hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

An update to my set-up; I had to change the electrical cable from a two wire (12/2) to a three wire (12/3) to
facilitate the correct installation of the isolated ground system. This was needed even with use of plastic boxes in the wall for the receptacles. I would also like to mention that a seperate isolated ground bar (plastic) is required in the electrical panel, hooked-up to its own ground rod. This made the system totally seperate from the rest of the house's system. Or so I have been told .
Just as a hedge against obsoletion, I also changed from 12 guage cable to 10 guage cable. So now I am running 10/3
with ground from the breaker box to the outlets. Two dedicated runs, each operating two H.S. grade isolated ground duplex 20A. receptacles. The change in cable necessitated an expenditure almost 4 fold, from about $27.00
to just over $110.00 ! I was actually able to purchase a roll 250ft. long for about the same price as having two 60
ft. pieces cut from the spool at Home Depot ! Exactly the same wire from the same manufacturer. Make sense ?
It is supposed to be hooked-up next tuesday.
Again, thank you to all who contributed information to my cause. This is a great forum !

After reading this thread (I actually read every single one of them) I felt compelled to make my first Audiogon forum post. This is taken from an article in Stereophile in a review of the Infinity Prelude MTS speaker system. I believe it applies because you have a very technical guy and an experiece guy look at the same set of speakers. Also, the experience guy heard something that couldn't be measured in the 70s, but he ended up being right. Just an interesting article in light of this thread. The funny thing is that the section of the review is actually titled the below introduction.

Do I Want My Myths Shattered?
You may ask why, after a day of heavy
pummeling by Floyd Toole—a CDloving
scientist who relies strongly on
measurements, who cuts mystics and
“observational reviewers” no slack, and
whose research proves that when we
can see what we are about to hear, we
form hopelessly prejudicial responses—
I still wanted to review these speakers.
You also may ask why he’d want them
reviewed by someone like me—or by
any “observational” reviewer, for that
matter. Actually, he may not, given
some of the disparaging things he’s written
about nonscientific, “casual” reviewing
in his published research.
There may be a single answer to both
questions: In discussing the bass-equalization
feature, Toole admitted that
attempts at this made in the 1970s yielded
great measurements but, according to
the golden-eared, “bad bass.” And guess
what? The ears were right. The observational
types heard things that the primitive
measuring devices of the time
couldn’t. Today’s gear shows—and
Toole showed us—that 1⁄3-octave equalization
mutilated bass performance in
ways that were then unmeasurable but
clearly audible. So if I didn’t like the
sound of these “near-perfect’’–measuring
loudspeakers, I had an out: I was
hearing things not yet measurable.

The review went on to say how much the reviewer loved these speakers. Anyway, I have a question now.

Which cables are the best to use? I have heard alot about Purist Audio but what about Cardas or the BPT cables?

Also, are Wattgates that much better compared to the Hubbell outlets? They are about 3 times the price. Just curious about thoughts on all of this.

Jeff

It seems that this thread has wandered from a discussion on receptacles to a general discussion on power cables and whether they actually change audio quality.

So, here's my anecdote. A couple of years ago I bought a Wadia 301, and the seller threw in an Acoustic Zen Tsunami power cord instead of the stock cord. I was not a believer in power cords being able to make a difference, because, as has been pointed out, they are not in the signal path, but I used the Tsunami because "it was there."

I eventually sold the 301, but kept the Tsunami, and got a Wadia 861 w/ GNSC's Statement upgrade. Again, I used the tsunami because "it was there."

After a few months, I bought a new rack for my equipment, and after setting everything up, I listened to some CDs, and immediately noticed the sound quality was thinner, there was little bass impact, the soundstage was a bit unfocused. I thought that I made a huge mistake with my rack "upgrade." After fiddling with all sorts of things, I noticed that I had swapped the power cords on the Wadia and my phono stage, so that the Tsunami was not on the Wadia.

I figured that I'd swap it back, since nothing else was helping. Lo and behold, the Wadia came back to life with all the depth and air and focus that it had before.

I did not believe in power cord differences, and was not looking for power cord differences....In fact I did not even realize I had changed power cords at first, but just knew something had screwed up my sound. But, I discoverd that having a better power cord on the Wadia does in fact make a difference.

I can't explain why....but I can tell you the difference is not subtle.

FWIW.