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Chord Company GroundAray

Mullardman

Moderately extreme...
This little tweak..which comes in at a mere £550 per item..is promoted as a device to lower 'noise' on the ground plane or whatever it is called.of your kit. You are supposed to stick it into an unused socket on your kit. You are of course encouraged to try as many as possible, in different locations/socket types.

A friend loaned me the RCA version of this today. I tried it in a spare input on my LFD Zero MkV amp, and on the unused analogue outputs of my Innuos Zen Mini Mk3.

First.. the good news. It did not make my system sound worse.

Sadly, I could hear no discernible improvement either..and certainly no improvement I'd pay £550 for.

But then..YMMV...

Anyone else tried these things?

eng_pl_Chord-Compamny-ChordOhmic-GROUND-ARAY-USB-5257_4.jpg
 
These are definitely expensive and just don't LOOK like good value for money :)

Moth Marketing used to sell (perhaps still sell) shorting plugs with one of two different resistor values at a far lower price which made a small improvement to my Linn Karik on the unused digital and analogue outputs. They are still in a shoebox somewhere... I think they said something about Ben Duncan being involved in the design.
 
Hi,

I tried some of these last year. It did nothing in my system.

I would like to see more technical data on what is in it, what frequencies it works at & how much does it attenuate those frequencies.
 
they were reviewed in hifi world recently and the reviewer noted he could not really tell any difference...
 
What baffles me with Chord is that I still have not found out what ARAY stands for, and they are talking about this (whatever it is) since 2012 - given that they always write it in all-caps I am assuming that it is an abbreviation? Does anyone know?
 
What baffles me with Chord is that I still have not found out what ARAY stands for, and they are talking about this (whatever it is) since 2012 - given that they always write it in all-caps I am assuming that it is an abbreviation? Does anyone know?

ARAY = Audiophile Relative Affluence Yardstick
 
This is the same company that marketed a foo replacement for the naim shorting/link plug. I think such claims are utterly despicable & I cannot believe they are able to make such claims.
 
This is the same company that marketed a foo replacement for the naim shorting/link plug. I think such claims are utterly despicable & I cannot believe they are able to make such claims.

Really? I disliked the shorting plug of my CDX2 so much that I contemplated getting NAIM to remove the item, shorting the wires in the case. Carefully cleaning the pins solved most of the problem though. I bet the Chord foo plug was not cheap
 
Really? I disliked the shorting plug of my CDX2 so much that I contemplated getting NAIM to remove the item, shorting the wires in the case. Carefully cleaning the pins solved most of the problem though. I bet the Chord foo plug was not cheap
It was hundreds of pounds I seem to recall, I think Tom Tom audio sell them.
 
I would like to see more technical data on what is in it, what frequencies it works at & how much does it attenuate those frequencies.

I've given it back now, but as I recall there is a rather confused description of the things being assembled by hand in a very time consuming process involving 'materials' and 'components', designed to 'damp' stuff or summat.. err hang on....

From their website:

Each GroundARAY is painstakingly built by hand at Chord Company’s Wiltshire factory, including the system components themselves. The GroundARAY comprises a number of absorption devices, attached with a highly advanced double ultra-high-bandwidth connector system. The connectors are made to a very high standard, demanding time-consuming hand-assembly by factory technicians.

Each GroundARAY cylinder is filled with a carefully chosen material to deaden noise. The final assembly is then locked into place to reduce any effects from acoustic vibration.

GroundARAYs are most effective when used across several devices in a system. The devices simply plug into existing empty sockets and can be used individually, or in multiples, such as across left and right outputs etc. With DACs and streamers, GroundARAYs can be used with unused digital inputs; projectors and screens can also benefit from the noise-reduction effects, too.

Demo sets are available from participating Chord Company retailers.
 
Wasn't Russ Andrews first to market with his so-called "Shorties"? Same broad principle, but £15 for 8 back in the dim'n'distant days of yesteryonk.

Bought a set, plugged 'em in, did nothing, sold 'em on...

£500 tho' - that's proper, grown-up wallet rape....
 


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