The perfect earth
 

Most of us have experienced how much the sound changes when clean power (f.e. through a high end power conditioner) is used for a hifi system. Here is a little story about a nearly perfect (and clean!) earth.

From the main DB board my hifi system gets power through a dedicated, thick cable, ending at a tiny sub DB board behind the hifi rack. A Gigawatt EVO 4 power conditioner is connected with a special cable directly to the sub DB board. All components (power amp, pre amp, CD player, digital player) draw power from the conditioner.

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More information about my system is in this thread here: Ecki's system

Two weeks ago my electrician came around for some routine work. Afterwards I proudly demonstrated my new CD player. He wanted to reciprocate and showed me a new tool which can measure earth resistance. Out out curiosity we decided to measure the hifi system. We pushed two 12 cm metal sticks 5 meter apart into the lawn (providing a reference earth) and measured the resistance to the earth of the hifi system. We found the value to float between 1.5 and 3.5 ohm - which is within the accepted range of < 5 ohm. But after one or two beers while listening to some more CDs, we started to discuss what a perfect earth (with a resistance as close to 0 ohm as possible) would do to the sound and how it could be done. Unfortunately the first question was difficult to answer but the second question not. There was also the compelling argument that without building the perfect earth we would never find out how it sounds :D As there was a public holiday coming up we decided to give it a go.

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This copper matt was going to be our new earth.

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Thick is good in this case.

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Approximately 1 meter into the ground.

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We put a pipe with two outlets in so we can water our earth in summer or increase the conductivity of the soil.

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Some salt, layered between earth, to increase the conductivity.

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The finished installation from the outside.

We created two identical earth points, one for the house (shown here) and one one the other side, close to the living room for the hifi system. The pipe needs to be filled a couple of times with water to help the copper to corrode and build micro dendrite-like connections to the soil. And in the summer without rain a weekly dose of water will keep the earth perfect.

Now we disconnected the earth cable from the main DB to the sub DB and connected the new earth to the sub DB. The hifi system has its own, unshared earth now.

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The earth resistance is currently approximately 0.25 ohm. It will take a few months for the copper matts to connect perfectly to the soil. The earth resistance should be < 0.05 ohm then.


What was the result of this operation?

When we switched the hifi system back on could immediately hear the difference. In the words of my normally hifi ignorant wife, it is now clearer and calmer - I could not agree more. I am not good in describing sound with words. I would compare the improvement with the difference between excellent speaker cables vs normal speaker cables.

Please only let a qualified electrician do this kind of work.

Kind regards,
Ecki

Great thread! Great job/execution! :ok:

+1! :tresbon:

Wow. What a sensational undertaking and it demonstrates a genuine commitment to our hobby. :thumbsup:

You must have a great relationship with your electrician. :yes:

Please keep us informed as to the readings in a few months time.

You are now at One with Earth. :p

Ecki,

Fantastic story and photos, thank you!

Congratulations on taking your ground system to a level most only dream of!

That is impressive! Congratulations. Well done.

Love your Waterman pen. For over ten years I carried a Waterman fountain pen and ball point at work. Nearly indestructible, perfect for work / traveling. I switched to Montegrappa 1930 Extra pair when I moved into the executive staff… great pens.

Improving the ground great idea! Thank you so much for sharing! I had an electrician out to put in another direct line last year. I looked at the ground really suspiciously. I asked about it. But as every electrician I have ever talked to… they only think code… no actual electrical knowledge. He said it was fine… would not make a difference. He thought I was crazy to use ten gauge for the direct line to my power amp.

Every time I walk buy my ground I keep thinking… I wonder. Thank you for your post. I am going to measure my current ground and next time I have an electrician out and improve my ground. Fortunately, I should not have to rip much up to do it.

Also, what a classic audiophile solution… salt… water to maintain conductivity. Truly audiophile… the little stuff maters… hats off to you.

Great thread. Great job. It never ceases to amaze me of the knowledge and ingenuity levels of individuals here. As an engineer I highly respect those attributes.

Thanks for sharing.

The definition of building to code: “The cheapest way you can legally build something.” I deal with builders, architects, tradesman just about every day. (I practice building code law (among other things)). It’s amazing how hard it is to convince people to build anything above the minimum code requirements, even when the benefits are clear.