Entreq grounding boxes

[james n]

Hi Guillaume - It's been a very interesting few days and I must admit that I was very sceptical about these boxes. Coming from a long time association with Naim electronics, my tweaking has really been down to careful equipment location, letting cables hang freely and keeping sources of EMI away from my kit - just good sound practice. I’ve avoided the more esoteric tweaks as this is where I find audio and conventional engineering principles tending to diverge - an electronic engineering background means pseudoscience isn’t for me, but I do like to keep an open mind and after reading the positive views on this thread it seemed worth a try. I always found with my Naim systems (especially when mixing Naim and non Naim components) that earth configurations played an important role - multiple signal earths or even taking one component out of a Hydra power configuration can kill the timing .

A couple of emails to Richard at Lotus Hi-Fi and a Silver Minimus with Copper and Konstantin cables were on their way to me…

So with the Minimus on the floor next to the rack and the entry level copper RCA to spade connected to a spare RCA socket on the Devialet it was time for a listen. First of all, it’s not a night and day change but rather something that creeps up over a few tracks and most noticeable when you disconnect the box. The overall presentation appears darker, not dull but more focussed and revealing of subtle detail - i’ve noticed interplays on familiar tracks that i’ve not noticed or been aware of before and the music gains a real sense of ease but also gains more foot tapping pace. It doesn’t seem to change the basic character of the system but does allow it to do it’s job

I’m not one for quick A/B demos (and you can’t really do this with the Entreq boxes) - I prefer to leave things alone for a few days and then go back to the original configuration. In this case, the change is not subtle, the system sounding somewhat louder but more forced, and the ease and flow has gone. It’s like a picture with the saturation turned up and sounds rather busy. The Minimus is reconnected and after a few minutes things are better again. Once I was used to the Minimus and Copper combination, i tried replacing the Copper cable with the Konstantin version - this is a more substantial cable and feels like it has two conductors under the cotton outer covering. Not a good move, brighter and more Hi-Fi / less music - it loses the lovely natural flow the Copper / Minimus combination brings and so after trying this a couple of times over the demo period, i’ve found a consistent preference for the Copper and left this in place and this is how i’ve been enjoying the system over the last few days.

To sum up - It’s a keeper and I really didn’t expect to be saying that !