Oyaide P004 and C004 plugs

I found the top of the line Furutech's sounded "hard and aggressive" but took close to 500 hrs to smooth out and become dynamic and detailed. Just my own experience.

Which Furutech plugs did you have?  I use several of the 004 Oyaides in my system.  They are quite neutral but hide nothing.  I had the Oyaide 046 before and thought the 004 were a bit aggressive when I first installed them.  That changed pretty quickly but I can't say how many hours it took.  I assume it was getting accustomed to a more detailed and transparent sound as well as burn in.  Give it time but if your system does veer to the bright side, these plugs won't do anything to ameliorate that.   These are excellent plugs in my opinion..

The furutech I used were the FI 28 gold the sound was open but the bass was loose and the overall sound was not having focus

I had the Furutech FI-25 G briefly and was not impressed.  I had several of IeGO plugs at that time, including their gold plug, and found the IeGO's all better, preferable, to the FI-25.  I did a lot of mixing with plugs, blending the sound of each to get a hybrid sound that sometimes worked quite well.  May I suggest you try one of the Furutech FI-28's and an Oyaide 004 on your power cord instead of both 004's?  That may take off the edge and remove the aggressiveness you're hearing while bettering the Furutech only sound of before.

@jasbirnandra - have you considered that the Furutech plugs you are using may not be the cause of your harshness?

We tend to attribute the changes to sound to the latest system/cable change we have made, but in the case of power plugs, it might just be attached cable or the Interconenct cables that are the cause of the harshness.

But first, as others have stated - allow sufficient break in time - at least 100 hours,

Personally I use SonarQuest silver plated copper connectors for everything

Regards - Steve

After 24 hours of use things are smoothing out and getting better and musical with more air, good high and tight bass.

+1 on the SonarQuest. I have used both the silver plated copper and pure copper.

Listen to Steve. The wiring/cabling is more important than the connectors...

Just ran in set of fi 28r and they are wonderfull sounding...Nice open soundstage and i feel they are the sweet spot in furutech’s offerings.No hint of the typical minuses of rhodium.Indeed alot of hrs on them has made the difference.

(Steve's word is well founded and taken,its everything though imho)

Im really curious about the sonarquest stuff...I like the lego but man that iec is tough to wrestle with.Suppose the sonar's would be much the same.I dont have near the skills that "williwonka" has at his craft...trust his judgement on these things though.Everytime i say im done putzing around with wire/ac/sc.😖

@digsmithd - agreed - The Sonaquest IEC’s provide the best "clamping" of any IEC connector I have tried - their contacts are noteceably thicker than other brands and I often insert them into a spare socket to loosen them up a little before inserting into components.

Sonarquest contacts (mains and IEC) are very well engineered (i.e. very flat) and their silver plated copper seems to provide the best energy transfer of any plug I have tried and they have a subtantial thickness of plating, making the number of insertions before the silver wears off very high. They also have very strong screws that allows for very tight clamping of the wires

• Note: all of my silver plated copper connectors have yet to wear through to the copper,
• due to the frequent prototyping of my cables, the number of insertions a plug is subject too is significantly higher than most people will experience with normal use
  • NOTE: I do use hosital grade MRI outlets everywhere throughout my, which may also provide better wear.

Another good silver plated copper conncetor is from Vanguard, but the plating is not quite as robust, the contacts are not as flat and the IEC’s do not clamp as tightly. But if you are on a budget I would highly recommend them - they are not far behind the Sonarquest from an overall performance persective

Regards - Steve

I think i will have to pop for set....I do have a power wire i need to eventually terminate...thx again steve for vote of confidence in the sonars.It helps solidify the decision.