[RonR]

Hi all,

The last few weeks I've been at a loose end while waiting for my Aksonic Kits to arrive, so I decided to take a look at the GK-1R Earthing scheme to see if I could work out the paths through the box from source to output. I noticed that in the circuit diagram of the analog board there are two ground planes, power earth and signal earth, connected by R2. In my stock GK-1R it was slightly different. On the analog board there are 3 ground "lands":

1. Input side signal earth
2. Power earth
3. Tube side signal earth

1. was connected to 2. via R2
2. was connected to 3. via link (C8 - C18)

So the tube signal earth was conjoined with the power earth.

I then got an attack of the "What-if's", and ended up rewiring the analog board to the original circuit diagram (Hugh very considerately put the holes for a link joining the two signal earths on the board)

The result - less noise!

Although before the change I had to turn the volume control to almost full to hear any noise whatsoever, the noise floor is certainly a tad lower with the rewiring.

So, here's how the GK-1R earthing looks now:



The Downside:

I'm not sure what to do with the Phono section yet, as it doesn't use a split earthing sceme. When the Phono input is selected it seems to connect the source earth (thus the signal earth) to the Power earth.

Any further suggestions would be welcome.

Cheers,

RonR.

[AKSA]

Thanks Ron,

This approach is a good one.  It could well be an improvement in the GK1 earthing scheme, but it's possibly only apparent on the GK1-R.  This very likely fixes it;  I'm not sure, but will verify it in the next couple of days.

The only way to resolve the sig/pwr ground issue for the phono is to separate the two with a low value resistor between them, just as we do on the AKSA power amplifier.  It may indeed be necessary - I'm testing it on Sunday.

Cheers,

Hugh