & realism of the music is evident by comparison 

There are so many facets to noise & I'm no expert but in our systems of interconnected multi-devices, often involving a computer, it is difficult to avoid SMPS internally. There is one thing that SMPS suffer from more than linear PSes - current leakage - which is essentially noise on the ground of the negative supply. This can have the detrimental effect I mentioned above unless it is shunted away from sensitive devices - probably the most sensitive being a DAC. 

John Swenson has written about this extensively & it seems that one of the best ways to stop this effecting our sensitive devices is to shunt it to ground - SandyK mentioned how to do this - connect a heavy duty wire from any SMPS negative (usually the outside of the DC barrel plug) to mains earth. If you don't use an SMPS as power source but there is definitely one inside your computer then I've seen people reporting big improvements connecting heavy duty wire between the chassis of all the audio devices . Not sure what's at play here but it may provide a lower impedance path for these leakage currents rather than the shields & grounds of interconnecting cables between devices?

Don't know about the Groundmaster? 

Yea, the NUC or low power consumption computer is the right way to go, even though these still invariably all have DC-DC switchers on board for the varied voltage rails needed by the CPUs & GPUs.  But according to Swenson even LPS have some current leakage although far lower than SMPSes (not sure how sonically detrimental this is?) .The best, most relaxed analogue-like sound I've heard came from an SD card player - simple electronics, fed by battery, no switchers or connections to other noise-producing devices. Unfortunately the target use for computers as general purpose computing workhorses often works against the single purpose use for audio.


Let us know your experience with the GroundMaster