Actually I'm Peter, my father was Poul (That is how we spell it in Denmark)
To answer your question I have tried a few, PS Audio as well as the ones form Synergistic - in my system I detected no difference between them and the industrial grade ones that I use.
If you look at my system you can see that I have taken the electrical wiring of my listening room pretty seriously, I have 6 dedicated 120V lines and 2 ea. 220V lines, all fed from the main panel in my house, all the outlets are fed via 12 gauge romex. The feed to the rest of the house was moved to a separate sub panel
I am not a subscriber to the power cord craze either, I do agree that you have to have a well constructed cord with quality connectors that offers a solid point of contact. Beyond that I will maintain that any changes in sound quality are imagined between various high quality power cords. I encourage you to think logically about this, depending on your installation you can have 100ft plus of romex wire, and if not a dedicated line, you can have up to 13 outlets on that line (that's the code) with up to 5 load bearing devices attached (code too) .
The last three feet of cord, if of good quality and with good connectors, will have little, if any, impact on the current delivered to your amplifier.
Go to an electrical supply store and ask for hospital grade outlets. They have a small round dot in the front. Range 5-8 dollars. They look the same as the ones in my Chang LightSpeed products. They have worked well for me.
Paul, Have you auditioned any of the outlets discussed in this thread besides the "heavy duty" type? I found it to be a satisfying and educational experiment. David Pritchard
Both Oyaide and Furutech manufacture high end power cords and wall outlets. In fact, they both manufacture high end outlet cover plates, too. Gotcha covered.
If you try and think logically about this - count the points of contacts from the transformer on your street till the power reaches your transformer in your amplifier, the contact point at the AC outlet on your wall is number 21, that's assuming a dedicated line and no sub panel, all of which has the potential for a less than optimal point of contact. After your power outlet there will be at least 8 points of contact before your transformer is energized.
So while I agree that the quality of the AC outlet is important ie it has to provide a solid point of contact with as close to zero ohms of contact resistance. If it is a solid connection point then I'd have to state that any perceived difference of sound quality from various AC outlet's is truly in the ear of the beholder.
Having your electrician do a service on your panel for an example, tightening all the connections etc will have far greater impact than the make and model of your quality AC outlet.
There certainly is wide variation in how a wall outlet affects the sound of your system. In my system, I have found the Synergistic Research outlet to make the greatest improvement in sound. I have tried the original outlet, the "heavy duty" outlet, PSAudio, and Oyaide R-1. I found the Synergistic Research outlet to give a wonderful detailed- open- rich sound. Whers to buy "Audio Grade" outlets? Scott Walker Audio, The Cable Company, VH Audio, Tweek Geek, Parts Connection, Hi End Audio. I wonder which outlets Paul has critically listened to from his response.
Elizabeth is right on the Levitrons. Their heavy duty outlets may be well made for running a vacuum cleaner but they stink for audio. I was shocked (not literaly) by the Audio Magic outlets, which appear to be based on these same Levitrons. I was able to take power treatment out of the lines I use for my amps using these AM outlets. They are also much better than the PS audio outlets. I have not tried the Porter Ports. I suggest you give one of the Audio Magic nanoplex outlets a try.
If you mean specifically here on Audiogon go to the Power section of the Marketplace and then select AC Distribution or AC Conditioners. Sometimes a text search for Outlet or the specific brand you are looking will yield results. E.g. Porter Port.
They are the small rectangular plates with slots in then - usually spread around the walls about a foot off the floor in the rooms through out your house. :-)
Joking aside - Home Depot and Lowes sells the industrial grade outlets which offers much better contact than the $1's usually used in modern construction. If you want to go fancy PS Audio has a few offerings too as well as Albert Porter that sells some fancy cryoed ones here on Audiogon, I'm sure there are many more.
My own opinion is that the Industrial grade at Homedepot are well worth the upgrade, price wise above that I'm not so sure its worth the expense.
If you are not well versed in changing out these, have an electrician do it for you. You could also inquire about running dedicated lines to your rig, if you are already in the process it is well worth the expense.
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