What's the better option on a dedicated ground?
 

What's the better option on a dedicated ground? A dedicated yet redundant ground, such as adding a ground rod in the crawl space under the outlet for all my electronics.... but it is still connected to the ground via my subpanel.

Or an isolated ground, I add a new ground rod for my electronics, but I disconnect the outlet's ground from the subpanel.

One small problem is the retrofitted grounds can not go the proper depth, there isn't 8 foot height in the crawl to go straight down. I can only go diagonal so the rod is more like 5 foot deep estimated.

How do I test the ground to see what's better in a scientific way?

I added a new ground to my subpanel and it made such a huge difference I thought I'd add one more.

DON'T do a separate ground. It may even be against your electrical codes.

A ground rod in a crawl space probably will not have good grounding characteristics either because the soil will be somewhat drier than outdoor locations. Dry soil will not conduct well.

Your cold water pipe is probably your best ground.

Originally the main panel is grounded, and there is also a cold water ground, and the basement subpanel was grounded to the main but I was still getting ground noise. My electrician said that electricity likes to go to the ground (earth) and it likes to take the shortest path/least resistance. I suppose ground noise didn't like to go upstairs and a few hundred feet away because when I added an extra ground to the subpanel, it killed a ton of noise, but I had a huge noise problem. Since I had some audiophile outlets installed with a dedicated 10 gauge line and a 20 amp breaker I thought I'd go a step further and improve ground with either isolation or redundancy.

I'll ask my electrician to review the code, he's related to a master electrician that should be able to research code better. Your tip is appreciated. I definitely won't do a separate isolated ground now, but I'll research the code on having extra ground rods. I don't want to jeopardize future home inspections when I try to sell my house.

+1. US NEC says all grounds must be tied together at the service panel.

Poke around this site. This guy has done the Warner and Capitol recording studios.

http://www.ground1.com/whitepaper1.htm

My electrician doesn't see why it's a problem, but he's going to ask the inspector for me anyway. Thanks guys.

I poked around the site, WOW.

Installation of the year is amazing. I cant imagine the budget for it.