It’s one of those ‘marginal gains’ that is small in magnitude but significant in effect. In fact, it’s the cherry on the icing of the whole grounding cake you’ve been working towards, perfectly summing up the benefits of a superior ground path. Nor is that result as surprising as it might seem. The circular, expandable nature of the Z-plug ensures massive contact area – especially compared to the bunch-pin connectors used on the stock jumper. In addition, the whole construction is significantly lower in both mass and extraneous material, making for a lower storage design, lower impedance and a less intrusive influence on the ground path itself. Given that different ground wires sound different, it should come as no surprise that the Buffington jumper also sounds different – and I don’t think the stock jumper sets the bar too high.
Liquid Hi-Fi sells its jumper for $109 USD, which might seem like a lot until you consider just how fiddly it is to construct, how important the quality of that construction is to performance and last but not least – the average cost of that second ground wire if you don’t use this jumper. For example, an extra 1m Nordost QLine Premium ground wire will set you back around $350 – and that’s pretty much par for the course. You do the sums…
In general terms, there are a number of key points to take from this.
First and foremost, it matters how you plug your system in, it matters how long your power cords are and it matters how you’ve arranged the AC supply and the grounding of that supply. All of which matters more than adding additional parallel grounding devices.
Secondly, when it comes to grounding, consistency and impedance are everything. In an ideal world, that means using the same length AC power cords and the same length grounding wires. But that also affects the choice of connectors on ground wires and the quality and construction of any adaptors or ground ties you might need.
Thirdly, the complexity of grounding topologies and the requirement for consistency make it easy to erode the potential performance benefits of any parallel grounding system – as well as the system itself. As with any empirical process, it’s important to understand just what the results actually mean. Just because you plugged in a ground box and didn’t hear a benefit doesn’t necessarily mean that box doesn’t work. The system ground might be so compromised, or there may be issues with the way that the box has been connected, that mask any potential benefits.
None of which means that you shouldn’t investigate and invest in those parallel grounding systems. After all, I’ve been one of their noisier advocates. You might not be able to, it might not be possible to and it certainly might well be impractical to achieve the ideal. But it’s worth getting as close as possible – and understanding where the set up fall short. Do the essential spadework first, approach the process with a plan and be prepared to invest the time and effort to maximise the returns. Approached properly, system grounding delivers real musical benefits that it’s hard to achieve in any other way.
