Many audiophiles strive to lower the noise floor of their systems by various means. Many audiophiles install elaborate electrical infrastructures such as dedicated sub-panels and dedicated electrical lines ("circuits") to improve power flow and to reduce the noise in the AC powering their components. Some audiophiles use balanced-power and isolation transformers (e.g., Equi-Tech, Torus) and power regenerators (e.g., PS Audio) and battery storage systems (e.g., Stromtank) to provide pure, noise-free power to their components. Many audiophiles use balanced interconnects in an effort to reduce noise and immunize the signal from sources of noise. Some audiophiles use special after-market grounding box components (e.g., Tripoint, Entreq, Nordost) to minimize ground noise issues and to prevent noise or interference from adulterating the audio signal and for other reasons.
Let's stipulate that these exertions succeed in lowering the noise floors of our systems, in eliminating electrical gremlins, in resisting EMI/RFI, in making "blacker" blacks.
But what have we accomplished musically? Is a cleaner, noise-scrubbed, more sterile signal consonant with reproducing the sounds of the music we hear in the concert hall or in the jazz club?
Is any of the naturalness or the richness or the organic-ness of live music removed, or is any of the visceral, emotional content of the music lost, even as "blacker" backgrounds and quieter systems are gained?
Ron... You name a dozen types of things that reduce enoise. Then you follow up by naming the devices that deliberately increase enoise (grounding devices). It's like throwing acids and bases into a pot to test if your chili needed more acidity to it. While both can be beneficial, it makes no sense to discuss them like they're equals.
Grounding boxes will not, and cannot do the things you say. I know I talked about making some diagrams to help show this awhile back, my apologies I have not got to it yet.
Anyways to get to the actual matter. The most fundamentally important thing to note:
Enoise (electrical noise) does not directly translate to Anoise (acoustic noise). It would be an artifact were it a separate entity within the music. But what is the most common is it causes aberrations of music itself.
EX of an aberration: a violin doesn't sound quiet right. But generally most stereos are fairly decent so you don't know what didn't sound right, until it sounds more right (a less perverted version by enoise manipulating the authenticity of the source).
One of the most common characteristics of enoise affecting the music is that it sounds fatiguing. What frequencies cause this is up for debate, and so is how they traverse the electronics inside a component. While a grounding box introduces enoise that many find beneficial, enoise from the AC receptacle does not share the wide accolades. But how do you describe the fatigue? A lot of things can sound piercing, and make you keep the volume lower. A lot of the music can be just too in-your-face.
So your question, are you stealing any life from the music by getting rid of enoise (from AC)? That depends partly on your hearing, and the rest on your stereo & music choice. People that have somewhat muted hearing probably hate to get rid of enoise that brings a little "life" to an otherwise dull landscape of music. But some manufacturers try to account for harshness of the enoise on the AC system, in the electronics components or speakers. When they do that you're presented with the complication of using any device that reduces enoise, that will provide better sonic attributes, but will also shove the stereo into an over dullized state. So you gain one good things and lose another. For this reason I actually really don't like when manufactures do that. It complicates thing so much so, that in order to make stuff right you're faced with component replacement or modification - at least to get the best sound possible. Because the enoise is causing the source to be changed (not artifacts), there's no way to get the ultimate fidelity by voicing equipment to compensate for enoise from the AC.
Now onto music choices... You will find music selections that sound harsh on a stereo with plenty of enoise and no manufacturer "corrections". But on a stereo without so much enoise you it may sound just right. You'll never find a stereo that can make all music just right. Sometimes the selections of music are just fatiguing from the studio, or so laid back you don't know what to do. You'll just have to try different albums to get a sort of idea where they land.
As far as organic or natural sound, by and large the less enoise the better they are, by far. But that has a certain prerequisite that the album is up to snuff. The question is, if these prerequisites of the album & stereo are all met, are your needs met? For many the answer is no, and they prefer to add some enoise back in through the use of grounding boxes because it enhances the experience of particular things they want, without adding the fatigue they get from the AC sourced enoise. The conclusion I have is that the ultimate in organic and natural sound will stem from the lowest enoise (including grounding devices), but it's got conditions that may exceed what people can cope with.
Now where things get very complicated when trying to reduce your enoise.
A number of manufacturers integrate in their own methods of reducing enoise into their equipment. It's a nice gesture but the problem is they're often not done very well. A little bit is better than none at all, right? No, actually. The problem is that when you want to further reduce the enoise from the AC, you have to select a power conditioner/thing that doesn't mind the half-right manufacturers attempt to do so... What I mean is a power conditioner you try may cause further problems due to either it's own design problem, or the manufacturers ignorance with their design in the (for ex) amp. Sadly there is no way for the end user to really be able to know any better about what's going on, without asking someone that would know.
In general I'd rate the entire industries abilities to competently deal with enoise from AC at like a 3 out of 10. Many are clueless, and just as many have backgrounds that might work for RF transmission but don't for audio.
Using mains conditioners that are unable to supply the instantaneous current requirements of the larger solid state amps is an example Ron. Another is using balanced wiring when the component is not properly balanced (just has XLR sockets) - I know some will contest this but this is my experience. Using cables that are built with characteristics to tailor the sound such as high inductance.
Well, it isn't about instantaneous current. That's a myth. But what's happening is a LOT of devices cannot flow the amount of current needed without making the voltage flop on it's face. There are so many reason for that. And it gets more complicated because some of them are causing transformers in the device to do the same thing. The issues are so vast that if I release a conditioner I plan to make a list of gear that hates it, or that I have to modify the conditioner to work with... All the different designers will have different ideas about "correct". Sadly there is no one stop for all version that can be made through ingenuity and cost-no-object - another myth in the electronics design world of marketing. But there are ones that I'd call a safe bet for most equipment.
It's not an opinion or experience about the XLR cables, audiophile have tested slews of equipment to find out that a lot are not actually balanced, or have a shield. At least CH precision doens't hide the fact that their balanced cables have zero shield because they prefer the sound. I cannot speak for all the other cables other than people have the desire to hear "different" so there you have it, wonky cables.
