In my experience, the Maestro, while a very good outlet, lacks the dynamic vigor it should. It seems not to have a very dynamic upper midrange/lower treble range, which gives it a "polite" sound in comparison to either Synergistic’s Tesla SE or Furutech’s GTX-D receptacles. Of those two, the Tesla is quite a bit more detailed, but then, it is a bit brash in the upper midrange/lower treble. I find that it works fine in the PS Audio Power Plant P300, but when put directly into the wall, although dazzling on vocals ( certain letters, usually the "p", "d", "t" and "s" and "k, as well as words like "kick," "can,""lost" and words that end in the letter "d" (which usually disappears in most vocals), pop out at you, as they would in real life, but with a little added sizzle), they can make classical compositions (especially Mercury Living Presence, already bright in the upper midrange/treble frequencies) sound a bit fatiguing. The Maestro - which has been called "natural" - is clear, but uninvolving on large scale music.
I got a GTX-D NCF a couple of months ago, and was please - and somewhat surprised - with the improvement over the GTX-D Rhodium outlet, which now shows itself to be a bit sterile (heard easily on chest/throat tones even on pop music, especially on female singers, but even Frank Sinatra’s voice lost some of its beauty). The newer outlet fills in that sterility, something I had missed somewhat, due to using an integrated instead of separates over the past few years. (Having finally gotten back to separates, I now have a CJ ET3SE with an EAT tube in it (expensive tube, but it’s quite good).
I’ve generally found the Furutech to be great stuff, but there is a signature sound, somewhat akin to first generation Nordost Valhalla: a slight suckout in the lower midrange/upper bass frequencies, where music has a great deal of its "power" (meaning, fullness and punch, easily heard live in say, Carnegie or Boston Symphony Halls). This is, not coincidentally, where the chest/throat tones of singers also reside. The NCF outlets are an improvement. I still have a GTX-D, but will be removing it tomorrow to put in Synergistic’s Black UEF outlet, when it arrives. What I like about Synergistic is that everything comes with a 30-day guarantee, so if you don’t like it, you can return it. It give the buyer a certain confidence that he/she will not be ’stuck’ with something they don’t like. I’m guessing here, but I imagine the improvement in the newer outlet will cure that brightness I heard. I asked what the improvements were, and was told there was less high frequency hash, more detail, more ’natural’ and better microdynamics. I’m guessing that the "hash" is the lower treble brightness instead of the highest frequencies, which allow music an ’airy’ quality. Just a hunch. For now. Other than that, I found the Synergistic to be quite good. It was hard to decide if I liked the Furutech or the Synergistic (Teslaplex SE, just to be clear) better, but the brightness was not endearing, so, just because of that, I guess the Furutech, while not as detailed, and with less ’pop’ on the consonants mentioned, came out ahead. But I sure missed the Synergistic’s vivid portrayal (somewhat similar to the Oyaide, but not the same: from cut to cut, the Synergistic would tell me about the recording venue, while the Oyaide did not). When a component changes more from cut to cut and record to record, that is an indicator of truer ’neutrality’ to me.
The Oyaide , which I had 5 years ago, initially ’wowed’ me, but eventually I realized it moved the soundstage forward on EVERY recording (RCAs should sound far back in the hall, but not with the Oyaide). The ’signature sound’ was evident on all recordings. resulting in a too-much-the-same sound on all cuts I played. I can see why someone would like it, though. It IS exciting, but it imposes itself too much. If imposition there must be, I prefer it to be less evident, and even then, only on certain genres of music (pop would suffer the least, since most pop music is overproduced and overdubbed), so the Oyaide would just bring the whole presentation ’closer’ to the listener, which will make it sound louder. It saves you the trouble of turning up the volume, too.
As for the steel strap on Synergistic outlets? Ted Denney commented once on this forum that he had seen the comments about the steel strap. The Teslaplex SE has a copper or bronze strap (I can’t remember which), and it seems unlikely, given his comment back then, that the then put a steel strap back on the newest outlet. I’ll know tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem logical to go backwards and put something that can be affected due to magnetic fluxes.
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I’ve had the Synergistic UEF Black in the system for a week.
Let me get the questions posed out of the way.
Yes, it looks like the Pass Seymour outlet.
I did not do the magnet test: I had put it in immediately after it arrived. However, I wrote Synergistic and asked if the backstop was magnetic. Their response? It is a "magnetic alloy." So much for my theory...
Now, on to the sonics.
The first 14 hours, from the minute I played the first cut, around noon on October 27th until 2 a.m. on October 28, it showed promise of being a dazzling performer. The entire presentation was 3-D, meaning it had front-to-back depth instantly, instead of coming into it slowly. Voices (Rick James, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Mick Jagger) were extremely good in their closeness to their analogues in real life in regards to dynamics. Instruments and rhythm and timing were great: funk sounded funky and get-down-gritty. Waltzes sounded like ONE-two-three-ONE-two-three. I went to bed happy.
6 hours later. I get up, go into the room, and things have turned dismal. (Not that I didn’t expect this: I did. But still...) Voices blurred, instruments flat as a pancake, no space in between performers and zero depth. The next 24 hours, the music became shrill (it was NOT that way upon insertion). It sounded like a bunch of hissing cobras had attached themselves to the system, and instead of "ss", I got "szzzzzzzzzzzz". I finally left the room, waiting for that to pass. 24 hours later, it did, but then the system’s depth and inner detail disappeared. It sounded like it had gone from - visually - an accordion fully extended, to an accordion, fully compressed. NO depth. Voices were stiff and the overall sound dulled in the upper midrange and treble. Inflections (also called ’microdynamics’)??? What inflections?????? Everything sounded as though it played in a nearly anechoic chamber. Disconcerting, even though I knew it would change. Eventually. It was just breathtaking (and not in a good way) how much the sound had disintegrated. Incoherent. Listenable only because I’d heard it at 5 minutes after I put it in and saw its promise.
I got inventive and hooked up a space heater for a day, thinking (somewhat magically, in retrospect) that that would ’speed up’ the burn-in, but then realized how expensive that would be if left on 27/7 for weeks. And that current was current and as long as something was coming thru the outlet, that was probably good enough. (I’d had fans on the outlet via Shunyata’s PS8 strip (itself breaking in), but wasn’t sure if that would work as well. Hence the space heater over a 24 hour period a couple of days ago.
Yesterday was exactly one week at 12 noon. Still sounded good-ish, but still a bit stiff, although it was clearly improving. Listened yesterday for a few hours, stopped around 5 p.m. when a friend invited me over to dinner. Returned home at 8 p.m. and immediately went into the room to see what small changes had happened.
MERCY!!! Who switched stereos on me while I was out?!?!? Now, keep in mind, at one time I owned a Versa Dynamics 2.0 and 2.3 turntable, Goldmund Mimesis 9, Wilson WATT/Puppies (several generations of them), Convergent Audio, Jadis, Clearaudio cartridges, MIT, Transparent and Nordost stuff (which I got rid of before I left the West Coast. I say this only to indicate I’ve owned some very upper-tier equipment, so it is not easy to surpass that, given my current system is Shunyata power cords (Sigma and Alpha), an NAD C326BEE (the control amp for all experiments) Nordost Frey 2 interconnects, Nola Contenders and an old Aracm FMJ23 CD player, as well as a Rega 3. Nothing near what my old system was like. Oh, and the CJ ET3SE, which I’ve kept out of the system, because this IS a controlled experiment and the CJ would automatically advance the sonics rather dramatically.
So, the sound: Janis Joplin, singing Summertime on the Cheap Thrills lp, sounded dazzling. Her rasp, which previously, had been present, but nothing special, was suddenly magically present. The guitar solos had all the distortion and "buzziness" they should have had on other systems (except I didn’t listen much to classic rock, although I have a thousand albums, at least) of that. But even on this old CD, it was hard to pull myself away and go to bed. The system’s transparency had increased in the way it would if I’d not had the NAD as my amp, but instead put in say, a Hegel H80 amp. Along with a CJ ET5 preamp.
I played Nina Simone, and suddenly, there’s a room around her, and the piano is lilting and lyrical, low-level detail such as the volume of a hall, is far more evident than I’d heard it even (based on memory) in my "Big" system from years ago.
Since this is only at 192 hours now, I have a ways to go (Synergistic wrote me and said, "300 hours"). But this far surpasses the Tesla SE unit and, keeping in mind that I own both the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium and the newer NCF outlets, is serious competition for the NCF. The ’fragility’ of instruments and voices has advanced far past what I heard.
It’s disturbing to think that the ac outlet has so much effect on sound. It makes me wonder what my older, ’BIG’ system would’ve sounded like if we had the kind of outlets then that we have now. Maybe it wouldn’t be necessary to have a $50k system like I had back in 1991 to achieve the immersion into the music that can be achieved now, although, of course, back then, I was less knowledgable about room acoustics, electricity and especially tube trap placement (which’ll kill your system faster than anything if you have the placement along the walls, or the orientation of the seam even remotely out of place).
I marvel that my dealer, with a room with a $100k system in it, does not approach the delicacy and fragility of my $15k system. It irritates me to hear his system, because it’s WATTS (the Alexia), ARC’s 14k preamp, Ayre monoblocks and Nordost Odin all throughout. Yet, it is so lifeless, I can barely restrain myself from barricading myself in their room, disassembling everything and putting it all back together myself. NO delicacy, although people will still think it sounds ’very clear’ and ’BIG’ (but only if you turn the volume up). It just plays music, but is not particularly engaging. I could easily read a book in their room while music was playing, something that is exceedingly unlikely to happen in this music room at home. There’s just too much being revealed in the way of the backup singers’ phrasing, infections and dynamics, placement of those singers, layering in the depth field. (Airiness is good, but not stellar at this point, but it’s an NAD amp: not known for upper frequency openers). It is hard to ’look away’ because the system is becoming highly transparent (NAD aside) and one can hear the dueling guitars in the Summertime break, as well as Patti Austin’s voice doubling itself in some songs, but backup singers in other songs, recognizable because the timbre of voices is so truthful, and the harmonic information now separates out individuals as individuals, rather than just a bunch of background singers lumped together. Can you get better? Of COURSE. For a huge amount of money. But can you be mesmerized by your modest system? If your electricity, line conditioning and room acoustics are all ace, you sure can.
Speaking of which, I played Summertime last night and measured how low the sound level could be and I could still be emotionally mesmerized by Joplin’s vocal renderings (it really is a much more breathtaking rendering of Summertime than I had previously even recognized on this disc): 60db. It was 5 a.m. and I’d woken up, and gone into the music room before I went back to bed. I intended to stay 5 minutes. I was in there for an hour.
When a system can mesmerize you at 60db, the components have become highly ’invisible’ and the music is now what’s running the show.
I’d like to hear the experiences of anyone else with this outlet. I can’t be the only one who has it. I am NOT saying it is ’IT’. I AM saying that what it does for $250 is more what I would expect from a newer and much superior preamp around 5k - or higher. Or an amp around 10k (which in old days, would be 4k).
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Justubes, thanks for the observations. I'll have to listen to everything plugged in to the Shunyata line distributor - and all on one outlet - to determine what's responsible for the sound I'm getting.
Do you have both of these in your system now? What type of equipment have you tested it with? I'm about to insert the tubed CJ ET3SE into the system to see how the sound changes.
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Justubes2, that’s great how you’ve arranged units. I did the same thing in my PS Audio: however, it had the Teslaplex SE and an FIM outlet. I couldn’t get both units to fit in there: the Furutech is larger than a standard outlet. So, I could put in either a Texlaplex SE or A Furutech. I’ll have to retry it, since I also have a Power Plant P300 and see if I did something wrong the first time. The sides of the units were nearly touching in my unit.
In any case, thanks for the expository on your experience. And just to clarify, I wasn’t asking for brands: my phrasing was clumsy there. I meant it to be a query about whether or not you’d tried it with ss AND also tubes or one more than the other.
I did finally put everything on the Shunyata Venom PS8, plugged first into Synergistic and then the Furutech, but I’ll have to listen longer, since, with Shunyata, moving the power cord (or anything else) dooms immediate critical listening. I’ve found the system to settle down after around 2-3 hours, and had company, so my listening time was limited. Also, I had a Nordost Frey on the CD player, so it wasn’t a "pure setup," although I have enough Shunyata power cords to power the entire system. The only observation I had was that on the Rolling Stones Rhino release on "Gimme Shelter," Merry Clayton’s words were clearer, but the sound was slightly artificial. Now, keep in mind that the PS8 has only been my system for 8 days, so I’ll have to wait longer, but putting it on the Furutech did not make it sound better, ALTHOUGH, Mick Jagger’s voice certainly gained a veracity that was not due to dynamic intensity, but a more full representation of his voice as I’ve heard it (on say, vinyl). What I think you would call "organic." I find all this fascinating and don’t mind the experimentation at all. I’ll wait another week, when the PS8 has nearly 400 hours on it, although Shunyata says 200 hours is enough (I’ve never had the pleasure of a Shunyata cord - or anything else Shunyata - being at its best at 200 hours (speaker cable being the only other Shunyata products I’ve had). Never the interconnect, except for the first generation Aries, which benefited their power cords, which were slightly recesssive in the upper midrange, where the Aries was just slightly bright, so it made for a ...synergistic match, as do most designers when they voice units. Dave Wilson used to use Rowland to voice the WATTS, Transparent used Wilsons’ Grand Slamms for their cables, etc. Everyone is gong to have a certain voicing because they have to use another manufacturer’s preamp, amp speaker, turntable or CD player to create THEIR product, so if you know say, CJ uses Nola, or Magico speakers (or CJ’s own speaker), you can reasonably assure yourself that part of the sound of the CJ comes from the product the’ve used in its creation. Of course, some manufacturers use several different amps, preamps, etc in the creation of their product, so yet another variable is thrown into the monkey wrench works, as it were.
I should mention that I also noticed that the Synergistic did an about-face shortly after my Nov. 3 post, and that the guitars seemed a bit dull again, meaning transients as the most obvious change, and then, the image placement in the depth field collapsed slightly again. I thought perhaps the strip the microwave (in the kitchen) was plugged into wasn’t turned off (dedicated circuit or no, both here in CT and in my apartment when I lived in San Francisco, I could easily tell when the microwave was powered on. And I demonstrated in an acquaintance’s house, someone with an excellent High End system, that the microwave could reliably be identified as "on" or "off" and they heard it within a minute (I was wathcing them out of the corner of my eye and I saw them cock their heads as they realized that the sonics were noticeably different, which they confirmed after the cut finished). The microwave, by the way, was NOT on, so I couldn’t blame the change on that. I just thought "more break-in time."
So, I hear exactly what you’re saying and I agree. What I’ll have to do is try to put both an NCF AND another "Black" into the PS Audio (meaning, replace the Teslaplex SE that's in there) to see the results. I will say that, so far, although I like the Venom, I haven’t heard it - other than to move the presentation closer to my listening seat - demonstrate an unparalleled improvement over the P300, but I’m willing to wait longer. Right now, it has exactly 224 hours on it and counting. But, neither is it easily distinguishable from the P300. Yet. So, I could be hearing the "Black" outlet or it could be the Shunyata, and it’s too soon to know which, without more time.
In any case, I appreciate your extremely thorough analysis and comments and I think other will benefit from reading your post as well. Thank you. |
Jim:
That’s intriguing, but let me think that over. I am not sure that I want to pull the outlet out, as it’s in a tight place with a bookcase in front of it. And if I decide to do it, no need for you to get the outlet: Lowe’s is nearby and it would be intriguing - if I have the time to test the outlet - to do it.
Justubes: remind me which setting is the "clean wave" as I can’t find my PS Audio owner’s manual (I know it’s online, so I’ll also look for it there). I have traditionally used the setting on PS 2 and 120. What is your preferred listening settings for normal listening?
I was just listening to Joplin again. An interesting experience, but not sure it’s a valid one, since I had to plug the power cord into the P300 on a Teslaplex SE outlet, and, of course, the NCF at the wall. I heard the "organic" nature you refer to, but tonight, I plugged the power cord directly into the SR Black again. I noticed that the throat/chest region of Joplin’s voice was more fully developed on the Black outlet, but then, that’s going directly into the wall, whereas, the other way, I have no way to put it directly into the wall: the outlet would require a 4 meter power cord (waaaay too expensive). Just listening for the emotiveness, I’d have to say going directly into the Black is preferable to going into the SE outlet on the P300. I could "place" Joplin’s voice more clearly and hear "into" the center of her pitch better with the Black. Again, not a fair "controlled" experiment, but just speaking from a "feeling" point of view, I prefer the Black to the P300/Tesla SE/GTX NCF-at-the-wall combo, w which surprised me, since the last test with the Shunyata power distributor and the P300 was a ’wash’ as far as I could tell.
I don’t find the Black to have that somewhat highlighted presence region that the SE does, and while I agree that the NCF sounded more organic, I didn’t detect that Joplin soulfulness was as pronounced as it demonstrably is with the straight-into-the-wall Black outlet. When the PS8 is fully broken in, the cord will be long enough to test both outlets, but for now, I prefer listening NOT thru the P300 for the amplifier (the CD player is still plugged into the Tesla SE outlet in the P300 and, again, the NCF at the wall. Perhaps the Tesla SE is the weak link here and influencing the sound unfairly. Don't know yet. But the amp going into the Black outlet on its own dedicated circuit, is decidedly more soulful, and that went for the Rolling Stones, Rick James’ CD, Joplin, Nina Simone and Ella. I’d agree that there is a very slight loss of liquidity, but it (the Black) is not what I’d call ’dry-sounding’ either. But I clearly hear the organic nature of the NCF. Perhaps on something other than vocalists, it shines, but the Black seems to allow the pitch center of a mezzo-soprano (which is where Joplin and Ella both sing, although in different ranges, and Joplin, from what I read, had a wider range [3 octaves] than Ella) to sound "pure". I’m speaking purely of vocalists, though. I would say the Black is more ’exciting’ in this way, although, knowing a decent amount about Black singers (family members who sing, and church and the community), I’d say the Black outlet favors - no pun intended - Black singers, both male and female, easily as good as the NCF. Don’t know why, but the ’grittiness’ and soulfulness factor is in full swing in this genre of music. I’ll have to play some Etta James and Aretha to confirm this, but that’s how it sounds so far.
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Jtubes, incidentally - and I meant to say this earlier - I also use a SR Red fuse in the P300. I bought a Black fuse, but actually didn’t like it in that application. it’s interesting we both use the Red in the P300, or at least that’s what I thought you indicated you have in there. If so, that’s pretty fascinating we both heard the SR Red as the best fuse for the P300.
And, could you clarify something? You referred to the "narrow Black" which I took to mean Synergistic's outlet. Is that what you meant? If so, it sounds like you can put both an NCF and a UEF Black into the P300. So, is your testing with the NCF at the wall, and also installed in the P300, with a UEF Black as the second outlet? Sorry if I'm being slow here: it's late and as you can see from the 'time' post, it's late. Zzzzzzzzzzz time is approaching...
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Jtubes, which direction do you have the Red dust facing in your P300? With the writing on the fuse going left to right (the way you read a sentence), or the writing going right to left? I have my P300 on Stillpoints Ultra Mini Risers, which works extremely well, although I’ve moved them around under the unit and found the sound changes. The Absolute Sound had an article on several different footers in the December 2015 issue, and the authors found that the exact placement of the footers affected the sonics considerably, which is the same as my experience, and explains why some people just think most footers "tighten up the bass" when they do so much more than that: they clarify the rhythmic patterns in classical compositions and remove "haze" from around instruments and increase liquidity.
It’s striking though, that we have the same conclusions, given that I have the NCF outlet in one dedicated circuit at the wall and the SE in the P300, whereas you have them reversed. You’d think that there’d be differences in the overall sound, but here we are with the same observations. Apparently, the P300 has a decided preference for which SR fuse delivers the most true-to-life sonics. So, others with other PS Audio regenerators (and even newer ones) can try out the Black AND the Red. I have to give props (credit) to SR for that 30 day trial. That really shows their confidence in the product, although it does make me smile that manufacturers get someone else’s $20 unit and then charge $250 for it. I can see why people are cynical, but given the only thing they’d lose with the SR products is the shipping costs, I can’t see why anyone would mouth off without simply buying and trying.
Thanks for clarifying that you can put a GTX and a Black in the P300. I’m going to give that a go at some point. I don’t use the FIM outlet unless I need more than 2 items plugged in. However, I may swap out the SE for a Black after I’m sure everything else is broken in, which won’t be for a few weeks (I like to make sure things are COMPLETELY broken in) at least. Also, I’ll be putting the Venom PS8 into the system in another week, at which point it will have 400 hours on it. I think my P300 had Multiwave I on it. I once had a P300 and upgraded from Multiwave I to Multiwave II, but even though I had great electronics, I didn’t notice a significant difference.
By the way, I also found the Black fuse, when installed in the P300 to have a (slight) hardness to the sound. I went back and forth a couple of times before I settled on the Red fuse, but now I’m happy with that.
And Jea, why not extend the same offer to Jtubes you did to me? (Sorry, tubes, not to put you on the spot: it’s just that you might have an easier time getting to the outlet than I do. I’m loathe to move my Shunyata Cobra speaker cables, THEN the record albums, THEN the bookcase itself, in order to get to the outlet. At least for the next 2 months. I want to listen for a while, and quick changes, I find, can cause me to reach incorrect conclusions about what I’m hearing. And I don’t consider my listening "subjective". I consider it observational. I consider my emotional reaction to be subjective, but I can clearly hear what a component (even a wall outlet) shaping the sound in some way, without having an emotional reaction if I’m in "detective mode" ( a former profession, which requires one to be pretty detached, but observant).
Really enjoying your input a LOT. Where are you located in the US (if you’re in the US!)? I’m in Connecticut.
Incidentally, I have NOT noticed less sparkle in the highs or a more monochromatic color. Brass sounds quite good on the Black outlet, as does a tuba, and a glockenspiel. Are your amps solid state or tubes, just out of curiosity?
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I’ve noticed that the Black’s "brilliance" is very slightly less in evidence the last 5 days or so, so that the dueling guitars in the break of "Summertime" seem to be less transiently sharp, but there’s a caveat to that: I put a Shunyata Sigma analogue power cord on the NAD (just for fun) and removed the Alpha HC power cord, which I loaned to a friend. I’ll get it back Monday and see if the transients (and a very slight increase in rhythm) return. Being me, I turned off a wall outlet in the living room (not even on the same circuit, but I CAN hear it, just as I can hear the microwave when it’s powered on) to see if it was affecting the song. From what I could tell, it was not affecting the music, but Summertime is just slightly less plaintive right now. I moved one tube trap at the door to the music room, because I found the seam orientation could make Janis’ voice recede or come forward (and this is not a matter of the "presence" region being highlighted, but more the lower and middle midrange, so the entire voice sounds as though Janis moved 3 feet closer to me). Tube traps ( I should write a book about the perils of them!) are exceedingly sensitive to movement (my room is 8’ x 13 x 20 at one point and then the ceiling - when an addition was added - goes up suddenly to 10 x 12’8" x 20. think of a backwards "L" with the bottom of the "L’ being the 8’ height then the vertical part of the "L’ representing where the addition rises to 10’. The room is a nice size, but even bumping a trap on the way out of the room (one trap, on the side wall is close enough that if I swing the door all the way open, it will hit the trap on the side wall and push it out of alignment) will cause slight changes in sound. No wonder HP, in issue 57, opined they worked, but they needed to be carefully placed and he hadn’t the time to mess with them. Even in my dealer’s large 12’ x 22 x 25’ room, I frequently go in and move the tube traps around (I have free reign to wander thru the music rooms unless clients are in there) and usually find he has them placed in less than optimal positions.
So, the Black outlet seems to have "settled" down (just in time for yesterdays’s presidential election) so that it is less brilliant. When I turn the sound down, Joplin’s voice does not project so much. The Venom PS8 will reach 340 hours on Friday around 1 p.m and then I will place it back in the system to replace the P300 with the NCF at the wall, and then later, the SR Black at the other outlet. The Black is UNQUESTIONABLY less bright in the presence range than the TeslaplexSE. I’ll try the setting you mentioned (60 Hz).
Other than that, I got nothin’. Except that I played 'The Planets', the XRCD pressing (Japanese) and it sounded good, but not mesmerizing.
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Jtubes, I'm finally satisfied my SR Black has broken in completely.
I'm pleased with the unit, but less euphoric about it for perhaps the same reason you mentioned: the treble. It's very good and clear, but it was most "brilliant" on the first day, which was also when the sound had the most 'physical' representation. As time went on, the sound receded just a little, so one moved from row 6 to row 10. I would correlate this to your comment about the shimmer and metallic edge of a cymbal, and I agree it is not as refined as the Tesla SE, which overdoes it in the same regions that the Black does an about face and backs off a bit in the upper midrange and treble.
Another thing I noticed when playing some Frank Sinatra CDs (My September Years (Capitol) and a couple of others ( long after the initial post about the unit). Sinatra's voice sounded not as 'voluptuous' in the way that it had in the past. So I connected the Sigma power cord to the PS Audio (into a Tesla SE outlet, such irony), an thru an Alpha HC power cord into the Furutech GTX NCF outlet (instead of using the amp on the UEF Black outlet. The improvement in his vocal tones was clear, but at the expense of a sense of clarity and transparency. And the highs, while not of the super airy variety, still is quite, quite good. Of course, perhaps using an amplifier with an airy quality might reveal the shortcoming to be in the NAD, but given that I've used it before with other outlets, the colorations of the amp are clear enough for me to decide that the outlet, as good as it is, is only an equal and worthy alternate to the Furutech NCF. I could even see preferring the Black with a component that is warm in the upper bass/lower midrange, although I would just like Sinastra's voice to be as I know it has sounded for many, many years. On female vocals, the Black is excellent and even some older 50s r&B artists with a falsetto (Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, as examples).
As far as the older Furutech generation, however, The Black is clearly superior, to the GTX- Rhodium outlet I have.
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Sent back the Synergistic and got another NCF. I like the Tesla SE more than the Black, which is disappointing, as it is the first Synergistic product I've ever returned. I can see how someone would like the unit, but it is much too subtractive - in my experience - to allow me to sustain a sense of disbelief that I'm listening to a re-creation of recorded music. I'm a big fan of their fuses, but this outlet is not truly a step forward for them, although it is "good enough" if you don't listen to vocals closely, as well as orchestral music. For pop, and perhaps some rock, it will satisfy.
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I agree that the Tesla SE was their best outlet. And I don’t think it was due to my system, although I do think that if someone’s system has been built to achieve a ’pleasing’ result, then the outlets we employ will also slant the sound.
That the Black has the sonic signature we both hear - given we have different systems - is, I think, a matter of careful observation. I used different setups (as a matter of course), with the only set item being the speakers, which have a lift in the upper midrange. If the Black was neutral, the "lift" would have been evident. That it was not is indicative of there being less upper midrange/lower treble. And the dynamics in that region just did not ’jump’ as they did in the Tesla (even if it overdid it a little). It is less organic than the NCF. Clearly so.
The NCF unit I placed in the system last Friday is, hourly, still going thru its breaking in, which is easily heard at lower volumes, which I do simply to see if lyrics are clearer, especially the letters "d", which, at the end of a word, will be ’swallowed up’ as though someone was talking with a mouth full of food. Even only a week into burn in, I find myself listening to music, not focusing on the sound, which I could not quite do with the Black unit. I think your use of the word ’organic’ is excellent verbiage. I know there is a market for the Black unit, and I am sure it will do well for those who prefer a more ’pleasant’ sound (and nothing wrong with that).
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