Chord GroundARAY Review (Noise Filter?)

[Cars-N-Cans]

Vape pens: Meet hi-fi electronic connectors. Take that, objectivists!

 

[AndreaT]

I will start selling water from my well in a fancy 10 ml clean vial of pure glass for $ 1,399, each: write some catchy phrases inspired by the usual suspect high-end audio magazines and claim stellar improvement in my enjoyment of Music with just one drop every week applied to the right side of your DAC cover.

Some have even claimed benefits for the video components from the use of this ci-er-ai-pi: "The impact of the HDMI terminated GroundARAY on my Sony LCD’s picture quality was, frankly, startling"...(www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/chord_company_groundaray.htm).

Thank you Amir for showing, beyond any doubt through the subtraction experiment, the null effect of a $ 795 piece of metal.

 

[curly747]

I have a strong opinion that these Chord Company products are very expensive snake oil. However i think the manufacturer would claim that plugging this one into a spare port on a network switch is not a valid test. I think they might say it should be plugged into the unused ethernet port on a streamer (a streamer which has an ethernet port but you are using wifi).

 

[pablolie]

Damn shame..at least it didn't degrade the signal lol

With better interconnects it should have improved stuff... :-D

 

[DonR]

"Your ethernet switch is not resolving enough."

 

[diddley]

Furthermore, an Ethernet switch has independent ports. Filtering one is not going to do anything to the port next to it.

Good so Amir, keep nailing them with solid profable arguments! I am enjoying it and keep learning from it.

 

[JSmith]

I don't have the time to watch this and waste 10 mins of life, but so far it's the usual claptrap... jitter is mentioned etc.;

JSmith

 

[jam]

NOTE: this is from CHORD Company, NOT Chord Electronics which makes the various DACs I have tested.

When I first glimpsed at the review without reading the text, I thought, Chord hasn't performed as well as expected in Amir's last couple of reviews of their products, now they're getting into snake oil too... I almost had a heart attack. Thanks for the review and the cardiac workout Amir!

 

[theREALdotnet]

Dirt in a box! I love it!

Not just any dirt. It’s 99.999% flat earth.

 

[DonR]

When I first glimpsed at the review without reading the text, I thought, Chord hasn't performed as well as expected in Amir's last couple of reviews of their products, now they're getting into snake oil too... I almost had a heart attack. Thanks for the review and the cardiac workout Amir!

I am shocked that there is not a lawsuit happening.

 

[JSmith]

Chord GroundARAY "noise reduction" device

Panther is angry at the level of snake oil...

JSmith

 

[raif71]

 

[Keith Conroy]

This is a listening test, comparison and measurements of the Chord GroundARAY "noise reduction" device. I think it comes in a pack and costs US $795 for the set. Member kindly sent me the Ethernet one:
View attachment 222398
This is the picture of the full set:

You are supposed to plug in the unit into the unused ports on your gear. And the more, the better.

NOTE: this is from CHORD Company, NOT Chord Electronics which makes the various DACs I have tested.

Chord GroundArray Listening Tests
My standard workstation where I perform my testing is naturally connected to our home network where a lot of the data files come and go during the testing over a TP Link switch. It has 8 ports with a few unused ones so I plugged the GroundArray into one of them. Inserting the device is easy. Getting it out is not because the tab is then hidden enough that you can't push to unlock it. I had to use a screw driver to push the lock in to remove it.

I played my reference tracks using RME ADI-2 Pro as I inserted and then removed the GroundARAY. There was no difference whatsoever to my ears. To avoid the accusation that I don't want to hear a difference, I then performed a null test using member @pkane's DeltaWave program. Here, RME ADI-Pro is capturing its own output for analysis. I made two captures: one with and one without GroundARAY. Here is the spectrum of null (difference) result:

View attachment 222400

And here is the file itself if you want to listen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkm7zx4lz3zi6xy/Missing Film Chord GroundAray Difference File.wav?dl=0

Even with my sensitive IEMs and pushing the RME headphone output to absolute max, all I hear is silence.

Chord GroundARAY Measurements
I happened to still have the Chord DAVE DAC on hand so I used it for measurements (different companies -- same name). The configuration is the same as listening tests with the TP-Link switch being used to capture and save measurement files (and music I listen to while testing). Here is the CHORD DAVE dashboard measurement as is with output calibrated to 4 volts:
View attachment 222401

Per my DAC review note, one channel is less stable so I had to take care and graph that screen shot while it was on its best behavior. I then plugged in the GroundARAY to TP-Link switch. Here is the difference or lack thereof:
View attachment 222403

Nothing is out of placed or changed a hair for the entire audible band and then some (22.4 kHz bandwidth). SINAD is dominated by noise so if noise had gone down, it would improve but it did not. Let's measure dynamic range directly to assure ourselves of that:
View attachment 222404

Other than tiny run to run variation, there is no difference whatsoever.

For people complaining that we only use a single 1 kHz tone for measurements, here is our 32 tone test running at 192 kHz sampling (so very wide bandwidth):
View attachment 222405

The two sets of measurements land right on top of each other with no difference at all.

We could run a lot more tests but results will be the same.

Conclusions
Even if the Ethernet GroundAray performed some kind of noise filtering, in which case company should so show that, the concept of it making a difference to a DAC output connected to said computer is incredibly far fetched. The PC is already much noisier than the Ethernet link yet we get superb sound out of it because DACs are designed to be immune to such noise. Furthermore, an Ethernet switch has independent ports. Filtering one is not going to do anything to the port next to it.

Audiophiles though with faulty testing methodology put aside all of that and say, "but I heard it." As I always say, I can put dirt in a box with a wire and you connect it to your audio system and you would report improvements. Indeed, such "grounding" devices exist and I have tested one that costs thousands of dollars! In this review, I have done my own listening tests with negative results. And used computer matching to show that there is no difference in the waveform to beyond the accuracy of the original audio files.

There is no way I can recommend the CHORD company GroundAray.
I thought it was most interesting that this piece of gear Won the Grand Prix award from Japan in 2020.................Hmmm???????????

 

[Blumlein 88]

Not just any dirt. It’s 100% flat earth.

I thought it had to be diatomaceous earth from a blessed Scandinavian location.

 

[H-713]

Maybe time to check of the pins on the connectors are even connected to anything...

I wouldn't be surprised if this is just an aluminum tube with a connector mounted on the end.

 

[theREALdotnet]

I thought it had to be diatomaceous earth from a blessed Scandinavian location.

You mean, Ytterby?

 

[Snake Oil is life]

Hummmm this is good snake oil ...

 

[amirm]

However i think the manufacturer would claim that plugging this one into a spare port on a network switch is not a valid test.

Not at all. Right in that video posted it says to start by plugging these into routers/swtiches:

On a streamer if the Ethernet port is not active, it likely is not doing anything.

 

[amirm]

I don't have the time to watch this and waste 10 mins of life, but so far it's the usual claptrap... jitter is mentioned etc.;

JSmith

He confirms that there is no circuit in there. It simply connects to the ground wire and that is it. That connection then goes into some magic material inside the device that converts noise to heat. How that happens in a circuit that is not completed, violates everything in physics. It says that you can connect one side of a light bulb to electricity and without the other side connected, it still generates light and heat!

 

[MKreroo]

As I always say, I can put dirt in a box with a wire and you connect it to your audio system and you would report improvements.

Add some black powder and sell it as graphene induced main stabilizer or something.