Ataira CG in a Modest System - An Assessment

[jimtranr]

I’m blown away. Totally. Utterly. Irretrievably.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself. Early this year, after wading through an avalanche of laudatory online commentary on the sensory magic bestowed on audio systems by the Shunyata Altaira grounding system, I decided to get in on the fun—even though I thought it could be a crapshoot. My system’s equipment is modest at best (the power amp, for example, is 23 years old, while the source is an old Dell i7 laptop that plays program material ranging from CD rips to high-resolution downloads stored on a 6 TB external drive), and my “reference” listening room is an 11’x13’x7’8” bedroom fully furnished as such (images #1 and #2). At that, both acoustic treatment and Shunyata power products have—as indicated in a number of assessments I’ve posted here—progressively rendered the space a more enjoyable, close-to-tactile listening environment. But, given the equipment and space limitations, could I achieve anything approaching the nirvana implied by the raves I’d read?





The answer would have to wait. In January’s third week, a middle-of-the-night out-of-nowhere stomach ache triggered a series of medical events and procedures that effectively knocked me out of action for five months. I finally ordered an Altaira CG chassis grounding hub, two one-meter Venom CGC/SGC grounding cables (for source and DAC) and one one-meter Alpha grounding cable (for the Altaira-to-Delta D6 power distributor connection) from Ivan in mid-August. But not before I did the requisite homework to make sure a ground connection was feasible on both my TEAC DAC and the Dell laptop.

The DAC does not contain a ground lug on its chassis, so I had to determine if I could find a chassis rear-panel screw that (1) my Fluke 117 DMM could confirm had electrical continuity with the ground pin on the unit’s IEC AC input, (2) did not hold any internal components in place, and (3) was long enough to maintain secure physical contact with the chassis with the ground cable’s spade connector beneath the screw head. I got a “yes” on all three.



Placing one Fluke lead on the ground shell of the Dell’s AC input and the other on an unused USB port’s shell likewise registered zero ohms. So with continuity established, I could connect the laptop to the Altaira. Since I already had a USB-A connector attached to a garden-variety ground cable from a project I never got around to pursuing, I decided to hold off on ordering a Shunyata USB-A ground tail right away and would try instead to wrap that connector’s 16-gauge strands around the neck of the spade connector of a Venom CGC/SGC cable when it arrived to see how much, if any, improvement I could hear with the laptop connected to the chassis hub. Yeah, I know, a squirrelly connection, but...

The Altaira and its cables arrived on August 31st. Space around here is cramped, so I set the hub atop the Delta power distributor, as shown here. (A lot of red oak is hiding out in the basement workshop, so I’ll build a tailored-to-fit-the-environment “Shunyata rack” to house them properly.)





The image above diagrams the system’s signal path and its ground connections. Note that I conducted my initial listening tests with just the DAC ground-connected, as I wanted to see if, and to what extent, a single Altaira connection effected a sonic improvement that merited even a sliver of the fulsome praise accorded the ground connection system in numerous online-forum assessments and published reviews.

I didn’t have long to wait. I’d barely clicked “Play” on the Leonard Bernstein-conducted New York Philharmonic’s romp through the “March to the Scaffold” movement of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (SBM’d 16/44, Columbia/Sony) and hurried back to my edge-of-the-bed listening “chair” when the drumbeat-punctuated ambiance of Philharmonic Hall swallowed me damned near whole. In that instant I couldn’t help but emulate Victor Frankenstein: “It’s ALIVE! It’s ALIVE!”

If you’ve read any of my previous assessments here of Shunyata power and cable products, you know that each iteration I’ve installed in this system has improved, often to a significant degree, my engagement with the music, its performers, and whatever the recording producers and mixing engineers have seen fit to fashion as the performance space. In the current instance, forget “significant degree”. It’s insufficient to convey the magnitude of the speaker-walls-and-ceiling disappearing act—and all that trails in its wake--concocted by just a single Venom spade-to-banana connection to the Altaira, which in turn feeds the ground terminal on an early-production-run Delta D6 power distributor via an Alpha spade-to-banana ground cable.

My initial impression and all of the listening that’s followed has defined the Altaira system (yes, cables matter) as a powerful decontaminant that removes an enormous amount of previously-unperceived sludge lurking in the air that constitutes the empty space—nooks, crannies, and all--of the performance venue embedded in a given recording. Decongesting that space allows musical instruments and voices to breathe more freely, and in so doing to more accurately and distinctly convey—individually and ensemble-wise--their tonality, timbre, dimensionality, location, dynamic nuance and scale, and attack and decay. The performance space itself appears more expansive in all directions, more tactile, and freer of the boundaries set by the speaker plane and walls, ceiling, and floor. Bass punch, growl, and scored rumble emerge out of a lower noise floor. So do brass sonority, high-frequency percussion sparkle and filigree, and transient attack, whether in solo or en masse. With the Altaira installed in my system as described here, these effects are neither subtle nor even “significant degree”. In many instances, it’s a case of “the performers have burst into the room” to a degree I didn’t believe achievable given the limitations of equipment and listening space here.

That sensory perception has held true with virtually everything I’ve played since Berlioz’ hero’s journey to the scaffold. A representative, though by no means exhaustive, sample of the listening fare: José Carreras and company performing Ariel Ramirez’ Missa Criolla (Philips, 16/44); the ribald jocularity of the stage version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Bay Cities, 16/44); the delicate pluck-and-strum of Carlos Barbosa-Lima’s and Sharon Isbin’s guitars on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Luisa” (Brazil with Love, Concord, 16/44); the massed Turtle Creek Chorale intoning Leonard Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” (Testament, Reference Recordings, 16/44); the lively jazz session that is Henry Mancini’s soundtrack for TV’s Peter Gunn (RCA, DSD64); the heartfelt duet “Scuoti quella...” rendered by Mirella Freni and Christa Ludwig in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Decca/London 24/96); the snap-crackle-and-pop of Malcolm Arnold’s cheeky “Beckus the Dandipratt” (Arnold: Beckus the Dandipratt, Dances and Sinfonietta No. 1, Lyrita, 24/192); Fredericka von Stade silly-grin-singing the deliciously unsanitized lyrics of Rodgers’ and Hart’s “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” (My Funny Valentine, EMI, 16/44); and the explosive pulsing punch of the first movement of Robert Ward’s Symphony No. 2, William Strickland conducting the Japan Philharmonic (Ward, Symphony No. 2, CRI/Citadel, 24-bit remastered analog downsampled to 16/44).

And adding the laptop via its current jury-rigged USB connection? The background is even blacker, everything from tonality to dynamic scale is even more pronounced, and the illusion of “being there” even more palpable. It will be interesting to see—make that “hear”--what happens when the VTX Ag ground tail arrives.

You’re probably wondering why the fixed-power-cord conrad-johnson power amp has yet to be included in the ground connection mix. It’s a 56-pound beast that requires a lot of effort and the unhooking of a lot of other equipment in order to haul out of its out-of-the-way cabinet nook. So I’m not anxious to disturb it yet, especially since its chassis screws—assuming continuity is there--are less accommodating to connection than the DAC’s. But I’ll get there at some point.

In any event—and I don’t mean to be hyperbolic here—installing the Altaira has had an unexpectedly profound effect on the listening experience afforded by my modest system. Enough so that I’ve just ordered Alpha ground cables for the DAC and laptop connections. I'll be interested in hearing what they do, too.

Oh, and thanks, Ivan, for making possible a listening experience that is that much more enjoyable. Profoundly so.

[btn2803]

Hi Jim,
Congrats! Thanks for sharing your experience with the Altaira.
I have just upgraded by 6000T to v2, and the improvement is quite significant. I am debating about getting an Altaira but reading your post is very compelling to get one!
Thanh

[Masterlu]

Jim… the Pleasure is all mine!

[Masterlu]

Great write up, and visuals too Jim.

As a reminder, buying your Altaira from me gets you a 100% satisfaction guarantee in your own system for 30 days, or your money back.

Also, aside from my knowledge and expertise in using the Altaira; you will also get customer support like you never experienced before.

Lastly, being an AA Subscriber will also save you money on every single purchase.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by btn2803

Hi Jim,
Congrats! Thanks for sharing your experience with the Altaira.
I have just upgraded by 6000T to v2, and the improvement is quite significant. I am debating about getting an Altaira but reading your post is very compelling to get one!
Thanh

Thanks, Thanh. And congratulations on your 6000T upgrade. If you do go the Altaira route, I'll be interested in your take on what it brings to the table in your system.

[Vintage Pete]

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Vintage Pete

Pete… you’re next!

[Vintage Pete]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Pete… you’re next!

Ivan.....that's a fact.

[jimtranr]

Case in point: Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Suite from his film score for On the Waterfront, the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic in a 1960 release by Columbia, and produced by Howard H. Scott, in my humble opinion the best of that label’s classical producers.

The score is alternately violent--even, as notated in one section, barbaric--and poignant, with frequent barrages of fiercely pulsing bass percussion and vast dynamic swings. Recorded in Manhattan Center, it is to my ears one of the best-sounding Columbia classicals of that period in large part because Scott seems to have milked everything he could out of the venue’s acoustic, leaving no cranny unturned. As a consequence, this recording (most often paired with Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, produced by John McClure) has always been a soundstage demo staple because of its soundfield’s apparent left-to-right and fore-to-aft spaciousness. In recent years, I’ve listened to it in 24/192 and DSD64 incarnations that preserved that acoustic fingerprint.

Color me stunned upon listening to, first, its DSD64 iteration, and then the 24/192 version, after installing the Altaira with both the laptop and DAC ground connections. In both instances, Manhattan Center bloomed into the room vastly expanded in breadth, depth, and height, its hologrammic (yeah, I know that’s not a word I could find in my Oxford American, either, but...) soundfield populated with individual instruments pinpointed precisely in space and dimensionality and outputting more full-bodied tonality and, where called for, dynamic slam. (That bass percussion has become a real gut punch.) Previously unperceived microdynamics and subtle instrumental nuance emerged suddenly out of a lower noise floor, and I felt like I was breathing Manhattan Center--electronic, transducer, and physical boundaries be damned.

I can’t say I mind being grounded.

[Puma Cat]

Absolutely superb write-up, Jim. Well done.

I've said it before, but I would go down on the specification/model of the preamp or DAC if required to put those funds towards an Altaira for the system. It's that foundational.