Shunyata Launches - ALTAIRA GROUNDING SYSTEM!!

Not to blindside you, but Music Lovers, out here in the BayArea, received training quite some time ago (visited by by Shunyata). I listened to the Altaira initially the middle of August at their store, and was impressed enough that a number of weeks ago we began testing at my home with a couple of SG and CG and quite the collection of cables. It’s been a revealing slog that’s nearing its end, I hope.
 
stevebythebay said:
Not to blindside you, but Music Lovers, out here in the BayArea, received training quite some time ago (visited by by Shunyata). I listened to the Altaira initially the middle of August at their store, and was impressed enough that a number of weeks ago we began testing at my home with a couple of SG and CG and quite the collection of cables. It’s been a revealing slog that’s nearing its end, I hope.
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If you refer back to the visit from Caelin a few months ago (posted here), we received the same initial training, but it wasn’t finalized. We’ve also had the grounding systems since January to boot. However, we thought it prudent to not start Willy nilly running around to customers trying the grounding system until the training was fully finalized and we were certified.

With regard to your situation, my guess is that Spectral and grounding aren’t a good match.


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Mike said:
If you refer back to the visit from Caelin a few months ago (posted here), we received the same initial training, but it wasnÂ’t finalized. WeÂ’ve also had the grounding systems since January to boot. However, we thought it prudent to not start Willy nilly running around to customers trying the grounding system until the training was fully finalized and we were certified.

With regard to your situation, my guess is that Spectral and grounding arenÂ’t a good match.


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OK. I wasn’t a party to the particulars, so I don’t know about any “certification”. Just that Grant came down to the dealership and did extensive training within the past month or so. And I’d been communicating with members of their team since Richard happened to broach this project over a year ago. So, I’m a bit of a quasi beta customer, I suppose.

You bet about Spectral. Seems Keith Johnson had already dealt with grounding in the Spectral design, to an extent that precludes any mucking with “outsider” components.
 
ack said:
I just wish I could find a really, really good cheater plug. Will steer clear from grounding solutions like the Altaira.
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If it weren’t for the fact that you would easily be able to return this within 30 days, I wouldn’t post a link to this. I’m dubious but I have no doubt you’d give it a fair shake were you to try one yourself.
 
stevebythebay said:
A nasty surprise awaited us when attempting to connect the Spectral preamp to the Altaira. Turning on one of the mono block amps resulted in a noise I do not wish to hear again. So, do not think about messing with Spectral’s ground! They have their own highly sensitive “ecosystem”.
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Excellent and very helpful report, Steve. Would you clarify though that you were specifically talking about signal grounding with Spectral? I can’t imagine that things would go amiss with chassis grounding but I just wanted to make sure.

As far as the EtherRegen, I imagined it would benefit so thanks for confirming. At present this is the only thing I have connected to the CGS terminal on my Denali v1. I need to provide it with a better ground cable though.
 
kennyb123 said:
If it weren’t for the fact that you would easily be able to return this within 30 days, I wouldn’t post a link to this. I’m dubious but I have no doubt you’d give it a fair shake were you to try one yourself.
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That's just a cheap Leviton with folded metal prongs, with a fancy sticker on it
 
ack said:
That's just a cheap Leviton with folded metal prongs, with a fancy sticker on it
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Yeah it sure looks that way. But do their enhancements make it into something better is the question. Not something to be answered in this thread so I’ll just leave it at that. Plus, if I was stuck having to use a cheater, I’d probably arrange to have a Leviton put through the QSA process.
 
kennyb123 said:
Yeah it sure looks that way. But do their enhancements make it into something better is the question. Not something to be answered in this thread so I’ll just leave it at that. Plus, if I was stuck having to use a cheater, I’d probably arrange to have a Leviton put through the QSA process.
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Here are the only cheater plugs that I have found sporting true solid prongs with a very firm grip https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TXMFRY2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I have tested at least half a dozen plugs over the years
 
kennyb123 said:
Excellent and very helpful report, Steve. Would you clarify though that you were specifically talking about signal grounding with Spectral? I can’t imagine that things would go amiss with chassis grounding but I just wanted to make sure.

As far as the EtherRegen, I imagined it would benefit so thanks for confirming. At present this is the only thing I have connected to the CGS terminal on my Denali v1. I need to provide it with a better ground cable though.
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After testing my Spectral preamp with the multimeter and verifying it was a candidate for using the Altaira SG we tested as I'd previously indicated, with a less than happy result. Given that it seems Spectral equipment is such an odd "edge" case for grounding, as evidenced by the need to float mono block amp inputs (and this dates back to my prior experience with earlier mono block and their 260 stereo amp), it should not have come as such a surprise that this combination of preamp and amps act in concert to mitigate such ground related issues on their own. As I said before, the designer, Keith Johnson, must have worked quite diligently on this and other aspects all along. And its part and parcel of their demand that customers follow their guidance in using specified speaker and interconnect cabling from MIT that they worked on with Bruce Brisson, as well as MIT power cabling. I wouldn't have stuck with their gear all these years if I didn't believe in what they are doing, and of course the sonic results.

As for other equipment I know about that have successfully mated with the Altaira CG and SG components, they've included top end tube and solid state stereo amps with no issues and solid results

Glad to hear you've experienced success with the etherREGEN and Denali. Others who've used the SG with the etherREGEN have remarked as well on the big impact Altaira has made in their system.

I urge anyone, who's interested in improving their system, to consider engaging their Shunyata dealer, once they've received approval from the company, to first listen at the dealer location. If they're satisfied with what they are hearing, have the dealer bring out the requisite Altaira components and cabling to see how they could perform in their home system.
 
stevebythebay said:
After testing my Spectral preamp with the multimeter and verifying it was a candidate for using the Altaira SG we tested as I'd previously indicated, with a less than happy result.
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Steve, did the dealer try the same thing at his store first, with his own Spectral gear? And was that successful?
 
I don't believe they did so. I know only that the system that they set up for their own testing, which I was privy to a few weeks back, was cordoned off to keep out the "riffraff", so to speak. It was a nice test environment using some high end gear fed by a Roon Nucleus. The only thing I was certain of was that they believed strongly that the Spectral mono blocks were off limits for Altaira. I don't think they had any idea that trying to bring in the preamp would be problematic. That's why testing is so, so important in this arena. At least we discovered this particular situation so other Spectral customers won't need to. Or if they dare try, they'll at the very least, take caution.
 
stevebythebay said:
The only thing I was certain of was that they believed strongly that the Spectral mono blocks were off limits for Altaira. I don't think they had any idea that trying to bring in the preamp would be problematic.
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Thanks. The amps have a couple of internal grounds, so this is not surprising. Spectral have been working on their own ground approach for over a decade now - or so I am told
 
ack said:
Thanks. The amps have a couple of internal grounds, so this is not surprising. Spectral have been working on their own ground approach for over a decade now - or so I am told
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Guess you've got an insider or two at Spectral. Or you've peeked inside the amps. Anyway, that's consistent with its behavior. I've typically found that when components are internally grounded, they do not use 3 prong connections to the wall receptacle at all. But then this may simply be done for absolute safety. Yet it usually creates problems - in the form of the rather nasty hum we get. Yet these are, after all, very high bandwidth devices, probably capable of reproducing the original Big Bang given the right atmospherics 😂
 
Here's what my dealer has told me: The grounding system in the 500 Anniversary mono blocks is VERY specific. There are several ways to implement this circuit if it is required. You are currently hooked up for optimum grounding as your system, when installed, did not exhibit any grounding issues.
 
The bright side is that 2 out of 3 Spectral dealers in the US are also Shunyata dealers. So, I guess they won't be pairing Spectral + Shunyata. At least this grounding system.

It's a shame MIT doesn't have a more competitive Power Product. That plus the recently released 2C3D power cables might be more ideal for Spectral's system approach.

Even the Spectral manuals recommend (but don’t require) MIT power products.

Anyways, will be interesting how this Altaira competes with other grounding solutions.
 
Mike, are top Luxman self grounding gear (e.g., D-10X, M-10X) that don't have power cord ground pins able to take advantage of this technology?
 
GSOphile said:
Mike, are top Luxman self grounding gear (e.g., D-10X, M-10X) that don't have power cord ground pins able to take advantage of this technology?
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Their power amps and preamps like the M-10X and C-900u have a signal ground connection binding post, but the D-10X doesn't appear to.
 
Waiting on official word before responding.


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GSOphile said:
Mike, are top Luxman self grounding gear (e.g., D-10X, M-10X) that don't have power cord ground pins able to take advantage of this technology?
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“If they don’t have the IEC ground pin then they cannot be grounded by way of Altaira, at least conventionally. The continuity work sheet has this ground pin question as one of the first. So for now, Luxman is a no.”


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