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Chord GroundARAY Review (Noise Filter?)

Rate this audio product:

  • 1. Waste of money (piggy bank panther)

    Votes: 274 96.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 2 0.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 6 2.1%

  • Total voters
    283

DSJR

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MD aside, there doesn't seem anyone there now whom I recognise
Yes, completely serious. I spent much of my career in sales, but then we were engineers selling to engineers who knew exactly what they needed, and why, so no bullshit was possible. The idea of selling stuff I know is useless, just doesn't compute in my mind, so I genuinely don't understand what motivates those that can and do.

They must be seriously flawed human beings.

S.
Serge, I know the MD (if it's the same chap nigh-on forty years older), but the others I had contact with don't seem to be there now. They used to be pretty honest and selling to 'believers' in what they were selling and if the commercial side interested, dealers did well out of it too if they got behind them across the range.

---

When you're in this audio-gear hobby deep, common sense does seem to leave you a bit, especially if you have money to spend on it. Here, now and all but out of the industry, I find myself thinking very carefully about my then opinions and 'audio-gear beliefs' and sadly, I find them wanting a bit, common sense often buried a little too much in then-ignorance..

@CapMan - Cable 'direction' really was a 'thing' in my day. The godawful QED SA speaker cable was repeatedly different one way round compared to the other (over dozens of drums as well!!!) and my way of dealing with other brands of cable with writing on it was to suggest to the client to humour me and run the 'direction of the writing' the same on both runs "Just in case." I since found sensibly made and specified cables which made damn-all difference and in any case, once the stuff was laid down and used for a while, it didn't matter a darn*..

*I find this place more my 'home' these days and I do fully appreciate that subjective views are at best called into question and at worst totally dismissed. With SOME wires (Chord Solid interconnect made with microwave cables and the aforementioned scrappy QED SA stuff so beloved of the UK WTF magazine for years), it seemed to be a repeatable thing. SOME interconnects using two core with outer screen cables had the outer screen or drain connected at one end only, the twin cores as hot and return and this may well have made a difference...
 

Katji

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Err . . . you are aware that this item is not built nor in anyway related to Chord Electronics, the makers of controversial DACs that repeatedly get a bashing, mainly on ASR, Do you??
Yes I am. They are both bullshitters.

[ You are aware..? ] Come to reality. They repeatedly get a bashing? Really? And you don't know why? :rolleyes:

Chord Electronic DACs maybe controversial, but none has measured poorly, whether it was done by Amir or anyone else, indeed they all have measured excellent! Sound excellent too.
The only bashings they get are related to their cost, and for some of the designer's technical claims.
I said they are both bullshitters.

btw, Did you notice a reply some pages back, saying something like "Not much difference." ? And someone said "What do you mean?" ...? :rolleyes:

So how many pages must there be about talking about this junk?!

I am yet to see anything negative about the devices themselves, save for their looks, they are ugly! but practical .
How is it practical to pay $1000s of bucks more?

BTW, I am all for sex workers, decent, hard-working honest people, I will not have you say anything bad about them. :mad:
It seems you misunderstood what I said. Read it again. it was clear enough. if you can't understand that, well...no wonder...
 

martijn86

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This is called a scam. Completely unacceptable.
 

Caliban

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Just open it up already !

As one fellow forum member has noted - the RJ45 has no ground, where is the reference to get the noise "nulled" to ?
This must indeed be one of the worst hoaxes ever !
If we support you Amir - could there be a chance to get that can opened and actually see what is inside ?

An economic support of some kind, I do not know how it works, you US guys problably know much more than I how this works ?

I have searched this thing (well goggled the net...) to no avail, I can not find or see what is inside that thing.

I want to know !
 
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Caliban

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I need $800 donation before I do that in case magic escapes from it.
Ok Amir, I get it, no problem !

That magic smoke escape can be expensive (from someone that knows..)
 
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JDS

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I think your understanding of how he tests, versus what is audible leave a LOT to be desired.

I have owned Great measuring components, and right now have some VERY mediocre measuring Home theatre stuff.

You can NOT tell just by listening which is which MOST OF THE TIME.
SINAD alone is not some all encompassing number that separates GREAT vs HORRIBLE.......

Audibility of a mediocre measurement matters far more than the actual mediocre measurement in itself.

I actually thought the SAME as you, until I heard first hand, a few VERY mediocre AVRs, and was astonished to find they did not sound horrible or suck but in fact sounded pretty much just like any other good to decent stereo I had heard.

Sucked meaning, what exactly??
I have one of the lowest priced Yamaha AVRs set up in one (Secondary Audio/TV) room, and it is years old. NOTHING about it sounds sub-standard in any audible way, when I play music, movies or anything.
I think SINAD of 52dB and less than 12 bits of dynamic range on a 32-tone signal counts as performance that sucks. (That's what Amir found in testing my AVR; most others are better, but not by a lot.)

As to subjective sound, yes, we can easily convince ourselves that almost anything sounds good. If you are happy with your low-end AVR, peace, man. Maybe chasing better specs won't improve your experience at all. But then why are you here?
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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Did you open one or have other sources that confirm this?
If a manufacturer tells me an amp is class D, I don't need to open it to confirm. Watch the video that was posted by them.

This category falls in new tweak one called "grounding." All of them work as I explained. They have a single connection to the chassis and supposedly "drain" noise through it. While the one I have tested has not been opened, others have. Here is the Entreq one I tested:

index.php
 

DonR

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There may be a certain amount of capacitance between the pins, I mean over and above the unconnected amount. It won't change anything but may indicate if there is any kind of internal wiring even if there is no fully closed circuit.
 

Caliban

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If a manufacturer tells me an amp is class D, I don't need to open it to confirm. Watch the video that was posted by them.

This category falls in new tweak one called "grounding." All of them work as I explained. They have a single connection to the chassis and supposedly "drain" noise through it. While the one I have tested has not been opened, others have. Here is the Entreq one I tested:

index.php
Indeed amazing, it looks like coal and...something else. quartz...?
 

Ken Tajalli

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If a manufacturer tells me an amp is class D, I don't need to open it to confirm. Watch the video that was posted by them.

This category falls in new tweak one called "grounding." All of them work as I explained. They have a single connection to the chassis and supposedly "drain" noise through it. While the one I have tested has not been opened, others have. Here is the Entreq one I tested:

index.php
It is the fault of early electronic engineers to have called it Earthed or Grounded !
So, somebody is gonna fill a box, full of earth! (sand, stonechips etc.) and run some copper through it, to make a proper earth box!
What's your problem?
 

Phorize

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I can’t believe there is a company in the UK making this shit, Russ Andrews in UK got done by trading standards I believe for false advertising/snake oil.
Kev
You mentioning Russ Andrews made me look him up. Looks like he is still selling the old magic power cables...
 

pickyAudiophile

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Hopefully this thread now cools down. I won't ever understand why that brand [EDIT:] these brands more than any other seems to trigger patriotic sentiments among some forum members.
 
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Phorize

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I've actually got some chord company speaker cable, it wasn't expensive but has a ludicrously thick and inflexible outer layer that makes it a huge pain to move. If I can ever be bothered to buy more speaker cable it's pro only in the future.
 
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