Pro-Ject Ground-It Deluxe Product Review

Accessories in Hi-Fi have for some time now been regarded as being "snake oil". A means for businesses to make money from a know nothing consumer. Profit has, in recent years almost become a dirty word to the general public, but what they often don't take into account is if a business doesn't make a profit, it can't stay in business, simple. Hi-Fi stores are not immune.

I'm not here to discuss that, however, but more whether or not certain accessories can actually make a difference. 

Enter the Pro-Ject Ground-It Deluxe 1.

The best way to describe this is a big, heavy slab. As I unpacked it and removed it from its box, I could hear small granules moving around inside of it.  Setup is pretty straight forward. It comes fitted with rubber isolation feet and is also packaged with spiked feet and cups for them to sit in, protecting your cabinet/rack from damage.

I chose to set the Ground-It up using the spiked feet.

One of the key parts to getting the most out of your hi-fi is isolation. The less interference from the original source to the speakers, the purer the sound, and this is the idea with the Ground-It.

Many people, including myself, tend to have their rack/cabinet located between their speakers, but as I discovered for myself, there tends to be a lot of audible energy floating around the front wall between the speakers. 

Every piece of isolation that I have since added has made a significant difference for the better.

For example, my cabinet has a tempered glass top shelf, but an MDF lower shelf. Now, moving my DAC from the top shelf to the lower noticeably improved the imaging from that component. 

I even went as far as to craft my own acoustic panels (they aren't too much to buy, but I'm quite handy and figured I could save myself some dollars), and initially I located them directly behind the speakers. I found though as I played with their positioning, that they seemed to make the most positive difference the closer I placed them behind my components.

The Ground-It is yet another device I have now added to help. The turntable I use is the Marantz designed, Clearaudio manufactured TT-15s1. This turntable comes with large, weighty feet, but even with those and my acoustic panels situated nearby, I found that the Ground-It still seemed to lower the noise floor.

My first test was with Dire Straits self titled LP, from their recent remastered boxset. That was a fairly new addition to my collection, the record is very clean and has very little hiss, with the Ground-It it had even less. The sounds of the guitars springing to life seemed to come up from complete silence.

The next test LP was Paul Simon's Graceland 25th Anniversary release. This one is a little older and has a bit more hiss, crackles and pops. Even so, listening to the vocals coming to life from the track 'Homeless', was further proof that all I was hearing was what was meant to be there. No extra bits added, simply the recording as it was meant to be.

I switched over to something with a completely different feel, The XX' self titled album. This record is beautifully produced and has some really sweet moments. Listening to the beginning of 'VCR', Romy's vocal comes in dead centre and again from a black background.

I really started to crank up the volume dial during 'Crystallised' and there was still nothing. No negative impact, nothing effecting the systems performance. Just sweet sounds coming from a black background.

Personally, I'm starting to grow quite fond of accessories. Every one I have added to my system has benefitted it
in a positive manner and helped to bring more out of it.

The question from here is not whether or not the Ground-It Deluxe actually makes a difference, in my system it most certainly did. It's more a case of whether or not it will be worth the $499 asking price to you for your system. That I'm afraid is something only you yourself are capable of answering.

Brand: Pro-Ject

Model: Ground-It Deluxe 1

RRP: AU $499 

Local Distributor: 

International Dynamics

www.interdyn.com.au

Associated Equipment:

Marantz TT-15s1

Pro-Ject Tube Box DS

Roksan Kandy K2 Integrated Amplifier

KEF R500 Speakers

Chord Chameleon VEE3 RCA Interconnects