I’ve posted about this before but after getting some great results recently I figured it was worth mentioning again.
Entreq launched their Macro Ground Box Kit late last year and it has been incredibly popular. Connect one to your amplifier, CD player, DAC or router and it essentially pulls noise and interference out of the signal path and improves system performance. I’ve customers using them connected to all manner of equipment and for £400 it represents a really good upgrade.
Sceptics always raise an eyebrow, but to those who actually try one in their system the benefits are not difficult to hear and almost everyone who borrows one is taken aback by what happens – a lower noise floor, more detail, better timing and flow and a very effortless natural presentation.
Entreq also released a version called a Macro Twin Kit which is £800, in this bundle you simply get a pair of boxes and cables and they are specifically designed to connect to the negative outputs of your integrated amplifier or power amplifier.
By removing the noise present in the signal before it reaches your loudspeakers always brings with it great benefits, the same as listed above essentially, but generally the benefit is more obvious and is arguably one of the the best forms of ‘signal grounding’ you can do to your system and the feedback I get from customers who have tried it overwhelmingly positive.
The supplied ground cable in the twin kit is different to the standard Macro kit, it is terminated with a 4mm banana plug at one end and a spade connector on the other end, the cable is non-directional so you can use it whichever way around is best for you – this dictated by how your speaker cable is terminated. On the image below you can see I have Entreq speaker cable with spade terminations and the ground cable is also connected via spade, connecting 2 banana plugs to one terminal can be tricky!
The best performance from this application comes from connecting the 2 Macro boxes directly to the negative outputs of your amplifier (one connects to the left negative connection and the other to the right negative connection), but if this isn’t possible due to a lack of space in your rack for the boxes or for connecting the actual cables there is nothing stopping you connecting the 2 boxes to the negative inputs on your loudspeakers.
The Macro boxes are small enough so you could hide a box behind each of your floor-standing loudspeakers or speaker stands. The image below shows a CD case next to the ground box for scale so you can see it isn’t particular large or obtrusive so they are not difficult to make invisible!
I keep a Macro Kit and a Twin Macro Kit on demonstration and they are both available for home loan, so if you could like to try one or both in your own system please get in touch.
Entreq make an extensive range of ground boxes and if you want to extract even more performance from your system, upgrading the Twin Macro Kit to a pair of Silver Minimus Infinity or a pair of Olympus Ten Tungsten will deliver even greater benefits.
