[Ghoostknight]

Hello,

Lets start at the beginning...i know about tourmaline tweaks from a german forum, where it was quite a large topic since a few years ago and i experimented a bit with them myself in the form of mainly RCA caps since then (also again because i noticed the grounding box thread here), and they definitely do something, to what degree and what "qualilty" depends on a few factors regarding construction

Best example for this is also Furutech's Nano Crystal Formular, which im pretty sure contains tourmaline as "special crystalline" because of the physicial properties of tourmaline (biggest hint here is that tourmaline is also able to produce in theory negative ions and IR-light beside being piezo and pyro electric, as advertised by furutech)

Now... i noticed 2-3 offers of these kind of RCA caps and there are a few more overpriced crystal products... which kinda go into snake oil price ranges if you ask me and thought i wanna refine my own design and maybe offer it on etsy, kind of to make a service for the audiophile community, since im pretty sold on the tourmaline idea myself since i tested it the first time

tho, i have to say also this, while its a nice tweak, and when the rca cap is constructed right its also always positive imo, it doesnt make or break your system... see it as what its, a tweak, and if you dont believe in all this crystal stuff see it as a fancy RCA cap that shields the connector

I bought a few things now for kind of a first production run and will report back with pictures once i have a "final" prototype in around 1-2 weeks ... if someone is curious price - wise, it will be probably be in the 20-40 euro price range, this will allow me to atleast double my money for doing this on the side...

since this post isnt very detailed let me know if you have any questions

best regards

 

[Ghoostknight]

before i settle on one design i will probably build a few more prototypes to test things, because my recent research kinda ended in a few questions in terms of construction/SQ
if things will play out like i imagine they will also look quiet cool

in terms of design i still have to test whether things matter inside the rca cap but i noticed that different crystals, and different crystal size can sound different, so i might start a collection with different (piezoelectric) crystals, where its visible from the outside "what is inside", so people might mix and match them themself instead of me starting to do "mixes"

from my research so far i sourced these (all of them are piezoelectric):

black tourmaline
pink tourmaline
african tourmaline
smoky quartz
rose quartz
topaz
prehnite
rochelle salt

mainly in 1-3mm grain size, tho some like the topaz and prehnite i have to crush myself

i also sourced copper leftovers from mills, this will mainly extend the ground surface area inside the plug

Also i should say... in the german forum many people recommend extending the plus pole, im not a fan of this because you theoretically build a capacitor with this that sits on the signal line... so i will probably pull out the plus pin on my rca plugs, this also has a nicer effect on SQ, while the extended plus pole makes things "more audible" i think only treating the ground sounds more "correct"

Construction will also include a messing plate that i will solder into the plug to completely shield the signal pin

 

[Ghoostknight]

Also i had a thought about other connectors...

1. i can include such adapters: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005006617826446.html for BNC
2. but it gets kinda problematic if you look at 6,3mm plugs, there are mono 6,3mm to chinch adapters but its not recommended to use them on stereo/balanced jackets since you short one channel with the mono plugs
3. there are XLR to chinch adapter that should work, and allowing for full shielding like the bnc connector

i might just end up doing 6,3mm plugs seperatly, but i think 6,3mm isnt much used in hifi either, mostly xlr or rca. tho it would be nice there would be an adapter for each scenario

i also found these: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005006656054896.html which are kinda perfect for our scenario here, i just ordered some to test them myself

 

[Jake2]

Good work on this - you should post a link on the Ground Box and AliX threads too.

 

[Ghoostknight]

Good work on this - you should post a link on the Ground Box and AliX threads too.

yea maybe after i have some pics/prototypes

main goal is first to create some prototypes and refining on the "base-design" i played around with the last 3-4 years, tho since it was purely DIY i was kinda happy with the effect i got at some point, so i will definitely do some further testing here and post it here

Just bought yesterday some more things, silver plated ofc copper strained cables that i can cut up into pieces to use as ground extender is one of them, i also bought silver wire, tho im unsure if its stranded, i will see

also found these adapters:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/jack...ale-plated-35mm-male-plug-adapter-p-7103.html
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/jack...e-to-male-635mm-male-plug-adapter-p-7101.html
tho i think they dont completely shield the signal pin

then i found these:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/bana...ld-plated-ofc-copper-o5mm-set-x4-p-17373.html
(quite cheap for good quality connectors i might build some prototypes with them)

and also these:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/rca-connectors/ataudio-at-fr008-p-18693.html
that i could use instead of my original picked ones from dynavox:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/rca-...nnectors-gold-plated-o4mm-set-x4-p-14152.html
(they also look quite similar..)

 

[Ghoostknight]

just builded my first prototypes

1. heated the plus pole pin and pulled it out
1. i sawed off some of the connector
2. closed the hole with solder (probably a waste for prototypes but i used WBT 10% silver, i bought some 4% silver solder for further test, i might see if this makes a difference)
3. inserted a 4mm2 occ solid core copper (greyknight branded chinese cables)
4. put some loctite on the screw windings
5. screwed it in
6. filled the thing with fine (0,1-1mm) tourmaline from the end
7. closed off the end with clear uv glue

actually quite a simple process

the result is kinda fascinating, this one seems around double to triple more effective than the ones i had without this kind of second ground rod, this definitely needs some further investigation and i will build a pair of ones without ground rod in the middle (just so i have a pair that is constructed the same way beside the rod) soon

the uv glue doesnt look that pretty, i might have not cured it enough, but also a 9W uv lamp is on its way, if this doesnt help i might try a coat of clear nail polish (or try epoxid...)

 

[Ghoostknight]

i thought this design was worth a shot because it "reliably" extends the ground surface ... this might also make it a more consistent endproduct instead of playing around with something in the mix... tho i think graphite is still worth a shoot because of the fine particle size powders you can get... this might actually extend the ground consistent too

 

[Ghoostknight]

just made these i couldnt bear the previous version for long.... imo the effect is "less audible" than with ground rod but much more pleasing/smooth, i probably go with these from now

btw these are the first/seconds ones i tried with the cap modified like this shielding off the signal pin completely

 

[Ghoostknight]

third pair same as second pair but with courser sized prehnite, i havent tested yet
making the glue recess a little looks way better also courser particles (and lighter color) seem to look better

 

[Ghoostknight]

first prehnite rca caps and the effect is actually interesting, specially after hearing since a few years with tourmaline caps

first the effect is definitely "lighter" but the sound also seems to get a bit of a different character... i would say things get bass and treble heavy with tourmaline where prehnite sounds a little more focused on the mids with smoother (a bit rolled off) highs

imo the crystal type seems to matter actually the most, yes finer grain size seems to give also more effect but the crystal types seems to decide what kind of sound you get, tweaking the constructing/particle size just seems to give you "improvements" in what the crystal type is already doing, thats also where i say you dont need perfect construction here to already get a beneficial effect, tho i will still experiment some with the particle size... 4. pair will be finer/powder prehnite, but enough testing for now

 

[Ghoostknight]

just for comparison i made a quartz pair... hard to describe... i think it stays fairly neutral but the music gets kinda unexciting and somewhat nervous sounding

tho i wonder if each person has her/his own preferences here but there is also a scientific hint here... quartz is only piezoelectric where tourmaline & prehnite are piezo and pyro electric (i just had to recheck prehnite here), maybe this has something todo with my preference for the two so far

___

i also did a prehnite pair where i inserted one larger prehnite crystal at end inside the glue, tho this was kind of a fail SQ wise, and something was off compared to the prehnite caps i did before

 

[Ghoostknight]

actually a good comparison before i continue (because of the last failed prehnite test) is whether the glue at the end affects things, i can probably replace it by some cloth i can glue "lightly" into place but this way no crystals get "stuck" in the glue, its worth a shot

 

[Ghoostknight]

actually a good comparison before i continue (because of the last failed prehnite test) is whether the glue at the end affects things, i can probably replace it by some cloth i can glue "lightly" into place but this way no crystals get "stuck" in the glue, its worth a shot

this actually seems to have a larger effect than i expected, the difference is a bit hard to desribe but it makes things sound smoother/more natural

 

[Ghoostknight]

i did a bit more testing, its beneficial to isolate the crystals with cloth from the glue, it doesnt seem to matter whether the hole is completely closed with glue (after the cloth) or if air can still pass trough the cloth, i just double checked this, this test also kinda confirmed that there is no notable difference between little amount of glue and large amount as long the cloth isolates it

i also doublechecked my second pair of prototypes vs this new revision, only difference between the two is that there is cloth between glue and crystals, very noticable difference, strangly i would categorize the change again in " without cloth its more audible but with cloth it sounds "better" "


i grabbed a 100% cotton tshirt for testing purposes, i have to see what i use later on, some colored cloth + clear uv glue is maybe a good idea for differentiating crystal types

 

[Ghoostknight]

i might just have found a good cloth alternative.... raw (washed) sheep wool

i guess this also fixes the problem i was having with the prototypes before, because how they are constructed there was no room left for the crystals to "move" substantially i think, i guess some lose layer of sheep wool can still give in a little so the crystals can move around

in my tests tapping the rca caps on the tables after a few months of use actually increased their effectiveness (again), tho try it yourself, its hard to A/B things here since you can just do it once in a few months...