A New Ground -- Benefits of introducing the Synergistic Research Active Ground Block SE

Check out this review on the Gutwire grounding approach. They don't think boxes are the answer since they eventually become saturated and have to be disconnected every few months and "shaken" to clean them out. Their approach is to drain the ground directly from the circuit board by using an unused input, out to the ground in the AC outlet. 

After reading the article, I'm thinking of trying one out myself.

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise I agree, it’s always seemed odd that the boxes like Entreqs could really act as a ground while separate from the electrical ground.

my problem with what Gutwire propose is that you need a hell of a lot of cables if you have a complex system like mine, and more to the point a lot of available outlets sharing a common ground.

I have prior experience grounding my FEQs to a different outlet to the one they are powered from and that didn’t sound at all good ... it is interesting that Gutwire actually specify that the ground for their cords should NOT be shared with the rest of the electronics ... oh well, lots of room for different approaches I guess

Folkfreak, your concerns mirror mine. I've gotten to where I actually like the way everything looks now so if I were to get one, it would involve a long cord to get the next outlet box and even then, it may not work the way I thought it would.

The thing that keeps me interested is the high praise that Glen gave the Gutwire. He's not prone to hyperbole and the sometimes maddening prose that Srajan employs. He gets right to the point and rarely raves about anything. For him, it either works or it doesn't.

All the best,
Nonoise

I’m fascinated by this subject but have not thrown money at it. I messed around with star grounding in the past, did have one of those cheapy Granite Audio boxes that, to my understanding, was like star grounding everything at one place, but gave you switches to mess with the ground planes or impedances of various "channels’ of connection. I used it temporarily to ameliorate some hum, but the answer turned out to be my Lamm ML2 amps. When I bought them, the previous owner had disconnected the wire of the circuit board to the chassis and no hum, but when I sent the amp to Vlad to go over, some years ago, it came back with the hum. We looked and that little wired had been replaced. I don’t like cheating the grounds, but that seems to be the only solution (unless I get into the unit which I’m reluctant to do).
I have a new isolation transformer that was just installed --a 10kVa and it doesn’t really address ground since, by code, it has to be connected to the main household ground (a Ufer, installed when this house was restored, along with all the electrics). I did install a separate or "clean" grounding point within the room- not isolated-- one of those big copper bars with holes (looks very much like the top of the passive Synergistic ground block) that runs back to the main household ground via a 4 gauge cable. That, obviously, didn’t make much difference either. The electrics for the hi-fi are dedicated, and pull from a subpanel to 20 amp hospital grade receptacles using 10 gauge Romex. The feeders are 4 gauge.
I gather Ralph is talking about inter-component grounding differences that cause the hum or weird ways of grounding a particular circuit within a piece of gear.
I get the concept that external star grounding as a supplement (not as a replacement) for grounding equipment could theoretically quiet a system- my speakers are very sensitive at 104db/meter so you here every gremlin.
I did get into a discussion with an EE who said the isolation transformer does zip unless it has an isolated ground, but I gather there are still benefits to nasties on the hot and neutral.
My plan was originally to build a separate building in the backyard of this house-- we had the feasibility study done, and zoning pre-approvals. In the meantime, the system is installed in a large loft space at the top of the house and it isn’t bad. In fact, even the current out of the wall-- the so-called "dirty power" is way better than what I had in NY metro-(up in the country), quiet, more stable, no brown outs (so far) despite the considerable heat here in central TX. The room is made of shiplap-- old planks (although covered with drywall in this upstairs loft area) and seems to sound very good, though I’m only just beginning to dial in the system. The whole grounding thing is a bit of a puzzlement--I should ask Vlad- since he has always been very responsive to me, and I love the sound of these old amps. Otherwise, I haven’t heard the really fancy external or supplemental grounding boxes but call me intrigued.

@whart If you have a DVM there is a simple measurement that will tell you if the amp/preamp/whatever is properly grounded.

With the unit unplugged and out of the system, the DVM set to the Ohms scale:

The center pin of the IEC connection (or ground pin of the AC cord) should measure a short to the chassis; IOW about 0.5 ohms or less.

If the ground of the audio input connection measures the same then you have a problem. If it seems to measure significantly higher than things are good.

If you have no connection between the chassis and the ground pin of the AC cord then the equipment can be considered dangerous and will not meet UL standards nor EU Directives (CE mark).