Any one try the new Synergistic Research BLUE UEF Duplex receptacle?

I’ve owned the Audience Hidden Treasure, which is supposed be identical to the Cardas outlet.

I have cryoed Oyaide R0 outlets and an SR Blue outlet.

Oyaide R0 has more midrange body than the Audience and SR Blue.

R0 is more relaxed.

Cardas is silver with a layer of rhodium. Not surprisingly that it’s rhodium plated, I can always hear the rhodium sound.

Ultimately both the Audience/Cardas and SR Blue are lean sounding compared to the Oyaide R0.

Furutech is the best by far jump on some ASAP!!

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

How much profit do you believe they are making ?

Hi Johnny,

Was the new Orange outlet installed at the wall feeding all equipment specifically? 

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. 

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.

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.

I saw this new duplex on SR own website. I visit this site regularly and just noticed today so it’s fairly new. My guess is that it won’t take long before you can buy one. The price is the same as what was the price of the Blue, at 285$. The Blue is now 225$, and the black at 200$.

  I did a search and couldn't find anything on a new orange receptacle. I was fully expecting a new orange receptacle after the new orange fuses which I switched to

 Any idea when the orange receptacles will be on the market ?

The Blue duplex is no longer the sheriff in town.. The new Orange outlet is out!

to thezaks:
I have done exactly what you asked. I replaced the SR Tesla Plex outlet with the SR Blue and the improvement was definitely worth it. It will be fully settled in after 10 days. I think you will be happy with the upgrade.
David Pritchard

Hi. I use an MIT duplex. Instead of installing it into the wall, I put it into a junction box and plug the box into the wall and plug my gear into the duplex in the box. Am I losing anything by not having it wired directly into the romex in the wall? Thanks

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?

I am interested in the Blue after doing some research but 285$ is hard to swallow for a frickin' duplex. Anyone knows if SR will come up soon with a promotion where if you buy the blue duplex, they will throw in a blue fuse for free?

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.

@folkfreak   A major Thank You for your guidance and application recommendations.

I’m not a fan of damping the main electrical panel. I tried this and it killed the sound dead. My preference for the panel is to remove the door or leave it open. The thick fo.Q is useful on large capacitors, transformers and the like. But overall use fo.Q sparingly, less is more!

@folkfreak   Do you see application (for the thick version) in the main electrical panel? Thanks.

Thin definitely. The thick is only for use in large blocks damping top plates and the like

@whostolethebatmobile  Thanks for bringing the fo.Q TA-102 to my attention. I just placed an order.

Question to you and folkfreak and others who have used it:  Advice on the 'Thick' 1mm tape vs the 'Thin' 0.33mm tape? Thanks.

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.

What is its purpose?

ozzy

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.

@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

Interesting...thanks for the information jea48 :-)

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?)

All-right, thanks David.

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

 

I am using a Cruz Audio and I would vouch for it but I can’t remember what my stereo sounded like without it. Anybody familiar with Cruz Audio and would it be advantages to replace it with the Blue?

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

Where did Lewm state that he had scientific proof of that?
Just stated he had a belief as do I and MANY others.
Why jump down his throat like that, odd to single him out in such a fashion don't you think?

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.)