Ataira CG in a Modest System - An Assessment

[jimtranr]

It will be a while before I attempt to wrestle the c-j MF2500 out of the bedroom audio system's equipment cabinet (84 years, after all, connotes a lot of already-incurred backbreaking mileage) to determine the feasibility of connecting it to the Altaira chassis ground hub. But in the meantime, the upgrading of a pair of Venom CGC/SGC ground cables to Alphas left me with two spare Venoms. And since nature abhors a vacuum...

My TEAC UD-505 DAC is a dual-monaural design and, as shown in the first photo, includes an unused set of RCA-jacked analog LINE IN inputs on its rear panel. A Fluke-conducted continuity check of the shell of each jack came up "0". So, the addled brain asked, would grounding those inputs produce any sonic benefit? The hub, you understand, is a CG, not an SG, the DAC's chassis is already Altaira'd (don't mind me, I love to mangle the English language), and you're not running a segmented system. So what can you possibly expect if you...

Only one way to find out. So I ordered a pair of RCA-terminated VTX-Ag ground tails and a pair of STIS v3 banana plugs to facilitate the adapters' connection to the spare Venom ground cables from Ivan. Within 10 minutes of their arrival, I had everything connected and ready to rhumba, as shown in the second photo.





It took only a few seconds after the start of the first test selection, "Konchak's Aria" from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (Emil Tchakarov conducting the Sofia Festival Orchestra, Sony, 16/44 rip), to arch my eyebrows. Soloist Nicolai Ghiaruov had morphed from well-defined image to palpable presence, his voice stripped of multiple layers of electronic gauze. Previously-masked tonal and dynamic nuance piggybacked on the new iteration of detailed clarity, drawing me further into the performance and the emotion Ghiaurov put into it. The same sensation occurred with Sarah Vaughan's performance of a Porgy and Bess medley in her live outing with MTT and the L.A. Philharmonic (Gershwin Live, CBS/Sony, 16/44 rip).

Then I started noticing the more nuanced attack and decay of tympani strikes and string articulation and the filigree of high-frequency percussion and the teasing out of subtle spatial cues as I ran the Aurender ragged trying to convince myself that I wasn't hearing things. I was, of course, (and I still am). But the "things" were--and are--substantive improvements in the sonic presentation.

Damn.

[Masterlu]

Jim… Outstanding!

[Formerly YB-2]

It continues to amaze my skeptical ears (brain?) just how much of an improvement the Shunyata power cords & grounding system improved the SQ of my system, especially the digital end of things. If you have not tried, you owe it to yourself to do so.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

It will be a while before I attempt to wrestle the c-j MF2500 out of the bedroom audio system's equipment cabinet (84 years, after all, connotes a lot of already-incurred backbreaking mileage) to determine the feasibility of connecting it to the Altaira chassis ground hub. But in the meantime, the upgrading of a pair of Venom CGC/SGC ground cables to Alphas left me with two spare Venoms. And since nature abhors a vacuum...

My TEAC UD-505 DAC is a dual-monaural design and, as shown in the first photo, includes an unused set of RCA-jacked analog LINE IN inputs on its rear panel. A Fluke-conducted continuity check of the shell of each jack came up "0". So, the addled brain asked, would grounding those inputs produce any sonic benefit? The hub, you understand, is a CG, not an SG, the DAC's chassis is already Altaira'd (don't mind me, I love to mangle the English language), and you're not running a segmented system. So what can you possibly expect if you...

Only one way to find out. So I ordered a pair of RCA-terminated VTX-Ag ground tails and a pair of STIS v3 banana plugs to facilitate the adapters' connection to the spare Venom ground cables from Ivan. Within 10 minutes of their arrival, I had everything connected and ready to rhumba, as shown in the second photo.





It took only a few seconds after the start of the first test selection, "Konchak's Aria" from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (Emil Tchakarov conducting the Sofia Festival Orchestra, Sony, 16/44 rip), to arch my eyebrows. Soloist Nicolai Ghiaruov had morphed from well-defined image to palpable presence, his voice stripped of multiple layers of electronic gauze. Previously-masked tonal and dynamic nuance piggybacked on the new iteration of detailed clarity, drawing me further into the performance and the emotion Ghiaurov put into it. The same sensation occurred with Sarah Vaughan's performance of a Porgy and Bess medley in her live outing with MTT and the L.A. Philharmonic (Gershwin Live, CBS/Sony, 16/44 rip).

Then I started noticing the more nuanced attack and decay of tympani strikes and string articulation and the filigree of high-frequency percussion and the teasing out of subtle spatial cues as I ran the Aurender ragged trying to convince myself that I wasn't hearing things. I was, of course, (and I still am). But the "things" were--and are--substantive improvements in the sonic presentation.

Damn.

Yup. And...if you connected a couple of CGCs to a pair of unused RCAs to your Axiom pre, you'd obtain still more improvement.

And...even more improvement when you finally wrestle the power amp out of the closet.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

It continues to amaze my skeptical ears (brain?) just how much of an improvement the Shunyata power cords & grounding system improved the SQ of my system, especially the digital end of things. If you have not tried, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Yup!

FWIW, the "digital end of things" is generally pretty "dirty" when it comes to ground-plane noise, which is why Altaira in particular, provides such an improvement for this class of component(s).