System on own earth ground?

Does your present earth connect to the neutral cable before the mains switch? Connecting a separate earth in this case is a very bad idea, you could end up providing the best earth path for the whole street.

yeti42 posted:

Does your present earth connect to the neutral cable before the mains switch? Connecting a separate earth in this case is a very bad idea, you could end up providing the best earth path for the whole street.

No, that is TN-C-S. I have TNS

There is a recent fad at the moment for having a passive separate Earth device connected to a system. Either to the Earth post on a multi distribution mains block or Earth posts on the back of an amp etc.    Not sure but what you are describing could be the intention behind such an arrangement, I have read many positive things - dropping of noise floor, veils lifted.... Not so sure with Naim gear.

Popeye posted:

Hi all

I have my system on its own 10mm supply with its own MCB type c breaker on its own consumer unit. 

Currntly the  hifi consumer unit is earthed off of the earth sleeve on the main incoming supply (TNS). 

Does anyone know if there is likely to be an advantage if I drove in a earth rod for the system so it doesn’t share the same earth as the house also?

????????????

It really is important you DO NOT drive a local earth electrode with a TNS or TNC-S earthing system.. as in a fault situation or with TNS under certain  regular conditions the potential difference between the PE earth and local earth could be life threatening/start a fire, and you will almost certainly invalidate your house insurance. (In the UK)

So if you wish to use an earth electrode you will need have an electrician convert your supply to TT, or use a physically separate independent TT earthed outbuilding for your audio.

I had my main TNS supply converted to TT, as I needed very low mains earth noise (not for audio reasons), but yes I did have a lovely side effect of improved Hi-Fi audio. Another benefit was that ground floor occasional tingles from taps etc vanished, as the bonded safety earth to the cold water pipes potential compared to the mains supply earth electrode was minimal.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Popeye posted:

Hi all

I have my system on its own 10mm supply with its own MCB type c breaker on its own consumer unit. 

Currntly the  hifi consumer unit is earthed off of the earth sleeve on the main incoming supply (TNS). 

Does anyone know if there is likely to be an advantage if I drove in a earth rod for the system so it doesn’t share the same earth as the house also?

????????????

It really is important you DO NOT drive a local earth electrode with a TNS or TNC-S earthing system.. as in a fault situation or with TNS under certain  regular conditions the potential difference between the PE earth and local earth could be life threatening, and you will invalidate your house insurance. (In the UK)

So if you wish to use an earth electrode you will need have an electrician convert your supply to TT, or use a physically separate independent TT earthed outbuilding for your audio.

I had my main TNS supply converted to TT, as I needed very low mains earth noise (not for audio reasons), but yes I did have a lovely side effect of improved Hi-Fi audio. Another benefit was that ground floor occasional tingles from taps etc vanished, as the bonded safety earth to the cold water pipes potential compared to the mains supply earth electrode was minimal.

Interesting, thanks Simon the reason I ask is because it was in fact my electrian who did my dedicated hifi supply and board that advised that I would improve things further if I were to do a separate earth for the system and he Evan explained that it would have an effect on the noise floor. 

And it was something he had done on a few occasions for recording studios

Yes recording studios and the like may often use TT systems... my application was very sensitive small signal radio equipment, and earth grounded antenna systems.

Ask your electrician to go TT. It will require new wiring configuration at the consumer box, and suitable gauge dedicated earth electrode cable from the consumer box to said electrode which typically will be an external point where there is suitable soil conductivity not prone excessive drying. My water table is very near the surface at my house, in fact we used to have a well, so conductivity is good.... it’s great for radio too ????

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Yes recording studios and the like may often use TT systems... my application was very sensitive small signal radio equipment, and earth grounded antenna systems.

Ask your electrician to go TT. It will require new wiring configuration at the consumer box, and suitable gauge dedicated earth electrode cable from the consumer box to said electrode which typically will be an external point where there is suitable soil conductivity not prone excessive drying. My water table is very near the surface at my house, in fact we used to have a well, so conductivity is good.... it’s great for radio too ????

Cheers, will look into it. Believe it or not I have a working well also!

 Ours is long filled in and covered now .... good luck 

You’re lucky to have an electrician who understands your needs, many domestic sparkies look at you like you’re a nutcase for even suggesting that HiFi needs anything more than sockets on a bog standard ring main.