Shunyata Altaira Grounding Station ........has anybody purchased this new product ?

@holydean

I dug around Shunyata site and did not find where Calin talks about grounding with a bar of copper and 16 awg wire. Can you point it out. I have tried a few times in the past to make this type of install work. I have a 1/2" thick OFC copper bar I drilled and tapped to accept wires. I have used 10 awg bare copper, 14 awg bare copper, 20 awg dead soft silver wire, 20 awg dead soft silver wrapped in cotton with a mylar shield that is grounded on the bar end only. I never heard a thing with any configuration. I have bonded the bar to the ground system at my house with a dedicated bare copper #4 dropped 4 feet a ufer ground bonding my entire electrical system that reads about 4 ohms. Still heard nothing. I have taken the #4 and split bolted all the component ground wires I attached to the ground stud and still heard nothing.

In the video Caelin did mention you want the electrical system ground properly. I don’t feel loose ground wires behind your rack is what he is talking about. He is talking about the branch circuit grounds connections to the earth ground in the main panel.

I believe in ground boxes and will try one. Probably a Shunyata. I am up in the air on using Shunyata technology or Entreque. I have meet enough people who use ground boxes and believe they are a benefit. I have never met a person who uses a a ground box that has eliminated it from the electrical system. I have met people who have used one, then moved to another brand. But never have they decided a ground box is not an overall benefit. FWIW, If I put a meters on the ground stud of a component and touch other sections of the component, I always read stray voltage on the case. It can be up to a half a volt. I would assume a ground box dropping this type of stray voltage out of the system (if possible) would be a benefit. Honestly, I have no idea what a ground box does. If there is any measurable change that I could see with my tools. Per my grounding above, I did not measure any change. I will also note, the stray voltage riding on the case is constantly in flux rising and falling. It is never stable.  So its hard to measure.

What's your point Jea?

Jea, quit putting words in my mouth. I never said anything of the sort. I said people populate the internet with stories of ground wires to blocks of this and that and they make better music. I simply tried it myself, measured and heard nothing. It may be because I have excellent branch circuit wiring as well as service bonding to ground.

You also appear to be overly infatuated with ground as earth and seem to miss a lot of the rest of the equation. Have you ever been in a recording studio. Have you seen how they land their equipment. Its not on fancy wood stands. Its in a metal rack where the frames of all the equipment are bolted to said rack. And those racks have up to a 2/0 piece of copper that goes back to the earth ground. So why would someone in a home environment not think that lacking a metal rack to bond the case too, why not use a wire from ground stud to ground stud. Why did Magico make a very nice stand that also has a solid copper ground bar top to bottom. Maybe they are only talking vibrations.  I don't know.  Per Magico

A full-length pure copper grounding rod is featured on the MRACK which allows each shelf and component to be grounded and funnel noise away from the electronics.

https://www.magicoaudio.com/mrack

I don’t think its foolish or a waste of time for people to try ground enhancement technique in their own system. It could be someone has dirty cords, loose connections, mismatched branch wiring. All symptoms that may lead to ground loops. Who knows, maybe a common ground bond from stud to stud might reduce noise from those issues. Bring all the equipment to a more equal potential. I would not say that is a solution. Its more a band aid to me. But it may work for some.

I really only get pissed when people say to break the ground and put a loose rod in the yard. It may sound better. I will never know because I put life and safety above getting better sound. Otherwise, try what you want. It was not many years back the first ground boxes came out filled with Pixi Dust and people cried to the mountain tops it was all snake oil. You can’t drain noise!!!!!! Well, now even Shunyata has one. Did something fundamentally change about electricity. No. Some people just though about it in a different way other missed. Has Caelin published what he is doing. I don’t think so. I actually head him say he pots his technology in an epoxy you can not drill, chip or burn away to protect his technology from reverse engineering.

I watched an interesting ground box video today. Not released to the public yet. The author is very conscious to state its a controversial topic as most people have no idea how a ground box works. I have no idea myself. I have never heard a good reason either. If anything, I have heard good evidence why they should not work. Were supposed to believe you can suck stray electrons off something. This guy was actually saying it may, and I say may have something to do with altering the mass of the device so it absorb energy. He has no idea either. Just ether talk he hears.

And why would your system ground influence the performance of a ground box.  Why does Caelin say a good ground system at the house helps.   Are we to believe that once the box grabbed the electrons, its now going to willingly release them.  To where?  Earth.  I have at a job and at my house lifted the ground and heard nothing.  Of course this whole earth ground concept gets a little convoluted when you start to consider that the neutral from the utility is also a 0 potential ground.  Its better than the ground at your house.  That is how a clamp on ground resistance tester works.  It know the utility grid is made up of tens of thousands of grounds.  There is a ground dropped at every transformer across the city and country.  They are all tied together .  Walk the line and look.  The neutral never breaks.  The phases are split every 5 or 6 houses.  The earth resistance meter injects a signal into the ground wire and does a calculation based upon the utility being 0, so everything else is your earth ground. 

So lifting your house ground is only loosing one ok ground.  You still have a 0 ohm ground from the utility.  If you lift the utility ground, all heck breaks loose.  You may light your house on fire.  I have done clean up after a utility neutral broke at a clients house out at the pole.  He lost a few appliances.  His door bell transformer burned to a crisp.  Lucky his house did not go up in flames.  Literally.  

The part I found interesting was his experience. They are a lot of money for little gain. Like, he thinks he hears it. He’s pretty sure he hears it. But he is also very aware of conscious bias. I just spent blablabla amount of money. Its got to be great.

I know there are other areas related to your electrical supply that make much more audible and unmistakable changes to equipment performance. I think his video solidified a statement I heard from another well know member of the audiophile community. Ground boxes are a finishing touch. When all else is done, go ahead and try a box. That person has about 4 or 5 in his system.

I got off the phone with a client yesterday.  He went through the entire process I specify.  He reworked his grounding, panels, subpanels, branch wires.  He got rid of as much aluminum as he could.  He did it all accept for install an isolation transformer.  After he finished the work he tried an Altaira.  He heard nothing, so he returned it.

I have had other clients do the same, rework their electrical.  When done, they get rid of filters they plug into the wall.  Not all of them.  Some.  A few filter in particular go, and a few stay. 

Reworking your electrical can be as expensive as a component.  And you can't remove it and sell it for 40% of what you spent on it.  But I believe it is the foundation of all audio based music.  It is as necessary as a speaker, amp and source.  If you are missing any one of the 4, you don't have a functional audio reproduction system.   You can live without everything else.  You don't need a stand, room, footers, ground box, filter.  You don't need any of it.   

If I was  spending $$$ to upgrade my audio performance, I would put a ground box as very low on the list of to do.  I would put optimizing your electrical up there with speaker and room.  It’s a very audible change the investment.   I would put an isolation transformer in well before a ground box.  They cost close to the same or less when you start adding in all the ground cables.