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

@garebear

I for one am looking forward to your review of the Shunyata Altaira Grounding Station.

I watched the video below and found Gabriel’s explanation of how it works makes sense to me.

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This from another thread I posted here on Agon: (Edited)

What I know about the Shunyata ALTRAIRA Ground System I learned from watching the video below. What Gabriel has built, and his explanation of how it works, makes sense to me. He uses individual filters that are connected, to each ground post on the back of the box that are then connected to a common ground conductor. So all the filtered grounding posts are connected together.

He has two boxes. One for the Chassis ground and one the signal circuit ground. NOTE no where in the video does he promote floating, disconnecting, the EGC from any audio equipment that uses it. If fact, as I remember from watching the video, He says, and rightly so, the electrical service connection to mother earth is for lightning protection. Not for, shunting, diverting, noise to earth...

He didn’t fully explain, unless I missed it, how he treats the chassis of Class II double insulated audio equipment where an EGC is not used. That equipment is different... That equipment the Signal ground and DC B -, is connected directly to the chassis. One mistake I caught was him saying that tube equipment designers connect the signal ground and DC B - directly to the chassis. That’s not true. Some might, but not all.

What I did find interesting, if true, is that some equipment designers dump the noise the rectifier(s) make in the DC power supply(s) and SMPS onto the chassis. That would corrupts all the audio equipment as I see it. Maybe Gabriel could show them designers of audio equipment how to install a filter between the signal ground, DC B - , and chassis. That would solve a lot problems.

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.......I think that is why you need to use a ; Multimeter first to check to see if there is continuity between components so that these grounding units will actually do their proposed job.  

@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.

The System Ground, therein Mother Earth connection is not involved. The Earth does not possess some magical mystical power that sucks nasties from an audio system.

Please provide any credible evidence that says it does...

The main purpose of the System Ground is for lightning protection.

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Grounding Myths

From Henry W. Ott’s book, "Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering"

3.1.7 Grounding Myths

More myths exist relating to the field of grounding than any other area of electrical engineering. The more common of these are as follows:

1. The earth is a low-impedance path for ground current. False, the impedance of the earth is orders of magnitude greater than the impedance of a copper conductor.

2. The earth is an equipotential. False, this is clearly not true by the result of (1 above).

3. The impedance of a conductor is determined by its resistance. False, what happened to the concept of inductive reactance?

4. To operate with low noise, a circuit or system must be connected to an earth ground. False, because airplanes, satellites, cars and battery powered laptop computers all operate fine without a ground connection. As a mater of fact, an earth ground is more likely to be the cause of noise problem. More electronic system noise problems are resolved by removing (or isolating) a circuit from earth ground than by connecting it to earth ground.

5. To reduce noise, an electronic system should be connected to a separate “quiet ground” by using a separate, isolated ground rod. False, in addition to being untrue, this approach is dangerous and violates the requirements of the NEC (electrical code/rules).

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.

7. An isolated AC power receptacle is not grounded. False, the term “isolated” refers only to the method by which a receptacle is grounded, not if it is grounded.

8. A system designer can name ground conductors by the type of the current that they should carry (i.e., signal, power, lightning, digital, analog, quiet, noisy, etc.), and the electrons will comply and only flow in the appropriately designated conductors. Obviously false."

Henry W. Ott

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Read the writings, White Papers, on Earth Grounding by,

Henry W Ott

Ralph Morrison

Bill Whitlock

Neil A Muncy

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What's your point Jea?