Star Ground // If you don’t have an earth, this is part of the fix

Hey everyone,

Today’s topic is a bit complicated and goes deep into the audio side of things.

About four months ago
I moved from Riyadh to a smaller city nearby.
After the move, I was surprised to find that none of the houses here have an earth line for the electricity
(Earth).
I started looking for possible solutions,
but I was slow about it because I hadn’t noticed any problem in my system.
Then, as luck would have it, a customer sent me a
Hifiman Edition XV
to mod and upgrade its internal wiring.
As you know, its impedance is really, really low,
only 12ohm,
and that’s when my system got exposed 😐

I was hearing a seriously annoying hum,
and it disappeared whenever I touched the chassis of any of my devices.
That’s when I started searching seriously,
and none of the solutions convinced me.
The best one was to install an earth for the house I’m renting
and run a cable to the room with my gear,
but that’s hard, expensive, and the workers here have no idea what you’re talking about 🙂

One of the solutions I came across was
Star Ground.
I dug deeper and deeper, but there wasn’t much out there, and a lot of it was talk with no actual implementation.
I picked up a bit of info here and there until I had the full picture of how to do it.

I applied it, and what a surprise:
the problem was gone, and my system performed better.
That tells you the problem had been there all along, just hard to notice,
especially in the background. It’s blacker now (so there was background noise I hadn’t picked up on),
and the quieter the background, the more almost everything else improves.
It’s also a fix for ground loop problems.

Improvements I’ve noticed so far (they were all there already, the background noise was just hiding them):
– A much, much blacker background (better).
– Better holographic image.
– Better separation.
– Better imaging (laser precise now, mashallah).
– Clearer detail and more air.
– I can hear the bass now no matter how quiet it is, it has more air, and its weight is clear.
– Clearer layering.

So I thought I’d share my experience, maybe someone will find it useful.

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Contents

What is Star Ground?

It’s a grounding system where all the ground paths
(Ground)
go to one single point
(Single Point).
Every device has its own ground wire that goes straight to that point, without sharing the path with another device.

OK, so:
why does this matter in audio?
With a lot of devices, ground paths form between them,
and this system solves the following problems:

First: Ground Loop
If the devices share the same ground path, current returns through more than one path,
so you get a loop
that turns into an antenna and picks up noise (hum / buzz).

That’s why Star Ground
gives each device only one path to ground,
which stops loops from forming.

Second: Noise Coupling
In any system with several devices:
the DAC = very weak signals
the AMP = high currents

If they share the same ground, the amp’s current “pollutes” the DAC’s ground.

With Star Ground,
each device returns on its own, so nothing is shared, and the result is less interference.

Third: A stable electrical reference
Star Ground
gives all the devices
the same reference
(Same potential).

That matters a lot in audio,
because any small difference =
distortion / hum

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Putting it into practice

Now that we know what this system is and why it helps, let’s get to the practical part.
But first you’re probably wondering: which device should be the main ground reference?
The answer: the device where the digital signal becomes analog, the DAC.

In my case, this is my gear:
Streamer
Lumin U2 Mini
⬇️
then the DDC
DENAFRIPS GAIA 15th
⬇️
then the DAC
Gustard R26
⬇️
then the Pre-Amp
Burson Soloist 3X Performance

then the Amp
HiFiMAN x Goldenwave PRELUDE

So the Gustard R26
is where all the devices come together.

What you need

Now let’s get the materials ready.
You need electrical wire made of bare, uncoated copper, with no extra insulation,
meaning just a PVC jacket
and nothing else.
Any electrical shop will have it.
I went with this one, Riyadh Cables,
because I did some renovations and had a bit left over, enough for this.

What matters is the wire size: it has to be 2.5 mm. Don’t go bigger, and if you go smaller, don’t go under 2 mm.

Cut as many pieces as you have devices.
I cut 6.
Each piece should be no longer than 70 cm and no shorter than 35 cm.
I played it safe and went with 65 cm.

Then strip the copper at both ends of each wire, any way you like.

Have the terminals you need ready.

This one worked for me:

Put it on the end of the wire

and crimp it so it holds and makes good contact, any way that works for you.

This is after crimping, with the insulation on the terminal only.

Finish all the wires you need.

Connecting it

Now grab the DAC
and find the screws close to the power inlet.
Start with the first wire:
undo the screw, put it back with the wire and tighten it properly.

Then attach the rest.
The closer to the power inlet, the better.

Now it’s time to make sure they’re all connected to the DAC chassis.
Take any continuity tester and check.

That’s how it should look.
Next, connect the wires to the other devices.
Most important: unplug all the devices from power before connecting anything.

Then check again with the tester: one probe on the DAC chassis, and move the other between the chassis of the other devices to make sure there’s continuity between them.
That’s the first part done.

All that’s left is to buy something called a:
Grounding Earth Box
This is the one I got. You only need one.
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3egGM1X
I picked the version without a cable because I made my own.

It’s a wooden box
with copper, charcoal, salt, soil and a few metals inside,
so it mimics the earth
and extra charge can drain into it.
This is what it looks like inside.

Connect it to one of the screws on the DAC chassis.

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Powering up

And that’s all the wiring done.
Now plug the devices back into power, but don’t switch them on yet.
Start with the first device the sound reaches.
In my case that’s the streamer.
If the DAC is the first device in your chain, switch it on first,
then the preamp, then the amp.
If you only have a DAC and an amp,
switch on the DAC first, then the amp,
and when you switch them off, turn off the amp first, then the DAC.

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And that wraps up the
Star Ground project.

I hope I explained it clearly
and saved you a lot of searching and trial and error.

Good luck, everyone.
Best regards,
IEM World

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