Is a wooden power-strip Any good ???

Can't you just plug them into a double wall socket? A power strip for two items seems a bit superfluous. 

A wooden power strip isn't really much good, wood's pretty useless as a conductor of electricity!    

If main focus is SQ, is it better to have 2 Wall outlets or a 2 outlet starwired power strip (pure cober or silver wired)???

If you are not using Powerlines, you can wire both items into the same mains plug. If you have a double unswitched wall socket, use that. If you don't have dedicated mains, put the money towards that. 

I use powerlines, and I have dedicated main into one wall outlet

So just get an unswitched double socket. 

If you have the possibility to avoid a powerstrip, I'd always do that!

The latest fad is for a star earthed strip with an earthing post, with a ground box connected to this post.   Many veils lifted and inky blackness revealed..

Tobyjug, I am not sure where this fad is or the specific details, however having a common ground to mains safety  'earth' is fine... however if you are fed by PME mains distribution.. which is the norm in the U.K..  then NEVER EVER connect that ground to your own local earth electrode.. as a fault in your mains distribution or substation could melt down part of your in house earth wiring causing a fire as well potentially create lethal voltages across equipment chassis.... but all will be rosy until that day happens and it will be un announced.

if you want to use local earth electrodes, get an electrician to convert your electricity access to a TT supply, and they will then create at least one formally tested earth electrode at your property. Your safety earth will now be local, and noise free.

One point on TT setups: You can't use them easily in all geological conditions as they rely on ground conductivity, sometimes they require significant effort to establish a sufficiently good earth connection.

It's like the earth post found on a phono stage and on some tannoy loudspeakers along with the input terminals, I believe.   Meant to replicate having a metal rod in your garden that's connected to earth to provide a pathway of nasties.     Russ Andrews has provided a double unstitched wall socket with an extra earth post for a while now.  Along with some devices.

Huge posted:

One point on TT setups: You can't use them easily in all geological conditions as they rely on ground conductivity, sometimes they require significant effort to establish a sufficiently good earth connection.

Indeed - your electrician will need to undertake a conductivity/impedance test before they can sign it off. Its also worth noting in some locations you can only validly use TT setups and PME is not permitted - this is where you have power to mobile structures like caravans etc. So typically a TT solution can be found where you have ready access to true ground - unless you are living in an apartment or block of flats.

Tobyjug, the only RA devices I saw with an extra ground post connector appear to allow you to provide additional connections from your equipment to to safety mains earth  should you need it.

Also its a myth that an earth electrode provides a pathway for RF nasties and removes them... it absolutely doesn't unless low radio frequency and or very short ground lead to sink. What happens you will get RF peaks and nulls from the source to the sink travelling along the grounding cable - assuming the electrode (if its big enough) is acting as a sink.

S

Simon-in-Suffolk posted

 

 

Tobyjug, the only RA devices I saw with an extra ground post connector appear to allow you to provide additional connections from your equipment to to safety mains earth  should you need it.

Also its a myth that an earth electrode provides a pathway for RF nasties and removes them... it absolutely doesn't unless low radio frequency and or very short ground lead to sink. What happens you will get RF peaks and nulls from the source to the sink travelling along the grounding cable - assuming the electrode (if its big enough) is acting as a sink.

S

Look up: Entreq. Grounding boxes

              : Nordost QRT. QKORE.    Ground boxes

              :  Nordost QRT. QBASE.    Powerstrip

     and  : Computer Audio Design  CAD. Ground control.

These are a few I'm aware of that have produced such things.  I'm no expert and a lot of the information about what they are and how they work is only a little understood.  It would be very interesting for some of you guys who do know about such things to give an opinion and some ideas.   Most reviews have been favourable.

That Nordost box costs $2500 at a minimum.   You could do an earth ground grid on your lot for that price.   What is the benefit of the box and how does it work better than my existing earth ground?   I can see the benefit for Nordost, but what about me?  I have a pair of earth ground grids left over from my tube amps.  I have my Nordost power strip plugged into one.  I have a Nordost ground wire plugged into the other.  I have been so pleased with the Nordost power strip and the related power cord, I got the ground wire, too.  I guess this outboard ground box is for the Nordost completist.

Hi Tobyjug, I looked at those devices, and although slightly flowery descriptions of what they do for the most part they seem to offer a kind of star ground system for presumably unbalanced audio systems.. most likely for audio components that don't use the Naim technique of reference grounding through one of the sources, typically the CD unless over ridden. However this is a somewhat different issue to sinking RF voltages.

The Nordost devices talk about earth electrodes in a a slightly vague way, but I note it's for the US market, and perhaps utility earthing and regulations is quite different from the UK.

The bottom line, RF AC voltage behave quite differently to the relatively almost DC like voltage of the mains. The sinking of RF voltage to a ground or zero potential is dependent of the specific frequency and length of the grounding conductor combination as well as the size of the ground electrode, ground conductivity and the associated RF grounding radials.. which mains ground electrodes don't have. Outside of these band-stop frequency filter resonances, the RF ground cable will radiate RF from the source and as the ground cable will be relatively high impedance.. i.e. Not grounding much at all.

Simon