Audio aphorism

[Lurcher300b]

I said this 30 years ago it is still valid.

1 There is only one thing better than the best component money can buy, and that is no component at all.
2 Never use two components when you can do the job with one.
3 Screw up your earth (ground) paths at your peril.
4 Always use the largest transformer (toroid if possible) you can cost in.
5 If your ears and your test equipment tell you two different things, trust your ears.
6 If you have a fault in your source material or elsewhere in the equipment chain, you cannot correct it by creating an inverse fault in the amplifier with tone, balance, and filter controls. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Didnt want to post this on the AOS thread, as its nothing to do with that. I just have to add a little to the above (which I generally agree with, apart from 4, larger than normal is only true in some cases, and toroids are not always the best choice)

2. If a job can't be done properly with one component, don't worry about using two

3. Nothing is more important than the power supply, and the ground is 50% of that.

5. If your ears and test equipment tell you two different things, spend time understanding what is wrong with your measurements

6. If a improvement in a component highlights a fault elsewhere, you have to fix the fault and not blame the new component.

[BilliumB]

Hi Lurcher

Any thoughts on 'ground' set-up beyond the internals of the kit? I'm thinking of earth spikes, connections to them etc. Obviously there are safety issues with mains voltages and especially PME earthing systems.

Cheers. Bill

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It depends if you are running Class I or Class II gear, and nva is the only user of Class II appliance regs for hi-fi apart from the odd unit Rega are starting to develop, I don't know of others.

Sooo for Class I there can be benefit, for Class II don't bother, if you want to improve it then add a BMU. In technical terms Class I refs earth as 0v, Class II just refs 0v. Or as it is known it floats off the earth.

Over to Lurcher.

[Lurcher300b]

Well, after a couple of minutes thinking, I would doubt if a earth spike would make much difference, and as you probably know, if done wrongly can be a major risk. If you have a isolating TX, (BMU) then you can establish your own earth with one, but I am not sure what it would gain. To understand earthing (and its a huge subject) you need to start thinking about adding little caps, inductors and resistors everywhere. Well, not add them, but realise they are already there (and for that matter diodes in every connection). There certainly are no simple works every time solutions. Generally HiFi tends to be restricted to a small area and driven off the same phase, so industrial solutions are not needed. I agree with the Doc, mains is the biggest source of audio problems, but I think of the three wires (or two in the case of NVA) the earth is the least cause for concern.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Major part of the problem is people don't understand what an earth is, and misunderstand largely what it is for and why it is absolutely important in some situations and completely unimportant in others. For example find me an earth on an aircraft. For example try to operate a radio ham outfit without one. One completely doesn't need it and one needs it as to be as absolute as possible.

Forum members and hi-fi magazine readers suffer from the pretend hi-fi gurus like Marco who have just confused / deluded everybody with their ignorance. Learn who the eeediots are and stop listening to them.

[Lurcher300b]

Forum members and hi-fi magazine readers suffer from the pretend hi-fi gurus

In my experience, the way to get people to believe you is to say what they want to hear. And what they want to hear is that complex problems have simple solutions. Doesn't seem to matter if the simple solution solves nothing, folk seem to prefer it to the truth that there is rarely one simple solution, mainly because there is rarely one simple problem. (See America at the moment).

[Lurcher300b]

For example find me an earth on an aircraft. For example try to operate a radio ham outfit without one.

Well, in fact, the body of a aircraft will make a perfectly good earth. Its not the same as an earth thats connected to the earth, but only difference is the size of the body thats insulated from its surroundings. One is plane size, and the other is planet size, but the only difference is one of scale.

VHF radio transmission from a plane works just fine, so at VHF it looks like a earth. Try and broadcast long wave and it won't work so well

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

My point was short wave hams are infatuated in getting a good earth, it is the difference between hearing the message or not. They are the ones who dig up their gardens to get one, hi-fi just picked it up when someone decided to bullshit it on them as though it was of the same importance, and the wanna be gurus took up the shout. I think most here and around the hi-fi enthusiast crowd think an earth is the earth i.e. the ground. I understand what you are saying, but an aircraft refs itself, it doesn't have a long copper wire out the back trailing on the ground. In this case like a ClassII appliance, it refs itself.

There is not just an electrical earth, there are physical earths, the ability to sink energy is my definition of an earth.

[Lurcher300b]

Yes, agreed, I was being pedantic as usual. But (to continue) the only reason you can sink RF energy into the earth is the size of the planet gives it a large surface that can be statically charged. Like the plane. the planet doesn't have have a big green and yellow wire trailing from it.

You are right, the idea of a copper mesh in the garden, and watering it it with salt solution is from the world of radio. But then again I still miss the Rugby array every time I go down the M1.

[Geoff.R.G]

For example find me an earth on an aircraft. For example try to operate a radio ham outfit without one.

Well, in fact, the body of a aircraft will make a perfectly good earth. Its not the same as an earth thats connected to the earth, but only difference is the size of the body that's insulated from its surroundings. One is plane size, and the other is planet size, but the only difference is one of scale.

VHF radio transmission from a plane works just fine, so at VHF it looks like a earth. Try and broadcast long wave and it won't work so well

HF radio works perfectly well from aircraft too. HF and Short Wave being the same thing (3-30 MHz). The airframe is considered to be earth for all electrical systems onboard, unless the aircraft is a Boeing 787 which has a current return network instead. HF and VHF work just fine on the 787 too.

Once on the ground an aircraft is earthed through its tyres or the ground power connector when ground power is in use.