New GroundARAY from Chord Company – Advanced high-frequency noise reduction

Electrical noise infiltrates music and movie systems, fact. As vibration and mechanical noise are detrimental to quality, high frequency noise is also the enemy; and it is everywhere. The best audio and video equipment minimises HF noise but here’s another way: Chord Company GroundARAY.

The Salisbury scientists have done it again. Chord GroundARAY cylinders extract HF noise from the signal earth of audio and video via unused ports on your equipment – XLR (male or female) RCA, USB, HDMI, 5 pin DIN, BNC or RJ45 (Ethernet) – to effectively ‘clean’ the audio signal path and improve (dramatically!) audio and video quality.

We have done extensive listening tests with these over the past few weeks and the improvements each ARAY makes are startling. Multiple ARAYS can be added to any product as well as to network switches.

Chord recommend beginning at your source and working through your system, on streaming based systems this could be your router and/or switch – adding the RJ45 GroundARAY to the English Electric 8 or 16 Switch for example has a huge impact on performance. Then move on to add GroundARAYs to the rest of your system – streamer, DAC, pre-amp and so on.

Already we can hear the shouts of ‘Witchcraftery!’ but let your ears decide. We have a full demo set in the shop for testing and it’s one of the quickest, easiest and fairest comparative demonstrations you could ask for: play, stop, plug in GroundARAY, play again😊.

RRP for each GroundARAY is £550.

The GroundARAY is a next-generation high-frequency-noise-reduction device that connects to unused sockets on A/V equipment providing a low-impedance route for HF noise to pass through, directly improving the noise floor of the ‘host’ product.

Five separate ARAY systems address different high-frequency noise groups to dramatically reduce noise and hence improve musical performance from any product with Chord GroundARAY(s) in place.

The GroundARAY is a cylindrical design made from precision CNC-machined thick-walled aluminium; the thick walls themselves stop the device from contributing HF noise. Available in six termination options, including USB A, RCA and XLR, for a wide range of digital and analogue A/V devices, the GroundARAY benefits from five separate noise-reduction systems, all working across different HF noise ranges and operating in parallel to convert undesirable HF electrical noise into heat.

The advanced technologies provide a very low-impedance, high-bandwidth route for HF noise to pass into, effectively ‘pulling’ noise from the signal ground of the host equipment.

GroundARAY: built from the ground up

Each GroundARAY is painstakingly built by hand at Chord Company’s Wiltshire factory, including the system components themselves. The GroundARAY comprises a number of absorption devices, attached with a highly advanced double ultra-high-bandwidth connector system. The connectors are made to a very high standard, demanding time-consuming hand-assembly by factory technicians.

Each GroundARAY cylinder is filled with a carefully chosen material to deaden noise. The final assembly is then locked into place to reduce any effects from acoustic vibration.

GroundARAYs are most effective when used across several devices in an A/V system. The devices simply plug into existing empty sockets and can be used individually, or in multiples, such as across left and right outputs etc. With DACs and streamers, GroundARAYs can be used with unused digital inputs; projectors and screens can also benefit from the noise-reduction effects, too.