hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

Almost all hospital grades (with the exception of the 20 amp Hubbell hospital grade sold by Albert Porter and Take Five Audio) have nickel plated contacts, which I would suggest you avoid. In that respect, you are best to stick with a spec grade receptacle. My personal preference, not having heard the non-plated Hubbell above, would be either a Hubbell 5262 or 5362. I have doubts as to whether I would be able to differentiate between those receptacles.

Different receptacles have very different sonic signatures, and cryo will make a significant difference IMO.

Irvrobinson: Would you be so kind as to tell us what power cords and outlets you have had cryogenically treated and how they measured before and after the treatment? I'm simply asking because all of the cabling/outlets I've had treated measured differently with reduced resistance following treatment. Perhaps you could tell us what you've had cryoed, where, the type of treatment and how it measured before and after?

Irv: For a science guy, you seem to be getting caught in your own lies. A few posts above, you say it can be measured with a $50 multimeter, now you're saying I need some pretty heavy duty gear! You crack me up!

Not being a science guy, I could care less. But I can tell you, BASED ON EXPERIENCE, that the cables and outlets I had cryoed measured quite a bit differently following cryo. It was not my multimeter (who knows, it may not have even been a multimeter), but belonged to the cryo vendor where I have my stuff done. And yes, it appeared to be a very inexpensive device! If you want to really educate yourself (somehow I doubt it), you can do a web search for Bayson Heat Treating and contact Mark there. I'm sure he'd be happy to give you the measurements. As for me, I could care less about the measurements; I'm only interested in the sound.

FWIW, I use a $40 DVD player as my digital front end, DIY power cords that cost me about $100 each and an $80 interconnect. So, I'm coming at it from a slightly different angle than Albert, but ending up with the same conclusion.

Don't belittle something you have absolutely no experience with. It just makes you look foolish.

Eldartford: Let's really take a hard look at what's going on here in this and all the similar threads like this that inevitably break down this way.

I'll give you credit: you took the scientific road and tested out the receptacles I sent to you and heard no difference. Just as easily as you say above: "When the dog barks the guy hears something else, because he wants to.", I can say to you that you heard no difference because you wanted to hear no difference. So what? You heard no difference in your "highly controlled" receptacle experiment, but you can send your Denon 2900 away for mods because, from an "engineering standpoint", the mods make sense to you (search your comments in the archives) and you can receive it back 2-3 weeks later and notice an improvement? The only logical conclusions I can draw are that 1) you are afflicted with the same disease you accuse those of hearing differences in receptacles and/or power cords because they "want to" or conversely "don't want to" or 2) that your hearing is not particularly great.

Now let's be "scientific" about it. Of the people that respond to these threads, those that have tried/experimented with power cords/receptacles, etc. and have heard differences probably outnumber those that have tried/experimented and heard no differences by ten to one or more in these threads. Not conclusive, but certainly a reasonable sampling by any scientific standard, as Narchy has so succinctly pointed out above.

On the other hand, the naysayers seem to exist in an inverse proportion to those with experience: that is to say, approximately 90% of them have absolutely no experience in experimenting, yet they have no qualms about doling out their definitive advice to people here seeking input. Irvrobinson is simply one example of that, extolling that there are no differences in "measurement" when there clearly are, then admitting, when pressed, that he has never done any measuring. As someone who has learned a great deal from the experience of others on this site (and Audioasylum as well) and managed to greatly improve my system and the appreciation for the music played on it as a result of that improvement, I feel compelled to respond to these threads every once in a while.

As to "wanting to hear things" to justify expenditures, as I have pointed out before, I don't belong to that camp. While certain people here may find it amusing, I have gone from a $1000 digital front end in the past 3-4 years to one which I have approximately $70 invested in (it has been cryoed, by the way) and sounds much better than the audiophile approved megabuck version which I was quite happy to sell. More money does not always equate with better sound, but ignoring power cords, receptacles, cabling, etc. is a sure way to not realize what any decent equipment is really capable of.

You and Irv are certainly welcome to respond, but I'll sign off on this thread at this time. Happy listening and enjoy the music!