Beresford DAC - Grounding
Posted by: pcstockton on 24 July 2008
Some of you might recall some posts a few months back regarding using a Beresford as the sole source in Naim kit.
Since no other sources are used, and the Beresford does not correctly earth the kit, I was experiencing a high pitched "noise" when the one or more of the following conditions are met:
1) DAC is off
2) No signal going to the DAC
3) Selecting a different input on the DAC than what is connected.
Stanley, in his ultimate quest for perfect customer service, has been continuously working on this issue without my prodding.
When we last spoke, he thought the only solution would be to use a "regulate, linear power supply" of which I could not find any locally. I was hesitant to buy one online not knowing what return policies are, or if it would even work.
A few days back he gave me a suggestion which I did not try as it seemed a little unsafe or possibly detrimental to mains quality. He suggested attaching a ground wire from the B-ford case to the earth pin on the 180 mains lead.
I wasn't very comfortable doing this for unknown reasons.
He just emailed me and said a fellow Naimer is doing this to great effect. From Stanley Beresford's email:
"Get a cheap RCA audio cable from Radio Shack and cut one of the RCA plugs off. The strip back about 1 inch of the outer plastic sleeving. Cut off the inner plastic sleeving with the copper strands that are in the center of the cable. That leaves you with just the outer copper strands on one end. Twist the strands together and connect them to the earth tag of your amp. That's assuming you have an amp that also has a turntable input since only those types of amp have an earth tag these days. The other end of the cable you plug into one of the output sockets of the DAC."
I will try it tonight and report the results.
Since no other sources are used, and the Beresford does not correctly earth the kit, I was experiencing a high pitched "noise" when the one or more of the following conditions are met:
1) DAC is off
2) No signal going to the DAC
3) Selecting a different input on the DAC than what is connected.
Stanley, in his ultimate quest for perfect customer service, has been continuously working on this issue without my prodding.
When we last spoke, he thought the only solution would be to use a "regulate, linear power supply" of which I could not find any locally. I was hesitant to buy one online not knowing what return policies are, or if it would even work.
A few days back he gave me a suggestion which I did not try as it seemed a little unsafe or possibly detrimental to mains quality. He suggested attaching a ground wire from the B-ford case to the earth pin on the 180 mains lead.
I wasn't very comfortable doing this for unknown reasons.
He just emailed me and said a fellow Naimer is doing this to great effect. From Stanley Beresford's email:
"Get a cheap RCA audio cable from Radio Shack and cut one of the RCA plugs off. The strip back about 1 inch of the outer plastic sleeving. Cut off the inner plastic sleeving with the copper strands that are in the center of the cable. That leaves you with just the outer copper strands on one end. Twist the strands together and connect them to the earth tag of your amp. That's assuming you have an amp that also has a turntable input since only those types of amp have an earth tag these days. The other end of the cable you plug into one of the output sockets of the DAC."
I will try it tonight and report the results.