Furutech AC Receptacles

No they don't.

I think you get the best out of them with the wall plates and covers but you can use generic ones if you want to save some $.

Be aware of the extremely long break in required for the Furutech GTX-D and R/G AC receptacles to settle in and sound good. 300 to 600 hours, but in my opinion well worth the wait. If possible use some other means to break them in other than installation in your audio system.

I would start with just getting a Nylon receptacle cover from Home Depot. If you find the Furutech receptacle to be worth keeping, then later purchase the plate and cover. At least that's what I am doing. Step by Step.
Also, when purchasing the Receptacle, I would get it from a place that offers Burn-in...i.e. Take Five Audio or VH Audio. Good Luck!

+1 aniwolfe. That’s what I did. In fact, I picked up a pair of slight used Carbon Fiber 104 plates off eBay for $55 each. That’s half off and they were like new. Last time I check, they were available.

And yes, the plate along with GTX frame does have cumulative positive effects on overall sound.

How do I burn-in the receptacle? Would plugging in a lamp and running it day and night work? Or, must there be a significant load on the AC to be effective?

build a Faraday cage around your listening room

Thanks everyone ... I will use some lamps to "burn-in". I hope that will work.

wylmars, in my opinion, I believe you would be better off running your refrigerator, if not possible then a fan, for burn-in purposes. Lamps will work but not my first two choices.

If you’re going to plug something into an outlet, with the intent of having the outlet carry current for two to three hundred hours, make it something that will remain, "ON" for two to three hundred hours. Fridges and coolers are only, "ON" long enough(each hour) to maintain a certain temp. If they’re well sealed and/or not often opened/closed, that may only be ten to twenty percent of the time.

assuming arguendo that a freakin' power outlet needs to "broken in"...

the duty cycle will not make any difference

lak - Oh! I think you are suggesting that running a lamp might not be enough current to do the job?

And here's a general question: If my PS Audio P10 is plugged in, but without the components running, will the P10 draw enough current through the Furutech outlets by itself?

Refrigerators and Chest Freezers are still the best home option for burning in receptacles. Has much more to do with the surge when the compressor kicks in, which will very often exceed 15 amps for a very short period of time. This will get you much better results than continuous operation of an appliance that might draw 5 amps continuously. 

2 weeks on each half of the receptacle should get you pretty good results. 

Something like the Audiodharma Cable Cooker will be even better; if you have a dealer that has one it is a no brainer to pay a few extra bucks to have them burned in before shipping. 

+1 hdm!

@Hdm; Long time no see, how have you been?

Doing well Lak-mainly just enjoying my system and listening to records at this stage. Doing the odd minor upgrade or cartridge change every year or two. Did a mono setup with a 2nd arm on my table late last year which I'm enjoying.  

I switched over to an Oyaide R1 with wall plate as the main receptacle feeding my system a number of years ago but am still using an older line conditioner with cryoed Hubbells for the balance. 

I might splurge and have Steve Huang build me a basic power distribution unit using either Furutech GTX's or Oyaide R0's to replace that conditioner in the next few months. 

What a timely post for me. I just received my GTX-D R. I was going to install it this weekend. I hadn't even considered break in period. I think I'll run it in on my beer fridge for a while instead. I'll be leaving in two weeks for a month long vacation in Europe, so I think that by the time I get back to Canada, that should be more than enough time. Any thoughts form other members on this plan?

 I have spent 40 years in the electrical field including owning my own company .I have also been an audiophile for 40 years and I still can not beleive what goes on here. Can someone please explain to me what " breaks in " in an outlet ? The only actions on Your ac voltage source that actually do something are filtering and isolation. A good filtering device is the best thing to try first and will solve almost all line problems.

Cerberus79,

The Break'in of an AC outlet,  ac cord, etc. is  imaginary i.e it exist only in the brain of the person hearing it - so to  them its "real" :-)


Good Listening


Peter

If you've never experience burn-in on audiophile gear @berberus79 then I'm not sure what to say. Audio components burn-in, it happens and I've heard it many many times.

Try a Furutech receptacle and give it time to burn-in. If you don't hear any difference after a few hundred hours then don't bother - mileage varies.

@pbnaudio, have you ever installed a new cryoed outlet or the Furutech GTX-D (Rhodium) outlet?

Your system and room looks beautiful and I'll bet it sounds great!
What outlets do you use?

There are many that have and have documented (here on Audiogon) the changes that occur during the long break-in period.

Imaginary? I don’t think so.

@wylmars  - I am currently using a a couple of Furutech receptacles (GTX-D-NCF-R) without its expensive plate & cover with great result. Furutech receptacles replaced my PS Audio receptacles and the improvement was significant. I bought it from Steven Huang of Audio Senisibility (http://audiosensibility.com/blog/) who helped me break-in this receptacles for 15 days (15 x 24) w/o any additional charge.
After installing these units I used a couple of table fans running (24 X 7) for a week or so, in addition to listening to regular music, to complete the break-in process. It's important to break-in each outlet in the receptacle duplex to get the full result. Once these receptacles come in with 1/2 weeks of break-in from the dealer/seller it is a relatively easy task to complete the break-in process and get the full bloom within a week or so. Hope this helps...

All amps speakers etc have different sound. What breaks in is your ears that are going from one to the other. An engineer designs a unit to specific specs, are you saying that these specs change because it has been on for 100 hours ?

I have friends in the audio biz and none use special outlets or power cords. We use good outlets such as Hubbel but none of this is in your audio circuit. A filter is the only thing that made any difference at all. 

Lak,

Some years back I wanted to conduct an AC outlet test made up a fancy jig holding 10 different AC outlets  all switchable with relays via a PLC , never got around to making a program for it though.  The switching was to be done via a remote and keeping the prior engaged till after the next one was engaged so that the system connected to the outlet was always on.   Still have the jig sitting in my warehouse and if theres a wizard out there knowing how to program a Allen Bradley PICO controller and wants to spend the time making the program for it I'd be happy to conduct the test.  PM Me and Ill let you know the specifics of how the jig is wired up - the only thing missing is the program.

In my system I use Leviton Industrial Grade outlets. I certainly do think that a proper AC outlet with as good solid connection is important, but when it comes to the cover plates screws holding it etc I'm out.  Same goes for AC cords, Proper gauge, Quality plug and a secure connection is important though.

To each his own, if you can hear a difference then its real to you, to me its not.

Good Listening


Peter

@crazyeddie:

Yes, it is a very good idea and the beer fridge, particularly if it is an older beast, will work probably better than anything else short of something like the Audiodharma. 

Plug the fridge into one half for the two weeks before you leave and then into the other half just before you leave on vacation and you'll be in great shape when you come back. 

FWIW, I did some pretty extensive experimentation with receptacles about 15 years ago, some of which is outlined here:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-world-power-receptacle-cryoed-hubbell-5362-tweak

I can assure you that break-in is very real, and particularly noticeable on cryoed items like the Furutech. I'm less interested in the "why" than the result itself, which has been clearly audible to many. 

Different receptacles offer up very different sound qualities; it's a subjective hobby with different listeners preferring different presentations, so there will always be disagreement on what is "best" but the better receptacles out there offer vastly superior performance to the run of the mill contractor grade receptacles found in most houses. 

I have read almost all the claims on the Furutech website. I did not finnish as i almost broke a rib laughing. " a great sound stage , musical highs, tight controlled bass, power and dynamics to spare", FROM AN OUTLET !!! I must apologize its your money do with it as u will. 

yes, just enjoy their BS

sadly consumers are being defrauded

Does anyone know any Little Moron jokes?

No apologies necessary. Rest assured that those who have actually done the work, done the listening and made the comparisons take almost as much amusement, perhaps more, from those insistent on it being a fraud, having no effect, etc., 99% of whom have never made even a token effort to investigate. 

They just know better LOL. Not much has changed in the forums over the years. 

Indeed ... technology is often times a strange and mysterious world. Having worked in the world's greatest technology company for nearly 40 years (started at 19), I've been skeptical of developments, small and large. I was the performance laboratory manager for 13 years (of my 27 years in SW/HW development management). For example; there was no marketplace for small consumer computers, cache memory was a joke someone was pulling on us, no one will use a cash dispensing machine, a small form-factor disk ... it'll never work; or how about a disk operating system for non-commercial purposes? Been there, seen all that. So, I will see (hear) what Furutech is all about and get back to all of you. I and all my technology audiophile friends (who own more patents than I have years) who actually did develop voice technology in the '70s, something called System-R (relational) software and eye recognition. A computer out-duel Ken Jennings? It would never happen - or did it? Maybe there is something to Rhodium treated AC outlets with rare alloys ... maybe not!

Whoa! What?! The world’s greatest technology company? What company could that be? Hmmm.....GE? IBM? RCA? Microsuoft? Apple? Hughes? Lockheed? Rockwell? Boeing? Motorola? Sony? Honeywell? Northrop Grumman? Samsung? 

We are all waiting for your thoughts at installation and every 100 hours there after. Then you can move onto fuses.
You have great market feedback.Please post your system.

Thanks in advance.

nkonor - My system? Okay ... ARC REF 75SE, REF 5SE, all Accuphase digital, including SACD, PS Audio P10, Nordost and Tannoy Westminster Royal SE (horn) speakers (before that, Soundlab M1A). Yes, I'll keep a dairy of my impressions at 100 hour intervals, for whatever my opinion is worth.

Ozzy - I will research your recommendation regarding Oyaide covers.

geoffkait - Yes ... the greatest technology company, for which there wouldn't be the technology companies listed ... all but one ... the one that started the computer technology and all the users and enablers of those enterprises listed. I'll just leave it at that.

I will return to this forum and share my impressions; for that is all I will be able to offer - impressions - reality based impressions from empirical observation, filtered through my own aural biases (I went to college on a partial music scholarship at 16 - violin).

I must say to all of you that this has generated a bit more feedback than I expected ... and I appreciate it all, on both sides of the technology question.

wylmars,

l appreciate your response. You can see that this is a contested topic. Please do keep a record and follow up with your impressions. Honest impressions are all we can ask. 
Best to all on this Journey.

geoffkait - Yes ... the greatest technology company, for which there wouldn’t be the technology companies listed ... all but one ... the one that started the computer technology and all the users and enablers of those enterprises listed. I’ll just leave it at that.

Whoa! The one that started the computer technology?! And all the users and enablers of those entries listed?! I’m intrigued. If you understand machine language you're one up on me.

😀

geoffkait - yes, I'm probably a bit older than you. My first program was coded in EXCP - and yes, I was trained in OS internals - hmm ... I'm dating myself ...

I was trained in assembly language and Algol and in using computers with higher mathematics as well as statistical thermo. I worked for a while for the 1st PhD in Computer Science from U. Illinois Urbana who helped design the advanced computer in early 60s there used as the model for HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Yes, BAL was the language we all used at the start of my career. It is a very thrifty language in its' use of memory. It required coding discipline, unlike today's bloated high-level languages.

Ah yes,  Art Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey and his very clever twist on the HAL moniker (i.e., H (i) A (b) L (m). I was sort like one of those primates throwing clubs ... more age dating!

I've determined you must be older than dirt.

I started when I was nineteen ....

Break In period is something typical to Dating. Your just getting to know the girl.

After the break in period is over, you decide if you can live with her or cant stand her flaws and habits.

wylmars OP
Yes, BAL was the language we all used at the start of my career. It is a very thrifty language in its’ use of memory. It required coding discipline, unlike today’s bloated high-level languages.

Ah yes, Art Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and his very clever twist on the HAL moniker (i.e., H (i) A (b) L (m). I was sort like one of those primates throwing clubs ... more age dating!

Actually, Kubrick disputed the HAL-IBM connection theory and said HAL was simply the acronym for Heuristic and Algorithmic Language. If he had wished to attribute IBM somehow why didn’t he just name the devious computer something someone other than a cryptologist could discern. Something like say MBI-9000.

I started my career at age 16, using one of those clunky Friden desk calculators to crunch Lorenz transformation equations at Army Map Service. During lunchtime of course. 😀

some Audio components burn-in but OUTLETS AND WIRE DO NOT

@randy-11,  what is your source on 'Wire do not'? 

I always experience better 'sound' in my system after few hundred hours of playing time with new equipments and wires. I call it 'settling' period but I do like 'dragon_vibe' answer better :-)

Here is one theory from a renowned cable maker, 

"During the manufacturing process, as insulation is extruded over the conductors, gases can become trapped. This combined with the high electrical charges often found in new cables, result in a brittle and bright sound that lacks the detail and depth desired for music reproduction. There are couple of ways to resolve above referenced issues. One way to burn-in your cables is to simply hook them up in your home audio system and play music for a minimum of 100 hours. However, the best solution is to treat your cables using a designated cable burn-in device". 

I suspect you’ll find his source is the little voice in his head.

There is just no point in arguing in a forum whether "burn in" of something (anything) is real or not.  Either you have tried this and noticed a difference, or not.  I have experienced the changes with burn-in many times and with all sorts of component parts including capacitors, resistors, wire and, yes, power outlets.  There is no question in my mind that the effects are real but I would hardly try to persuade someone else of this by words.  You just have to try it yourself.  If you do and you don't notice any difference, fine.  That will make your life a lot simpler since you won't have to wait hundreds of hours before evaluating a change in components.  You can just do it, listen, and move on.  But your experience will not prove there is no difference, only that you didn't detect any.  And stating your opinion in all capital letters doesn't make it any more valid. 

 The truth is that this is like a discussion about religion. The faithfull will remain faithfull regardless and the opposing sides will never agree but there can be mutual respect. In the end most of us are in it for the music and the enjoyment it brings us so happy listening.