Entreq grounding boxes

[Womaz]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/787020/review-c...vortex-box

Comparison here

[Celts88]

@Rufus McDufus 
@GuillaumeB
@cc1

Hi guys (or anyone else) wondering if you can help me with my potential purchase of Entreq gear. This thread ran out of juice back in late 2015, but off course the Entreq Ground Boxes & Cables are still going strong.

I’m currently looking at getting a Tellus 2 box, with a pair of Eartha Silver Cables (RCA) to connect to the RCA points of my 2 x 250Pro’s (set-up as a 1000Pro), which will be connected to the middle point of the Tellus 2. The two outer connections of the Tellus 2 will connect to the –ve binding post terminals of each 250Pro, with Infinity Silver Cables (this time Spade connectors).

The new Tellus 2 is essentially 3 separate boxes joined into one large box (each is internally isolated from each other) hence no problem connecting the –ve binding post terminals. The 2 outside connections are equivalent to a pair of Silver Minimus, with the middle connection being a Silver Minimus with built in Atlantis Minimus. As I will be grounding 2 RCA cables to the same middle connection of the Tellus 2 I’m thinking of getting an Everest Binding Post Upgrade to add to the middle connector (hoping this helps with having 2 cables onto the 1 connection).

I realise it's best to trial each type of new equipment, but being in Australia there's only the one distributor with him being in Sydney area, but myself in Perth – so no chance to trial different arrangements. Will add the Aus distributor is giving me a good deal on the full package (essentially 50% RRP discount on cables, and 20% discount on both Tellus 2 & Everest).

Any advice appreciated.

   

[Celts88]

@Rufus McDufus 
@GuillaumeB
@cc1

Don't you want to talk to me (or anyone else about Entreq) 

[GuillaumeB]

Seems no one wants to talk to me 

Apologies Celts88

Yes I've been big fan of Entreq over the years and have experimented a fair bit with their ground boxes and matching ground cables, as you can probably see from my earlier posts. Although to be brutally honest that enthusiasm has waned a little of late.

Believe it or not I have never got got round to testing the grounding of the negative speaker binding posts, this is largely because I didn't have the right cables (mine were all RCA to spade). Also I was pretty happy with the results gained from grounding an RCA port on each dual mono unit, using an Atlantis cable. I did try pretty much test the full range of cables and found Apollo to be the most effective. I understand the whole range has recently been updated to Infinity and I may get my hands on some of these at some point in the future. The UK distributor tells me they are a big improvement over the previous generation.

I haven't tried the new Tellus 2 although I have the Poseidon here, on which the Tellus 2 is based. I have the Everest and K2 binding post screws here too, which are bonkers quite frankly but which seem to make quite a big difference. 

Entreq is very tweaky though! It can take a little while for the effects to become noticeable, but it's the kind off thing you really notice when you take it away. It can end up driving you a little crazy but for me at least it did make the Devialet sound a little less "digital" and improve some of the body and textures of the sound. It's quite subtle compared to some of the other stuff I tend to be involved in these days. Some people seem a lot more sensitive to its effects than others, presumably your dealer will let you return/exchange the items if you don't like what they do? Sounds like you have an amazing discount anyway!

By the way check my signature and you'll see that I use an Athena rack, this is by far one of my favourite Entreq products! 

Guillaume

[Celts88]

Guillaume

Really appreciate your reply.

Am I doing the right thing getting an Entreq box and cables??? (lots of people think snake oil). It may help in varying degrees in my system (small to large change - who knows), but unless I give it a go I'll never know. Realise lots of people say the Entreq takes time to 'work their magic', so not so easy to appreciate the benefits (like you said more likely to notice when taking out, not when adding).

I'm settled with my 1000Pro (can't afford to start over again with pre-amp, amp, interconnects, etc.) so will be sticking with that. Changing my Antipodes DS Server to an Antipodes CORE model (has the more robust processor so better for Roon, and will be using an SSD instead of HDD). Settled with my speaker cables (have Lenehan Audio Foiltek SC's, no one out of Australia would have tried these, and even on these shores not many people), and having my speakers ML3Ref's upgraded to ML5Ref's (ML5 Crossover). Got a Gigawatt PC-3 Evo Se for my Power Conditioner, so thought why not give it a helping hand with an Entreq Ground box (read goods things on this thread and also via the web).

I had a chance of a 2nd hand Poseidon (good price, but from Italy so big $ to ship), but this only came up after ordering the Telus 2 box, so didn't want to stuff around the dealer over here. The Poseidon are 3 times the cost of a Telus 2 here in Aus, and would have got it for just less than double the price (still big money for me), so hoping I've done the right thing sticking with the Telus 2 (at least the Telus 2 has only been out since last year so a newish model, and happens to just squeeze into my cabinet - the Poseidon wouldn't). I'm getting an Everest to use on the middle connection of my Telus so hope this gives it a boost (will be running both 2 RCA connections from both my mono 250's to this one connection so thought worth giving it a helping hand). Hoping the Everest will help, as the Telus 2 is one large box, but with 3 seperate chambers so hoping it helps as the Everest only has to boost a 1/3rd size chamber it will give a nice boost.

Just wondering if I should look at adding a pair of K2's to the outside connectors for the -ve speakers binding posts as currently getting not too bad a price from our dealer ($250 for K2 & $350 for Everest), go all out for the Everest on all 3 connectors, or just wait and try what I have 1st (realise this is probably best option)? Would love to get the Apollo earth cables instead of the Silver cables, but the Apollo's are double the price here in Aus ($550 a pop for Apollo old style compared to $275 for Silver old style). Realise the Apollo would be better, but where do I stop (that would be another $1k to upgrade the cables). One thing maybe in my favour going with the Silver is the dealer only had one Spade-to-Spade cable left of the old style, so he agreed to get me a pair of the new style Silver Infinity cables for the same price (nice wee bonus there). 

Hope things are going well with your Absolare Integrated Signature, now you changed over from the Od'A, and your enjoying your music (that's why we're all on here to help learn new choices and garner new knowledge). Also good to see you haven't given Devialetchat a miss (realise you stil have a D200).

Cheers
John

[Rufus McDufus]

All i'll say is you've got to try them first. Sometimes it can make a decent difference, sometimes no difference at all. It's rather an inexact science. Because of that I suspect these grounding boxes are probably correcting some sort of design flaw in the equipment, probably with (duh) grounding. I still use a Silver Minimus on each amp's negative speaker post plus an Olympus Minimus on DAC, Melco. I'm not utterly convinced they make a huge difference but I think when I had my Devialet that the improvement was a bit more tangible.

[Celts88]

Rufus

Appreciate your comments and sorry I didn't reply sooner, but was waiting for my Entreq gear to arrive.

Arrive it did yesterday, and then hit a snag - the Tellus 2 doesn't fit into my display cabinet. I had previously mentioned this to the Australian distributor that my display cabinet only had a gap of 125mm, but was advised height of Tellus 2 was 120mm so should just squeeze in. Well guess what, it's not 120mm in height, but 135mm - it doesn't fit   . Not fully the Australian distributor's fault as on the Entreq website it states 120mm height, so he was just going of these figures (he only carries small stock so didn't have a Tellus 2 in stock to measure when I previously asked the question).

Also with the new Silver Infinity Cables, they've changed them from Spade-to-Spade over to the new Hook-to-Hook. I wasn’t aware of this new hook arrangement and I can’t get it to fit between my speaker binding posts to connect properly. Now this one I won't blame the Australian distributor too much as he had only charged me the price for the old Silver Eartha Cables, and thought he was doing the right thing getting me the new cables for no up charge. I will try and see if I can do something with the binding post (a thin file comes to mind ), as the new Infinity Cables are supposed to be a step up on the old Eartha cables, so will have to wait and see what I can do there (any suggestions appreciated on how to get between the plastic outer casing on the binding post).

Only installed the Entreq gear yesterday, and as mentioned for this gear needs a day or 2 to settle in before any improvements will be evident (if they are evident I'm still to find out ).

   
   
   
   

[yabaVR]

Rufus

Appreciate your comments and sorry I didn't reply sooner, but was waiting for my Entreq gear to arrive.

Arrive it did yesterday, and then hit a snag - the Tellus 2 doesn't fit into my display cabinet. I had previously mentioned this to the Australian distributor that my display cabinet only had a gap of 125mm, but was advised height of Tellus 2 was 120mm so should just squeeze in. Well guess what, it's not 120mm in height, but 135mm - it doesn't fit   . Not fully the Australian distributor's fault as on the Entreq website it states 120mm height, so he was just going of these figures (he only carries small stock so didn't have a Tellus 2 in stock to measure when I previously asked the question).

Also with the new Silver Infinity Cables, they've changed them from Spade-to-Spade over to the new Hook-to-Hook. I wasn’t aware of this new hook arrangement and I can’t get it to fit between my speaker binding posts to connect properly. Now this one I won't blame the Australian distributor too much as he had only charged me the price for the old Silver Eartha Cables, and thought he was doing the right thing getting me the new cables for no up charge. I will try and see if I can do something with the binding post (a thin file comes to mind ), as the new Infinity Cables are supposed to be a step up on the old Eartha cables, so will have to wait and see what I can do there (any suggestions appreciated on how to get between the plastic outer casing on the binding post).

Only installed the Entreq gear yesterday, and as mentioned for this gear needs a day or 2 to settle in before any improvements will be evident (if they are evident I'm still to find out ).

As for the hooks on the speaker cables you can probably 'try' them in this loose position like in the picture. I know that loose connection would not sound the best and it might be difficult to judge the cable. But if you decide to buy them you can then bend a 90° turn at the top of the hook so the thin part of it (the thickness) goes between the binding posts.

These hooks look like an Entreq invention. Are they of pure silver or copper-silver-plated? If the later I would change them for Tellurium-copper-silver-plated Bananas (see picture) or let the dealer do this if you don't have the skills to solder.
Advantage is you get a even less mass connection with the bananas (small mass connections sound better) and you can get rid of the moving part of the binding post of your Devialet.
Sorry to say this but the binding posts of our Devialets are of cheap brass coated first with nickel then gold and produce lots of eddy currents. You can turn them off until they stop. Then turn and pull simultaneously and they went off. You can turn them on again if you need in the future (but you won't ever use them again if you listen to your Devialet with them off).

gui

[Celts88]

Hi

Can't go into full details just now, but P-O (owner of Entreq) gave me a call from Sweden yesterday and will sort something out with my Tellus 2 & Infinity Hook Cables (now that's customer service for you). He did admit the sizing of 12cm height was the box casing and didn't include the extra height of the front panel (13.5cm), so it's their fault for wrong info on website.

One possibility is that they will take the Tellus 2 back and exchange for additional cost a factory 2nd Poseidon (cosmetic marks, fully functional, should be a large discount over normal RRP price). Also they will exchange the hook-to-hook cables for hook-to-spade, so these will attach to the negative binding posts as normal.

Haven't had a chance to properly hear what the Entreq gear does to my system, but as a Company top notch service as above.

[tategoi]

Getting this thread back to life now that I’m ready to get my hands dirty again :-)

From what I’ve read the best connection is to ground router first? I have a switch in my music room connected directly to a LAN port on the main router located in the living room. The switch is where the Melco and Nucleus+ are connected to. Wanted to clarify here if I should connect the Entreq to the main router or the switch.

Next best connection is the digital inputs on the Devialet? Since I’m running mono I could possibly connect both inputs onto a single post of the Entreq box.

Next best are the negative binding posts of speakers terminals?

Based on the above configuration, I would need 4 separate binding posts. Currently I have a Silver Minimus connected to a Torus Power conditioner. This was my configuration before I had the Od’A. I intend to buy a Tellus 2 and invest more on the grounding cable and potentially K2 and Everest.