On the back of the Tidal LA loudspeakers (it is exactly the same with the Tidal Akira’s, btw) Jorn added dedicated (silver) grounding binding posts. Therefore grounding is as such part of the Tidal ‘LA concept’.
The two PSU’s of the Wadax reference dac and the Wadax reference server (as well as the latter’s PSU) also employ dedicated grounding binding posts. Obviously Wadax does this for a reason.
I know that some (or actually maybe a lot) of our WBF members believe / think that I am exaggerating with all my - Tripoint Audio - grounding steps. However, I disagree (of course
). The LA’s are incredible transparent transducers that - and this without any ‘mercy’, that is for the good and the bad - show you very clearly what is going on in the system, musically speaking. The utter transparency of the LA’s learned me during my ‘audio journey’ that the various audio components we employ produce an awful lot of distortion. This distortion can inter alia translate into - if you compare it to unamplified live music - a somewhat thin / lean tonality, too little density and serenity, lack of convincing dynamics, unsatisfactory bass reproduction, smearing of the sound, a somewhat closed in soundstaging, etc, etc.
Top notch grounding helps you to get rid of (this) distortion: while the Tripoint audio components have become in say the last 5-10 years or so quite a bit (or more precise: an awful lot) better, the LA’s very surely demonstrated this and ‘rewarded’ me with clearly better sound in all the mentioned parameters.
For this reason I have opted for pure (and high purity) copper platforms to be placed under the various audio components - including the Kondo (pre)amps, all Wadax components and also my powerstrip - but with the exception of the LA’s (because each one of them weighs nearly 500 kilo’s): all the pure copper slabs are going to be grounded as well. And please believe me (again), the LA system performs better after grounding the copper platforms.
For this reason I have invested in another batch of 19 high purity copper pieces that are inter alia going to be used for mass loading the Wadax reference server, reference dac and it’s PSU’s as well as the Kondo power amps and the Tripoint Audio Elite and Emperor NG’s. I am planning to ground these copper slabs as well, although I need to do this step by step because of the costs involved. Have not heard the sonic results of grounding the copper platforms to be used for mass loading yet - some craftsman are currently sanding these copper pieces - but I have high hopes that this step will elevate the performance of the LA system once more.
