Entreq Ground Boxes & Grounding Kits
Entreq ground boxes are perhaps the most fundamental part of their philosophy and it is what they are most well known for, they offer a substantial upgrade to the performance of any system when you connect up your components to a ground box.
Because all equipment is different the requirements from system to system will vary, which is why there is such an extensive range of ground boxes available.
If Entreq interconnects, speaker cables and power cables are introduced into a system they can be grounded as well, further enhancing overall performance.
Entreq’s popular grounding kits are a great starting point giving everything you need to get up and running in one package.
What do the Ground Boxes do?
All hi-fi systems have pollutants in the signal path which get in the way of the delicate musical signal, caused by factors such as stray magnetic currents and excessive noise in power supplies. These are caused by a number of factors in the modern home, computers using switched mode power supplies, routers, mobile phone chargers, fridge freezers, dishwashers, kettles, the list goes on and on. All of these products contribute to having a negative effect on the performance of your hi-fi system. Go around your home and count just how many devices you have permanently powered on; they all have a detrimental effect on system performance. Also the components in a hi-fi system can also be noisy themselves, due to larger transformers etc.
This noise gets passed around the components in your system via the cables and collectively it can mask a systems ability to produce fine detail and effect how a system performs. You won’t be familiar with with is happening in your system until you remove the noise.
All Entreq ground boxes are passive and have nothing to do with protective ground. Connecting a box to your system couldn’t be simpler. Entreq ground cables are available with various types of connections on them such as RCA, XLR, USB and RJ45 . You simply connect a cable to an appropriate unused RCA socket on your amplifier for example; the other end of the cable connects to a terminal on the back of the ground box with a simple hook connector.
This connection creates, in effect, a drain for each piece of grounded equipment and removes the pollutants present in the signal path. How quickly this works does vary from system to system and component to component as well. It is quite often something you will hear instantly, but it typically takes 2 or 3 songs before getting an indication that something is changing, but it generally takes a solid day of being connected before it’s working to its best.
One of the first things people notice is a reduction in coarseness and grain (even where you don’t think it’s present) and the creation of an inky black background is another thing which occurs. This allows the music to flow more naturally with focus, stability and improved harmonics and dynamics. Simply put the box is dropping the noise floor.
As you move through the range of boxes you get more flexibility and greater performance (this is system dependent), certain boxes have greater capacity over others so can remove more noise (ideal if you want to connect multiple items to one box).
“It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play” – Miles Davis
Recently one of my customers said to me after a visit – “the improvement is as much as about what you don’t hear”, the lowering of noise floor allows subtle previous unheard nuances and textures in your music to really jump out.
What can you connect a ground box to? Pretty much whatever you want in reality!
Integrated amplifiers, pre-amps, DAC’s, CD players and CD transports, music streamers, routers, NAS drives, the lists goes on and on!
Please do not underestimate or overlook the benefit of adding an Entreq Ground Box into your system. I have done countless demonstrations for customers who have initially been very sceptical or dismissive over the concept, but I can confidently say that the vast majority of these demonstrations result in someone purchasing a ground box and a selection of cables to connect to the components in their system and they have been delighted with the end result.
Entreq Grounding Kits
The grounding kits are designed to give people a flavour of what Entreq grounding is all about, they wanted to launch something more affordable that could serve as introduction to the brand to those with more modest systems, the various kits offer complete grounding solutions at all new price points for Entreq
The entry level Micro Kit is £180, the Macro Kit is £380, the Macro Twin Kit is £700 and the Silver Hexa Kit is £760, all listed below.
In each kit you get a ground box and a ground cable so you have everything you require in one simple package. You can obviously choose what termination you require for the ground cable (RCA, XLR, USB, RJ45, Spade).
To get set up couldn’t be simpler, connect one end of the ground cable to the ground box. Take the termination that came with your kit and connect it to the other end of the ground cable, this then connects into whichever device you intend to ‘ground’ on an unused connection, integrated amplifier, CD player, Melco, Router, Switch etc.
Entreq Ground Boxes
The range of standalone ground boxes starts with the Silver Minimus Tungsten, there are 8 models in the range, which box is best is largely dictated by both your system and of course your budget. The Olympus Ten T, the Tellus 3 Tungsten and the Olympus Infinity T are the sweet spots in the range for me. They can offer a profound improvement in the way a system can perform.
Ground the Speaker Outputs of your Amplifier
One popular application with Entreq is connecting to the negative loudspeaker terminals on your amplifier.
To do this you require 2 independent ground boxes, there are plenty of options within the Entreq range that are suitable for this, such as a Macro Twin Kit or 2 x Silver Minimus Tungsten, 2 x Olympus Ten Tungsten or 2 of the 3 posts on a Tellus 3 Tungsten or a Silver Tellus Tungsten
You could also use 2 of the posts on the new Olympus Pluton, Olympus TenTen and Olympus Hero as well along with 2 suitable ground cables. You simply connect one box to the left negative speaker terminal on your amplifier and the other box to your right negative speaker terminal on your amplifier
I must stress that NOTHING else can share the post you are using other than this one connection from your negative outputs. Damage may occur if you ground another component to the same post, or if you ground your speaker outputs together on the same post, if you are in any doubt whatsoever please ask!
This is a demonstration which I particularly enjoy as I love watching my customers’ faces as they hear the impact this can have on performance. I recently did this with a Poseidon where the effects were huge and instantly audible, the scale of the system opened up and things become really holographic in presentation.
After leaving this with the customer for a week I returned and simply disconnected them. All of a sudden his system sounded forward, thin and congested. Needless to say an order was forthcoming shortly afterwards!
Please note: You cannot ground your amplifiers negative speaker outlets using a single Silver Tellus, an original Tellus or an Olympus Tellus as the grounding posts on these boxes are all common, they are NOT independent like the outlets on the Tellus II, Tellus II Infinity, Tellus 3 Tungsten, the Poseidon or the smaller single post boxes.
If you are using single cell boxes like Minimus, Silver Minimus, Olympus Ten and Olympus Minimus you can only use a PAIR of boxes. You cannot use one box for both connections.
If you are in any doubt please ask!
