Nordost QKore grounding unit

Yet another step in experiment.

A bit semi-serious, but fun. Would be interesting to see though, what Adam might find inside the QKore housings.
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And so...
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...the DIY grounding device sits snugly in the rack along with the Aqvox SE switch.
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Now the most important question: what do I hear? Instrument separation appears a bit better, details are easier to make out. Soundstaging is more organized. Everything sounds a bit more relaxed.

Is it the same thing I heard in the QKore demo 1 1/2 years back? Couldn’t possibly tell, as my aural memory is not that accurate that far back. Maybe I borrow a QKore unit somewhere to do an A/B comparison.

Verdict: I like what I’m hearing. And it looks nice, I’ll keep my €150,- QKore challenger [emoji3].


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Elberoth said:
Did you try to ground the whole thing to the AC outlet ground in the wall ?
Click to expand...

No, I did not. It’s purely passive. The QKore is not either grounded to an AC outlet.

And after reading the cautions on the website you sent a link to, I did not fancy to risk frying up my house, audio system and potentially everyone in the house.


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brad225 said:
Would you share your sources for the items used in your project?
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Hi Brad, the sources are really nothing special:

- drill bits, screws, dowels, pliers and 10 AWG speaker wire from my local DIY store
- various types of connectors, copper o-rings and sorbothane feet from Amazon
- 5 KG copper bar from an ebay seller (also any metal trader on the web will do)


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It’s what I would call a “Dirty Ground”, meaning simple and effective.

Did I see a RJ45 connection? If not, consider making that cable for the AQVox SE.

Last is to now try to encase you piece and isolate it, then put the German Crest on it and sell it for $1200 Euros. [emoji851]




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Kuoppis,

So, regardless of what the QKore does or claims to do (even if its the same ultimate function as your DIY unit) how is your experiment considered a ground of any sort if the block of copper itself that everything is tied to (component wise) is sitting on a wood or other non conductive shelf with rubber feet isolating the block of copper and said shelf and has no tie, conductive-cable-wise to anything else?

Could you do the same kind of component-group-tie-down to a granite slab or a piece of Corian countertop or a slab of cork and expect different or the same results? Why is the copper block needed if it floats above ground? Isn't that called "not grounded"?
 
UltraFast69 said:
It’s what I would call a “Dirty Ground”, meaning simple and effective.

Did I see a RJ45 connection? If not, consider making that cable for the AQVox SE.

Last is to now try to encase you piece and isolate it, then put the German Crest on it and sell it for $1200 Euros. [emoji851]
Click to expand...

Yes, you did indeed see an RJ45 connector.

In one of your postings you told that you connected the Aqvox SE to the QKore, and heard an improvement. So I followed suit.

You call this dirty ground, I call it quick & dirty ground [emoji3].

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MikeCh said:
Kuoppis,

So, regardless of what the QKore does or claims to do (even if its the same ultimate function as your DIY unit) how is your experiment considered a ground of any sort if the block of copper itself that everything is tied to (component wise) is sitting on a wood or other non conductive shelf with rubber feet isolating the block of copper and said shelf and has no tie, conductive-cable-wise to anything else?

Could you do the same kind of component-group-tie-down to a granite slab or a piece of Corian countertop or a slab of cork and expect different or the same results? Why is the copper block needed if it floats above ground? Isn't that called "not grounded"?
Click to expand...

Good questions, Mike. Here’s the thought process.

Similar to the QKore, the copper bar serves as a common ground for all connected devices. The QKore is also just placed somewhere in the vicinity of the system. Electrical ground does not necessarily mean “ground” literally, it is just a common load reference point for the connected gear.

Also in your household you have several “grounds”. The principle is the same when you ground your turntable. You don’t ground it to earth mass, but rather with the preamplifier it is playing with.

Go try out the QKore in your system. I think it makes a difference.


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This morning the effect is even greater. I presume that is due to the components having equalized the ground loading overnight.

In addition to what was described yesterday, the highs appear precise but less sharp while not losing snappiness, and bass is slightly more substantial while feeling less bloated. Yet decays are longer. All in all, I have the impression the sound is more precise or true to what is on the recording.

As this is a passive setup, it for sure takes a while to settle.


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With all due respect, what has been done with this DIY approach is simply implementing a common or star grounding point between your components. It doesn't really have much in common with what Nordost seems to be doing with their full QKORE system, which provides two artificially cleaned parallel ground points for system power and signal grounds independently. While some may question the approach it seems that most audiophiles who have actually heard the difference the QKORE makes in their system recognize and acknowledge the audible improvements it makes. I'm not disputing that basic star grounding can also make an audible improvement in many systems, but I don't really see that such an approach is replicating the QKORE implementation. I would be interested in seeing if someone trying a DIY star ground would borrow the Nordost QKORE system to compare to in their system, now that would be interesting!
:popcorn:
 
A question for all of you that have tried or are thinking about trying a grounding product.

Did you choose to try it because you heard something you didn't like in the sound of your system or just curiosity of what might be?
 
audio.bill said:
With all due respect, what has been done with this DIY approach is simply implementing a common or star grounding point between your components. It doesn't really have much in common with what Nordost seems to be doing with their full QKORE system, which provides two artificially cleaned parallel ground points for system power and signal grounds independently. While some may question the approach it seems that most audiophiles who have actually heard the difference the QKORE makes in their system recognize and acknowledge the audible improvements it makes. I'm not disputing that basic star grounding can also make an audible improvement in many systems, but I don't really see that such an approach is replicating the QKORE implementation. I would be interested in seeing if someone trying a DIY star ground would borrow the Nordost QKORE system to compare to in their system, now that would be interesting!
:popcorn:
Click to expand...

Hi Bill, do you remember what happened last time when you copied something from QKore product marketing materials?

audio.bill: The first difference in their system is that it provides a method for providing an artificial clean ground point, which is described as using "Low-Voltage Attractor Plates (LVAPs), constructed with a proprietary metal alloy and a passive electronic circuit, in order to draw stray high frequency noise and voltage-generated magnetic fields to a manufactured earth point leaving a clean reference behind.

Kuoppis: Bill, as I am not familiar with the technology, what are Low Voltage Attractor Plates, technically speaking?

audio.bill: That was quoted from Nordost's product description and I don't have any more specific knowledge of their construction. Sorry about that.

So, could you this time around elaborate on what exactly are artificially cleaned ground points? Thanks.

I guess most companies invent fancy marketing names for their products and features to make them more interesting. Nevertheless, those products can sometimes be surprisingly simple. That’s why I did this experiment.

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brad225 said:
A question for all of you that have tried or are thinking about trying a grounding product.

Did you choose to try it because you heard something you didn't like in the sound of your system or just curiosity of what might be?
Click to expand...

In my case at least it’s just curiosity. Probably triggered through attending a QKore demo at a trade show once.


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brad225 said:
A question for all of you that have tried or are thinking about trying a grounding product.

Did you choose to try it because you heard something you didn't like in the sound of your system or just curiosity of what might be?
Click to expand...

A combination of FedEx losing my Triton v3 (finally found after 1.5 months who knows where) so needed to play with a new tweak and read so much about Tripoint and Entreq that I was curious.
 
brad225 said:
A question for all of you that have tried or are thinking about trying a grounding product.

Did you choose to try it because you heard something you didn't like in the sound of your system or just curiosity of what might be?
Click to expand...

I went through the demo, liked it, ordered a QKore 6 upon placement satisfied, the Nordost did as advertised - downside was the cost because you also had to add four additional cables, I think it came with 2


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Kuoppis said:
Hi Bill, do you remember what happened last time when you copied something from QKore product marketing materials?

audio.bill: The first difference in their system is that it provides a method for providing an artificial clean ground point, which is described as using "Low-Voltage Attractor Plates (LVAPs), constructed with a proprietary metal alloy and a passive electronic circuit, in order to draw stray high frequency noise and voltage-generated magnetic fields to a manufactured earth point leaving a clean reference behind.

Kuoppis: Bill, as I am not familiar with the technology, what are Low Voltage Attractor Plates, technically speaking?

audio.bill: That was quoted from Nordost's product description and I don't have any more specific knowledge of their construction. Sorry about that.

So, could you this time around elaborate on what exactly are artificially cleaned ground points? Thanks.

I guess most companies invent fancy marketing names for their products and features to make them more interesting. Nevertheless, those products can sometimes be surprisingly simple. That’s why I did this experiment.
Click to expand...
I don't know how exact I can be, but I will attempt to share my understanding of what they are referring to by "artificially cleaned ground points". Such grounding systems generally attempt to remove noise in the ground, to lower the residual noise in the reference ground point of the system. They do so by effectively filtering the ground to remove undesired noise, but exactly how they accomplish that is not generally shared and likely considered to be proprietary. I have seen some similar products that use a ribbon or plate conductor which is connected to the ground and is immersed in a cavity filled with select rare earth elements which claim to filter noise in the ground. What Nordost refers to as low voltage attractor plates could be referring to such a conductor being used in their filter implementation. I cannot explain the science behind the reactions involved nor to the effectiveness of this type of noise filtering, but am just sharing what I've read about such designs. Nordost's implementation also provides independent clean grounds for the AC power grounds (QKORE1) and the signal grounds (QKORE3). I also found another description (likely also from other Nordost product description) which states: "the Low-Voltage Attractor Plates (LVAPs), constructed with a proprietary metal alloy and a passive electronic circuit, in order to draw stray high frequency noise and voltage-generated magnetic fields to a manufactured earth point, leaving a clean reference behind." Hopefully this additional info is helpful, but of course it doesn't explain their implementation in full detail.
 
Is everybody clear that there are different types of grounding - chassis, signal and mains earth?

It seems like there's a lot of mixing of types. That copper bar hack job a few posts up is chassis grounding (as are the Tripoint products) while QKore to my knowledge seems to be signal grounding and mains earth grounding (not that it couldn't also be used for chassis grounding - similar to the CAD GC products I use). You don't use the same unit for more than one type of grounding unless it has some type of separation of grounds between the different posts on the back (which is an unusual setup, but it seems at least one of the QKore units is designed to be used for both signal and mains earth grounding at the same time).
 
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