EVS Ground Enhancer Instructions and Info 

 

Bare wire Enhancers:

1. The wire connector is fairly long so it might resonate and possibly cause a sonic degradation. For this reason, I have supplied some string so that you can optionally tie the Enhancer to your speaker wire or something else. Please try it both ways. First hook up the Enhancer directly and listen and then after you have a good handle on the sound difference the Enhancer makes, tie the Enhancer to your speaker wire so that there is some tension on it so it is not vibrating. Then listen again. Several people have noticed an improvement after damping the Enhancers.  Please do not bend the wire back and forth extremely at the same spot. If you need to increase the bend on the looped version then do so slowly. You can also damp the Ground Enhancer by having the bend in the wire be less so that the Ground Enhancer is laying so it has some tension on the speaker wire.

2. We notice an improvement of the sound immediately. But some people have reported that the sound changes over the first few hours in cycles and finally settles after maybe 4 or more hours. We would love feedback about this too. Do you hear a difference after a few hours?

3. The EVS Ground Enhancers attach to the negative or ground posts/terminals on your speakers or amps.  You can put the looped versions directly against the inside of your binding post (in between the speaker wire and post)....or put the GE on the outside of the speaker wire connector (between the speaker wire spade and the binding post nut).  Whatever makes the best sound wins.   

4. You will not hurt anything if you put them on the positive terminals.  You can try them on the hot (no one has yet) and report if they make a difference there too.  Hey, I would love to sell you more!  Just be careful not to short the connector lead from the ground to the hot. You do not want a short seen by the amps. 

5. If you have your wires reversed to the speakers to invert phase then please try the GEs on both terminals and let me know your results.  I would "think" you would want the GE on the lead coming from the "Ground" of the amp......so would be then on the hot on the speaker.....but this is just pure conjecture......the only way to know is to try it.  Again, you cannot hurt anything by putting it on the wrong terminal. 

6.  If you are bi-wiring then it is best to put a pair on each of the ground terminals.  If you have a bi-wireable speaker but are just single wiring and using a jumper at the speaker then try the GE on either ground and see which sounds best. 

7. If you are using the straight wire versions then try to use as little of the wire as possible (less is more). If you bend the wire then do so gently and do not bend it hard at 90 degrees, or bend it back and forth at the same spot. The wire is single crystal so is very stiff and can break if you bend it back and forth on the same spot. You can bend it many times but keep the bends smooth and relatively long. We do not warrantee the Ground Enhancers from wire breakage.

8. You can terminate (solder, crimp or both) the wire on both versions into any jack you like (spade, banana, XLR, RCA, whatever). The EVS Ground Enhancers work best at the speaker end of the speaker wire, then next best at the amp end of the speaker wire and least important, but still very noticeable is on a source or preamp ground. You can solder the Ground Enhancers directly inside a component to its ground buss, directly to the RCA jacks grounds or any other ground you like…….but not the AC power ground. Please do not put the Enhancers on any AC power connections. You can solder the Ground Enhancers directly to speaker driver ground posts or directly to a x-over.

9.  There is some talk on the internet about not using this kind of device on a digital ground. My guess is, they are talking about the digital input and digital output jacks on a transport, DAC, de-jitterer, USB to spdif converter, etc.).  We have used the GEs on the analog output of our modded Oppo players with the usual great results.  My sense is that they can also be used on the analog outputs of DACs as well.  But spare digital jacks?  Please try and see what happens.....you cannot hurt anything by plugging them into or soldering them on any signal or speaker ground.  The RCA versions will give the easiest way to try them on various line level signal grounds.

10. The jury is out whether paralleling them makes it better or worse….some like more than one and on some systems it sounds worse. If you have a bi-wireable pair of speakers but are not bi-wiring then try one pair on one of the ground terminals and then after listening try another pair on the other jumpered ground. Let us all know what your findings are.

11. All bare and even gold plated wires and connectors need occasional cleaning. We recommend you clean bare connectors on the EVS Ground Enhancers along with all your other connections including AC plugs, tube pins, etc. at least once every three months. Caig DeoxIT Gold contact cleaner is great and QuickSilver GOLD contact enhancer from Extreme Cables.com will actually improve the sound.

12. Please give me feedback about how these things sound. Feel free to enter any forum or comment on them online. There maybe a few systems that do not benefit from them, so before posting on any forum or wherever, please contact me if you are having some downsides….no one yet has thought they made the sound worse..

13. I would love it if you could take a picture of the EVS enhancers on your speakers and amps and email them to me with a few sentences on how they sound. I want to have a section on the website that shows them in action on many different kinds of speakers and amps.

RCA and XLR Ground Enhancers:

1.  The RCA Ground Enhancers are not delicate but you could break the wire off from the Telos shield if you pulled the wire very hard sideways near the shield.  So, please insert and remove the RCA versions by holding the Telos shield only.  If you need to remove it and it is really hard to remove then use a small plier and rock it on a pencil or something.....we will have a pic soon.

2.  How your component is grounded inside, etc. will determine how many RCA or XLR connectors you would need for best sound.  One customer soldered some of my bare wire GEs to some Eichmann plugs and found that using just one per component was the best sound (not one per channel.....just one).  Most preamps and components have a common ground but a few are totally dual mono (as in mono amps) and then two per component would be the ticket.  However, we are now just beginning to send them out and there is no telling how many your component would like.  I use one per channel on my Oppo mods to great effect.   So, experiment and let us all know by giving me direct feedback which will show up here for others to know.  You can always buy as many as you like and the ones that don't work.....well, just send them back for a refund.

Mucho more coming including pics of them in use and also instructions  for using them inside equipment and for using the Phone, Spade and Banana versions.