Test Chord GroundARAY

Test report Chord Ground Aray - HF interference suppression for audio/video simple and effective

I would like to say one thing in advance at this point: The Chord GroundARAYs are an absolute "must have" for every hi-fi system.

The impressions from my listening test will show you why this is so:
I must honestly admit that I was rather sceptical about the small aluminium cylinders before the listening test. What should be in such a small plug that it influences the sound image so positively to justify an investment of almost 700 EUR/piece in your hi-fi system. For this money, you can already get very high-quality power strips that offer much more for the money in terms of weight.

As a test chain, I chose my already highly optimised chain with ADOT MC1 , Sbooster , Phonosophie and In-Akustik Referenz Power Station AC-4500 with the active speakers from Devialet. I don't have to go into detail about the fact that this audio chain already plays on an unbelievably high audiophile level (see my review of the ADOT MC1). Anyone would be incredibly happy and satisfied with this chain if it weren't for the Chord Ground Arays!

The first song I chose for my before/after comparison was "When the last tree..." by the Kelly Family. This song has an incredible dynamic and the voices an unbelievable radiance and energy. Here it is particularly interesting to see whether a stereo system is able to reproduce the complex voices cleanly, to separate the instruments from each other and to reproduce the room cleanly. Without the Chord Ground Arays, my test system succeeds in these disciplines very well, not to say almost perfectly.

I used the word "almost" on purpose in the previous sentence. Because what happened after plugging in the RJ45 Chord Ground Aray into the [article_link_36291]English Electric EE 8-Switch[link_end] in front of the Devialet active speakers was almost shocking. The room seemed to literally explode in front of me. In the room, the voices and instruments now reached my ears far more clearly and the intelligibility of the singers and thus the lyrics within the performance clearly gained. These effects were further enhanced when I plugged another RCA Ground Aray into the Primare NP5 network player, which was also connected to the switch. And this although the Primare has nothing to do with the actual playback chain. It was simply connected to the switch. This shows once again that other devices in a hi-fi system, which have nothing to do with the actual music reproduction, also have a sonic influence on the entire hi-fi system.

The same effects could also be heard on Peter Maffay's MTV Unplugged album. In the sometimes complex music pieces such as "So schön" (a duet with Johannes Oerding) and "Der Mensch auf den du wartest" (a duet with singer Jennifer West), the speech intelligibility, the representation of the instruments and the spatial reproduction were clearly improved.

My impressions are confirmed by the experience of one of my customers who tried out the Chord Ground Arays on his system at home.

He wrote: "If you use two plugs on the same unit, the effect is even greater (but not doubled). But if you spread the plugs over the whole chain, the effect seems to be even greater. My system now sounds much more resolved and with more clarity. Really fascinating !!!"

Conclusion: You have to have these things. To listen without them would be a waste of time!