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

Kingrex said:

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.

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I have bonded the bar to the ground system at my house with a dedicated bare copper #4 dropped 4 feet "to" a ufer ground bonding my entire electrical system that reads about 4 ohms. Still heard nothing.

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a ufer ground bonding my entire electrical system that reads about 4 ohms.

My point?

Are you saying that EMI current can be drained, diverted, to the Earth? Where’s the circuit? Through the Earth, to where? It has to return to the source doesn’t it?

 

Henry Ott, Myths:

6. An earth ground is unidirectional, with current only flowing into the ground. False, because current must flow in loops, any current that flows into the ground must also flow out of the ground somewhere else

 

Somewhere else? Back to the source?...

Why would the EMI current travel through the ufer ground, (concrete-encased electrode), to the earth to get back to the source when it can travel through the #4CU conductor, (Grounding Electrode Conductor), that connects the ufer ground to the Grounded Conductor in the service equipment panel?

 

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After watching the Gabriel interview video I posted above, here is my understanding of how the Shunyata Altaira Ground System works,

 

Each of the two Shunyata ground filter boxes has 7 grounding posts. 1 thru 6 are for audio equipment connections. The 7th ground post, identified CGC, is for connecting the common clean ground bus of one filter box to another Shunyata ground box. The identified ground post is also used to connect the CGC ground post to a reference ground of the building AC power system. (Therein the EGC contact on a wall outlet or an insulated IG conductor installed back to the System Ground of the electrical service. (The final point of connection being the electrical service Grounded Conductor.)

 

Each of the 6 grounding posts for the audio equipment are connected to individual EMI noise filters. (Therein each grounding post has its own filter. The other end of each filter is connected to a common ground bus. Supposedly there will not be any EMI on the (filtered) clean ground bus.

All of the audio equipment (grounds) are connected together by the clean ground bus... The identified CGC ground post is also connected to the clean ground bus.

 

The EMI filtering takes place in the Shunyata ground filter system box... Mother Earth is not involved.

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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.

@kingrex Said:

Jea, quit putting words in my mouth. I never said anything of the sort.

Please provide the quote(s) from my post(s) where I did...

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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.

The Shunyata Altaira Ground System uses actual noise suppression filtering electrical components inside each the two boxes. Not pixie dust, not iron fillings, not dirt taken from the deepest parts of the earth, but actual electrical component noise filters.

In the video I posted above in this thread Gabriel explains the noise filters used in the system, and how they are connected.

 

Earth Ground,... can be confusing. If you look an electrical wiring diagram for the electrical system of an automobile you will see the earth ground symbol used at various places in the diagram. We all know an automobile electrical system does not have a connection to mother earth. Same for a Laptop computer. If you were to look at a wiring diagram for a typical laptop computer you will see the earth ground symbol used.

The F-35 Lightning II Jet Fighter has probably one of the most sophisticated electronics systems in the world. No doubt Faraday shielding and noise filtering galore, but no connection to mother earth.

 

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.

0 potential referenced point measured to where? Maybe in the sphere around the ground rod.

The Utility power transformer neutral, (The Grounded Conductor), is connected to mother earth again at the electrical service of the house.

 

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.

And the high voltage power Line neutral, (Grounded Conductor), is also connected to the step down Utility isolation Transformer’s secondary center tapped neutral. Both are connected to mother earth by the ground wire.

 

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 the 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.

Yeah, an open neutral conductor connection can cause big problems on a 3 wire split phase power system. Same thing can happen on a 3 wire multiwire branch circuit used inside the home. Another good reason not feed audio equipment using a 3 wire multiwire branch circuit.

One thing that should be made clear for the laymen reading this thread. The neutral, (The Grounded Conductor), is an intentionally grounded current carrying conductor.

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Here is a White Paper Worth reading:

https://www.fullcompass.com/common/files/5644-PowerandGroundingforAudioandAudioVisualSystems.pdf

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