Is it a box of coal?????

[Macca]

They are the pics that some have claimed are not real. Sadly, I suspect they are.

If they were asking a couple of hundred and holding their hands up and saying 'we don't know why it works it just does, and it may well be degrading the sound in a subjectively pleasant way but who cares? So give it a go' I'd have no problem. It's the fact they are asking 6 large and giving it all the bullshit science that does me in.

[Firebottle]

Well I think that stands for everyone Martin

[hifi_dave]

They are the pics that some have claimed are not real. Sadly, I suspect they are.

If they were asking a couple of hundred and holding their hands up and saying 'we don't know why it works it just does, and it may well be degrading the sound in a subjectively pleasant way but who cares? So give it a go' I'd have no problem. It's the fact they are asking 6 large and giving it all the bullshit science that does me in.

Yep, I go along with that.

The construction looks a touch 'scruffy' to my eyes. I'm no cabinet maker but could do a neater job than that. Paul at RFC could knock these up, immaculately and in his sleep. Might be a nice sideline for him.

[BilliumB]

If they do something, any thoughts on how they might? I know that elsewhere on the web some people swear by them (in a good way)!

I know the Entreq adverts talk about "physics and magnetic field technology", suggesting the box "... present[s] itself as an attractive destination for high frequency noise, stray voltages and the various issues induced by magnetic field effects."

Cheers. Bill

[AlfaGTV]

It's not just Entreq, lots of other companies are looking into similar products. CAD among others if i didnt misinterpret the latest Hifi+?
If im not totally wrong, you could measure some form of electrical properties in the grund boxes, such as impedance, capacitance, resistance or what'have'you..
Entreq have been at it for decades with cables with grounding, and the Tellus,Minimus,Olympus build on that idea suggesting that the box'o'dirt can, and will, be a better alternative than the already polluted power network ground. Or you could just take your sledgehammer and pound a meter of iron down in your back yard. Then attach your electronics using extremely low resistance cables to this ground post!
I am, seriously, positive that most of you would find your setup sounding better!

[dimkasta]

Mike, Entreq devices are not an alternative to protective earth grounding. They stress this in the manual. And thank God for that because it is very dangerous and illegal to defeat the mains earth grounding on any device.

On their home page, they claim that these work as some sort of grounding for noise. To quote their site

When you connect your system to one of our groundboxes you offer this high frequence stay voltages a ground point where they can find peace instead of flowing arround in the system.

There seems to be much confusion about how earth connection works. People confuse its operation with how thunder works. But earth is not just a black hole for all electricity.

The reason protective earth grounding works is because the electrical company references the mains voltages to earth before sending them to us. That way earth itself can become part of the return loop when accidents happen.
This is also the reason why isolation transformers can work as protection. Because there is no earth reference on the secondary.

For noise or whatever to have an attractive destination, there has to be an "attractive" electrical potential difference and a loop.

With just one wire going to those boxes, nothing can flow in or out from them, unless it creates a loop somehow.
And the only way this can happen is by parasitic coupling with whatever happens to be nearby. Could be electromagnetic coupling, capacitive or whatnot. And by the way, this road goes both ways... Probably why there have been reports of extra noise.
And you certainly cannot measure any parameters like capacitance or noise or whatnot with just one connection.

Now people will think of thunder. No loop there and thunder moves to ground.
Ok, but this is a different situation. These are static charges. Earth builds a positive charge and clouds build a negative charge, allowing the two to eliminate each other when the potential difference is enough to break the air's resistance.

How do these boxes create a charge in the first place?
And if they do, how do they create a charge that is opposite, equal and of the same frequency and phase with the noise of our system? Because if they do not, guess what. They just introduce new noise.
Would you expect the static charge on your vinyl to eliminate the noise in your phono?

If there is a difference to be heard, it is completely random, and it is because of parasitic coupling with whatever happens to be nearby.

[Macca]

Some investigation of the Entreq here:

http://www.audiosciencereview.com/fo...surements.476/

[walpurgis]

Some investigation of the Entreq here:

http://www.audiosciencereview.com/fo...surements.476/

He says nothing about using a screened cable, which may have kept noise down. But neither does the maker, as far as I know. None of the results show anything encouraging though.

[dimkasta]

Some investigation of the Entreq here:

http://www.audiosciencereview.com/fo...surements.476/

No surprises there... It just adds noise that it picks up from its surroundings.

He says nothing about using a screened cable, which may have kept noise down. But neither does the maker, as far as I know. None of the results show anything encouraging though.

A screened cable would make little difference. The box is unshielded and the metal plates inside it probably pick up more noise.

Not to mention the hilarity of the fact that it cannot even eliminate the noise it picks up from its unconnected surroundings...

[AlfaGTV]

Dimmy, please note that not one of these products offer any form of "protective grounding"
They are all built to connect to signal ground of a suitable component.
And i'm pretty sure very few audio products have common ground for signal and power.

Why they work? I have no idea... Even if they add noise, it is a pleasant effect with the ones ive tried connected. The effect varies depending on your environment and electronics.

And no, a closed circuit is not necessary for a component to affect signal i'd say... (But please don't ask me to elaborate! )