Did anyone actually read the marketing text from Chord about this GroundARAY product?
It’s just so obviously ridiculous, those guys are laughing all the way to the bank:
Each GroundARAY is painstakingly built by hand at Chord Company’s Wiltshire factory, including the system components themselves. The GroundARAY comprises a number of absorption devices, attached with a highly advanced double ultra-high-bandwidth connector system. The connectors are made to a very high standard, demanding time-consuming hand-assembly by factory technicians.
Each GroundARAY cylinder is filled with a carefully chosen material to deaden noise. The final assembly is then locked into place to reduce any effects from acoustic vibration.
GroundARAYs are most effective when used across several devices in a system. The devices simply plug into existing empty sockets and can be used individually, or in multiples, such as across left and right outputs etc. With DACs and streamers, GroundARAYs can be used with unused digital inputs; projectors and screens can also benefit from the noise-reduction effects, too.
It kind of reminds me of the “Brilliant Pebbles” from Machina Dynamica:
We employ a number of highly-specialized, proprietary techniques in the preparation/assembly of Brilliant Pebbles to enhance the crystals’ inherent characteristics. The fundamental operating principle of Brilliant Pebbles involves a number of atomic mechanisms in the crystals. Brilliant Pebbles will enhance the performance of your audio system so your favorite music and even your experience playing online fantasy games will become a mind blowing auditory experience.
You are pissing in the wind boss, let it go. Men (only mainly men) must spend their money, and people must take that money, was ever thus.
As hifi companies reach out to the last few older gents willing to shell out, so the price will become more steep and the claims more outrageous. The good news for those doing the selling, is there are still a few willing to do the buying lol.
Its a spiral to the bottom, we will be re visiting record decks at this rate.
the RJ45 goes into the switch on the network and in talking to my dealer following my home demo the better the switch in your system (mine is a Cisco 2980G ) the smaller the increase, but even I found an increase in detail and soundstage using the RJ45 on its own
I would recommend the 5 Pin Din for the 252 ensure the GroundARRAy goes into a mapped input, I have mine in the Tuner DIN in mine
as I mentioned in my thoughts the GroundARRAY IMHO are best used in pairs
I always prefex my customer dinners with "The best Champagne in the world, is the one you enjoy the most, but lets try not to get personal on this
on my thoughts weather Blind or not in my case, at least I am commenting on something I heard first hand both at my dealers and then took back to my home system to test again and my comments like them or not are based on my own experence on the 20 + years of ownership
I don’t think I have ever commented on here on products I don’t know or never heard first hand to try and add value to this forum and to NAIM ownership
I am fortunate to have a dealer who will lend me anything from his stock to try at home before I hand over my hard earned £££
I think blind tests, especially group tests, lead to a definitive answer. This might belong to a different question, though. Listening to music isn’t just about hearing. The brain has to make sense of what got to the ears and this process can get distorted by other things. These can be very different, like someone holding up pieces of different colors and/or shapes in front of you, or a stressful setting, like a blind test. In this case the test setup interferes with the test. The results can still be valid, but for a blind listening test might tell you just who is able to overcome the setup or, in a group test, who has this highest ability to hear things in a stressful situation.
Agreed, I posted many times on the forum that I don’t believe that blind tests are the holy grail in audio. At the same time “I just know because I trust my ears” does not work either
You advocates strongly on several threads the famous blind test. It’s a scientific attitude and will to know if a phenomenon exists or not really.
In the same time you keep posting, without even having heard it, that the Chord Ground Array is a bollocks and snake oil, and that you are not keen to do a blind test for it.
It’s really contradictory and a lack of open mind. Absolutely not a scientific attitude. I don’t understand your contribution.
I admire @litemotiv doggedly pursuing what he believes. The title is ‘brilliant or bollocks’ and he is strongly in the ‘bollocks’ camp. A contribution isn’t necessarily a popular opinion or what everyone wants to read - the inconvenient truth is that unless something like this gadget is exposed to rigorous testing nobody will ever know. Having a closed mind to something that is patently nonsense or unproven doesn’t mean a lack of ‘scientific attitude’ otherwise all scientists would need to be agnostics.
I have no opinion on this but find it an entertaining read, as long as you stay within the the rules or the moderator decides otherwise people are free to post what they like, it’s a forum.
But the thing is, one may say it’s ‘patently nonsense’ yet all the while some respected members have heard and bought these things because they say they heard an improvement. I suppose these members could be cloth eared muppets, could have more money than sense, or have been paid by Chord cables to post favourably, but that seems most unlikely. So to dismiss something as nonsense out of hand does seem to me an example of closed mindedness, particularly when as the same time espousing a scientific approach. It has more in line with anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists than the world of hard science. ‘I just know it’s rubbish’ is hardly the basis for logical argument.
Regardless of whether blind or not, comparing things is stressful because by its very nature it demands a decision: Do they sound different? If so which is better? (What does better mean? Can I really remember the sound between two listenings?) Is that the case with all types of music? Am I sure or imagining it? Do I think that because I know one is more expensive (or cheaper)?
Blind comparisons to me are the less stressful because it takes out some of these factors, enabling me to relax more - after all, I may be comparing the same thing with itself, so only significant differences assume any importance. Once I discovered the benefits of blind comparison I made it the norm, if not for first impression tgen certainly for confirmation. I don’t attempt double-blind as that would be very difficult to set up, and for the purpose is over the top. I just get a willing volunteer to do the swap, and if necessary adjust volume for equal level (assessed in advance). One of my sons finds it interesting, and adds to it by sometimes ‘accidentally’ playing one a touch louder, and another time the other likewise.
I’d be hopeless at blind testing, and having to make a decision. Like at the optician - which is better, A or B. I get most confused.
I find that with the more subtle hifi decisions - speaker cables, ethernet cables, switches etc I like to listen for a few days to decide. Often I think it’s initially better but after a few days I revert and think ‘phew, that’s better’. No way would, or could, I decide between something like the Chord in a few minutes blind testing. To me, the offer of a no pressure home loan is infinitely preferable.
I don’t entirely disagree, but if I understand correctly he (or she) was saying that given the preamble, the explanation and justification for this product, it’s enough to call it nonsense based on Chord’s own drivel. Nobody is calling anyone ‘clothed eared muppets’, those are your words, but they certainly may have more money than sense. Who knows.
When Naim came up with the Discrete Regulator there was a proper process and white paper, and one could quite easily distinguish the difference (regardless of whether one preferred that difference or not).
My blind testing has been at home, over several hours not minutes, usually after several days of initial listening. In the case of Chord Dave there was blind support instantly in the dealer’s room, when my musician son sitting next to me uttered a “wow!” under his breath echoing my own instant unvoiced reaction within seconds of hearing, my son not having a clue as to what we were listening to - but Given tge cost I needed to be certain it was right. I had a week’s trial of Dave against TT at home against my Hugo: I was trying to persuade myself TT would do and the improvement with Dave didn’t justify the extra expense - but the blind confirmation tests convinced otherwise!
I’m prepared to believe that the GroundARAY might make a difference, but really wouldn’t be able to tell without hearing. And I like the idea of blind testing, but the logistics can be an impediment.
I’ve managed something similar to a blind test due to forgetfulness - when demoing an IsoTek Evo Elite cable a year back, I was really impressed with what I was hearing, only to discover that it was the regular $10 Naim cable, not the $1200 one that was plugged in
On the question of value for money (and whether GroundARAY is worth it), surely VFM is a subjective question for each individual to assess. Whilst I’ve got a Morgana loom on my system at the moment, I might well enjoy the music more if I had spent the money on a super-comfortable chair instead.
Very much so. The clarity it’s got is amazing. I’ve been listening to albums that I’ve had for 25 years and discovering bass tones that I didn’t know where there. Listening to a Madeleine Peyroux track, I could hear the spit on her lips, and it sounded as if she were in the room.
During last year’s lockdown I was really pleased to have the system in place, but even more so for this (hopefully shorter) stint. I’m listening to Jakob’s “Solace” now (one of my favourite post-rock albums ever - they’re from Napier - and the guitar tones are wonderful.
