Furutech is the best by far jump on some ASAP!!
Any one try the new Synergistic Research BLUE UEF Duplex receptacle?
Looking for comparsons to other high quality outlets.
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Here is why buying these high priced outlets is not good. It gives the owners free money and intices others (like Audioquest) to do a similar advertisement and sales tactic. I have a few of the earlier ones, Oyaide, Teslaplex, Cruz first, Furutech, and others. Recently I purchased an Audioquest Edison. I was so pissed off after seeing their wall plate was cheap plastic and not flat, the whole assembly is made in China, and the internal metal prongs had a scraping feeling when I plugged a cord into it, that I decided to send it back. The $179.00 price was screaming "price gouging", another fool, load their bank account, jump on the marketing bandwagon, etc. And their claims of their silver plating "driving away RF frequencies". |
Feel free to post about the Orange duplex in the thread below. I also posted about my experience with the Orange duplex that thread. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anyone-try-the-new-synergistic-research-orange-uef-duplex?highlight=orange%2Bduplex |
After about 1 year or so of using the blue duplex I switched to the orange. .man what a big improvement. .low end has way more heft and tonality is much more lifelike and accurate. .everything seems to be more focused with larger sound stage followed by more details coming forward. .well worth the money. |
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jea, Respectfully, I think you miss the point. I speak for myself but I don't care much about the why, why, why.. Thing is, I f***** don't know how they achieve a better/different/worse sound with different outlet. All I care, as an audiophile, is does it sound better to my ears? Does it synergize well with the rest of my system? One has to step outside own's pre-conceived ideas. You seem to think too much like an electrician; plug one of those and listen for yourself. Then come back report. It's not because I do not understand the science behind the product that I cannot appreciate its merits. I cannot explain why a cleaner power signal feeding my gear ends up with my gear to sound better. Why is this, I don't know and cannot find an actual answer. But I do appreciate the improved sound though. |
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What is that? Like 500 words of pointlessness? The point of the Orange is the sound. What is wrong with audiophiles? How about, instead of reading NEC try reading whostolethebatmobile? That’s what I did, and just ordered some f0.Q thick and thin for my turntable, speakers, and other stuff. Which I will be applying with such utter disregard for NEC you can’t even begin to imagine. |
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parabellum: I have the Synergistic Research Blue outlets in my three systems. They really are worth the price. Buy one and try it for 10 days. By then it will be fully broken in. Send it back if you do not think it is worth the cost. They give you 30 days to decide. The Blue outlets are superior to the Oyaide and Furutech outlets I have bought. David Pritchard |
I currently have a Shunyata SR-Z1 outlet that I am looking to upgrade. I am looking at two options: 1- cruzeFIRST Maestro or 2- synergistic blue. The maestro is qualified as neutral, clean and natural. These are qualities I am looking for to match my Yamaha and Bryston gear. The problem with the Blue, there is not much that have been written on it yet. No professional reviews that I am aware of. In this situation it is difficult to know how it would pair with my gear. I know we always have to try but that would be nice to know some attributes when compared to other outlets. And, there is a 200$ between both. Is the Blue that great to justify the 200$ Increase? Did anyone compare these two outlets? |
There is a recent thread in Tech Talk where I list the best uses I have found for fo.Q TA-32 (thin tape) and TA-102 (thick tape). Generally the thin tape works best on cables and connectors, thick tape on components and chassis. I’m generally more on the side of "more is more" when it comes to fo.Q. But it boils down to personal taste and your sensitivity to coloration produced by low amplitude vibration. You have to realise what is happening with fo.Q. It is reducing the amplitude of already very low amplitude mechanical vibrations. As the amplitude decreases, the effectiveness increases. It’s not a conventional damping material like rubber or Sorbothane. It will effectively reduce the amplitude of vibrations that have such low amplitude that you may not realise they exist. Until they are gone. |
Hello there fellas, I have a question for you. I listen to 70 percent Metal-punk-Classic rock and 30 perecent what i'll just call audiophile recordingds for the sake of time. The 70 percent obviosly wins out for me. Would the latest red,black or new blue be the best outlet for what I like to call Metallically tinged noize. A huge thank you in advance to anyone who can offer me any insight |
Use of small strips of fo.Q material is highly recommended. As the top plates of US spec receptacles are usually held by only one screw the edges will unavoidably resonate. Adding strips of fo.Q across the edges of the top plate to the wall or outlet frame will damp this resonance. Be careful not to overdamp however as this can deaden the sound. This phenomena may also be why slightly loosening the top plate screw can sound better the having it fully tightened |
Anyone who wants to see if customizing a wall socket makes a difference or not, keep your current wall outlet, but stick some strips of fo.Q TA-102 (from Japan via eBay) tape on it. Cover it as much as desired. Total cost about $10 worth of the piezoelectric tape, for your jaw on the floor.$32 on ebay. $95 at cableco. Sounds about right. |
Google search turned up this. https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/features-menu/opinion-menu/106-uncategorized/529-fo-q-damp... . |
c_avila170 posts02-06-2019 6:42pm @ c_avila1 Similar but not the same. Supporting back strap is different. The Cardas outlet allows the user to configure the outlet as a standard grounding type outlet or as an IG (Isolated Ground) type outlet. The outlet face plates are also different. Look closely at the two. The Audioquest has two "D" shaped recesses around the hot and neutral female contact cutouts. Here’s a link of a seller that shows a close up look of the Audioquest outlet. https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AQNRGEDWO&variation=20AMP // I am pretty sure the Audioquest outlet is made in China or Taiwan. I would be willing to bet in the same factory as this guy. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hi-Fi-Rhodium-Plated-US-20A-AC-Duplex-Receptacles-Wall-Outlet-Power-Distrib... . |
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@jea48 The Audioquest duplex that you referenced looks to have similar construction to the Cardas 4181US duplex with features like Beryllium Copper contacts, plated with Rhodium over Silver. The Audioquest duplex is only plated with silver but it includes a wall plate. http://www.soniccraft.com/datasheets/Cardas_4181US_Instructions.pdf |
Off subject. Has any tried the Audioquest NRG Edison Duplex Wall Outlet? It is not just a rebranded mass produced outlet. https://www.audioquest.com/ac-power/ac-power-outlets/nrg-edison-duplex-wall-outlet Internal contacts Beryllium-Copper Base Metal Provides superior spring tension and long-lasting, low-impedance AC power connections. Typical materials such as brass, or even high-purity copper aided by spring and wedge devices, simply cannot equal the unparalleled retention strength of high-mass beryllium-copper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_copper Beryllium copper (BeCu), also known as copper beryllium (CuBe), beryllium bronze and spring copper, is a copper alloy with 0.5—3% beryllium and sometimes other elements. Beryllium copper combines high strength with non-magnetic and non-sparking qualities. It has excellent metalworking, forming and machining properties. It has many specialized applications in tools for hazardous environments, musical instruments, precision measurement devices, bullets, and aerospace. Beryllium alloys present a toxic inhalation hazard during manufacture. My son gave me one recently for my birthday. At present, for about a week now, I have it feeding the refrigerator. No complaints so far from the frig. Here’s a link of a seller that shows a close up look of the outlet. https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AQNRGEDWO&variation=20AMP . |
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Jea, Your point is fairly taken. However, there is some "science" around power cords and interconnects, to name just two elements. Power cords may be heavy enough in gauge to transfer the current needed by the component, or not. They may be shielded, or not. They may be configured so as to be capacitative and/or inductive to one degree or another, and there are some known ways in which these properties could affect sound. Likewise for ICs, if you delete the bit about current carrying. Plus, as you suggest, I rely upon personal experience and the reports of a few trusted sources as regards these and some other ancillaries. But in the case of the SR AC outlets, we have.... what? What is there about a black AC outlet that would make it sound different from a blue or a red one? (Obviously, there could be differences that I don't know about, but why doesn't SR tell me about them, is my point?) |
Well that is the beauty of the Synergistic Research Blue outlet. You can try it your self and in your own system and return it during the 30 day trial period for a refund. The total cost of the experiment is about $6.00- return postage. And since it is mostly broken in after 3 days you can go back and forth between the Blue and the Cruz Maestro outlets during this time. I believe you will hear a difference, but really only you can decide if it is worth it. I personally believe you will prefer the Blue. David Pritchard |
For me, my decision to purchase the blue outlet was not based upon the claims of Synergistic Research or science either. That’s me - I’m not all about measurements, etc. I tend to look for commonalities in user reviews. When I finally purchase something, it is my own experience and opinion, however, that will trump all others. And, it’s whether it works in my system or not. It could work fine in someone else’s system and not in mine and the reverse is probably true as well. I’m also not looking for an outlet to specifically change the tonality of my system. For me, it needs to make it sound subjectively (to me) better. In the end, that could be detail, transparency, and it could possibly be tonality too. The point is that I’m not looking for anything in particular going in, just wanting a better result one way or another. The mention of expectation bias is probably true for some folks. However, I don’t think it applies to everyone when evaluating audio/video products. I’m too picky and too concerned about the money I spend to have the expectation bias. In fact, my bias often goes the other way - the product is going to have to prove itself, because I can’t believe it is that good. The blue outlet, for example, has been up and down for me over the last week or two. Once it settles in, I’ll make up my mind on it. Dave |
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What I would want to know, if I was in the market for changing out wall outlets in order to change the tonal balance of my audio system, is what is the science behind ANY of the claims made by SR? From what I can see on the SR website as regards these outlets, bald statements are made describing the "sound" that your system will have, with absolutely no rationale to support any of the claims, no scientifically plausible "mechanism". I am not categorically against tweaks. I do believe that power cords, interconnects, speaker cables and other more surprising elements of an audio system can affect sound, but if I am going to spend $200 on a wall outlet (or a similar amount on a fuse), I need to know more. (Of course, with the fuses, we are told there is some sort of quantum effect; that makes me feel a whole lot better....not.) I have no axe to grind. Tell me what point I am missing. If it's merely that the buyer installs the wall outlet and then hears a difference, that's not good science. The observer is a reader of internet threads like this one, which creates a certain expectation of the results, and he or she has paid good money for the new part; the bias is built in. (And by the way, there is some danger associated with amateur electricians messing with wall outlets.) |