Perfect Path Tecnologies ‘The Gate’


Having been a music lover and audio enthusiast for more decades than I care to admit to I’ve had the privilege of owning some tremendous components over those years and thought I had attained a level of musical enjoyment that would be difficult to improve upon without spending more money than I could afford. Then along came The Gate to turn my audio conceptions on end. 

While I was quite skeptical of all of the positive proclamations regarding the Perfect Path mats, cards and contact enhancer ( how could they possibly bring about such sonic improvements?) I took the plunge and purchased a nano bundle to see what the hubbub was all about. Much to my surprise they not only brought about improvements to my systems’ ability to recreate a more musical sound but did so in spades. 

When Tim of Perfect Path Technologies asked if I wanted to try his new product, The Gate, I jumped at the chance thinking it would be a nice addition to what the other products provided. I wasn’t prepared for the quantum leap The Gate brought to my music listening pleasure. As much as the other products brought about a much lower noise floor, greater detail and delicacy, improved dynamics, richer tone and more realism The Gate does so in magnitudes difficult to describe. The best way I can describe its affect is unreal purity leading the most realistic musical sound I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.....outside of a live performance obviously. It has me listening to all of my CD’s as if for the first time again.

I have no idea how The Gate actually works or what it does I just know it’s the most dramatic tweak to my system I’ve ever experienced and I wouldn’t think of being without it. As to how it’s implemented, it’s installed in the electrical panel with one lead connected to the common buss and the other to a breaker ( preferably 220). Hope I got the terminology correct.....I’m far from being an electrician!

At $4,999.00 it’s not cheap but worth every penny to me as I’ve spent more on components with less sonic improvement. 

Lastly, I realize some will scoff at something they can’t understand and I get not understanding it as I don’t, but I would hope people could keep their skepticism healthy and civil. I am not here to promote or sell, nor do I have any affiliation with PPT. I am only sharing something that I’ve found to be transforming in my system. Sorry for the lengthy introduction.
mac48025

Showing 10 responses by whostolethebatmobile

Re obsession with noise floor. In my experience there are two types of noise - the background noise you can hear all the time mostly due to limitations of power and componentry, and the noise which only manifests during play, due to vibration. Lowering the background noise is one thing, but I think the obsession mainly relates to lowering the vibration induced noise which could also be regarded as distortion. Because removing it unmasks detail, it appears to be lowering the "noise floor", but in effect it is a lowering of the "distortion floor".
folkfreak -
Thanks for your description of the effect of The Gate. I plan to take the plunge soon. I will also have 2 PowerCell UEF SE units on hand soon. I already have one. Do you have any advice for the best use for 2 of them, if any? A brief answer would suffice, as I don’t want to unreasonably derail The Gate thread.
That’s interesting (The Gate completely eliminating night/day listening differences). Because if true it would prove that night/day differences are the result of AC powerline disturbances, not air quality related (Franck Tchang’s theory), or the often speculated difference in listener relaxation states.
If you're sure it’s a $50 600v 4uF cap, why don’t you buy some, put it in a box and sell the alternative product for one tenth of the price of The Gate? You’d clean up, and you’d do us all a favour. If you can’t be bothered doing that, then what can I say?
"gizmo"? Like the guys who said Total Contact was "goo". Wrong.
And fo.Q tape was "snake oil". Wrong again.
Common theme - ignorance of the subject under discussion.

I haven’t bought the PPT Gate yet. But -

I bought PPT Total Contact. I bought one tube and used it. It was mindblowing. I bought another and used it. That’s 2 tubes. Then I bought 4 more tubes which haven’t arrived yet. That will be 6 tubes. That doesn’t include the free tube that arrived unexpectedly. I must like it!

I bought PPT E-Mats. I bought 3. I must have liked them because I bought 6 more. Somehow I received 12 even though I only paid for 9. How did that happen, isn’t PPT supposed to be a rip-off? I would say emphatically not.

I bought a bunch of PPT Alpha E-Cards. But I ended up with a very big bunch of E-cards, several more than I ordered. Somehow I also ended up with 10 gold RCA caps that I didn’t pay for either.

I don’t know anyone at PPT except for some friendly emails. When I ordered from them, I didn’t know what to expect because of all the crazy negative posts I read here before taking the plunge. The mindless negativity nearly turned me off buying from PPT. It really grates with me when people call PPT a rip-off. They’re not, they are the exact opposite. I haven’t heard the Gate, but I have no doubt, no doubt at all that it will be as good as has been claimed. Like everything else they sell.
stfoth -
In answer to your question - I bought PPT because of what I read on Audiogon. I paid full price and have never been offered anything for my comments. I received some extras in my orders that were a pleasant surprise, but that was before I made any comments. My comments are always totally for real, rest assured.

And I agree with Frank that fully treating an existing system with PPT products (in my case I do not have the Gate yet), is a far greater and more profound improvement than upgrading an electronic component from good to great.
debjit_g
If you got the Mega-Pack bundle you should be really happy. That’s what I started with. After I received it and installed everything, I was totally inspired to go further, and then I ordered a Giga-Pack. Even after getting all that and some bonus product, I still wanted more and ordered 4 more tubes of Total Contact. Waiting for it to arrive is driving me crazy, haha! I'm treating all my SR grounding cables with it, the entire lengths.

The E-Mats are way more than subtle. It’s a case of once you have them in place, you might suffer anxiety and withdrawal symptoms if they were removed, haha. So are the little Alpha cards, which have a similar effect. I would say 12 cards have equivalent EMF blocking power to one mat, but each has its own use because of the size. The Mats can be placed under turntables, amps, preamps, D/A and A/D converters, etc. Inside breaker boxes is a popular recommendation, but somehow that did not seem to work quite as well for me. Australian breaker boxes are different from the USA variety. On the other hand, I have a mat draped over the power outlets at the back of my PowerCell line conditioner, and the improvement there is incredible.

The cards can be taped on top of sockets and terminals, inside speakers near crossovers, etc. I use 3 of the cards as barriers to stop tubes and transformers interacting on each of my PrimaLunas - very, very effective there. How many mats and cards? Well, 3 mats is nice, but I have 12 and any fewer would be possible cause for an anxiety attack. You could never have too many cards (at least 10?) , if your system is large like mine.

Total Contact paste is a must have. There’s so much info available about it on other threads that I don’t need to repeat. The main thing to remember is to start out treating the usual things like interconnect pins, tube pins (carefully!), speaker terminals, power pins, wall outlets. One fantastic way to use the remaining paste, is to brush an ultra-thin coating onto TA-32 fo.Q tape and then wrap the tape around cable terminations, grounding cables etc. Remember it is very conductive.





As a new-ish customer of Perfect Path, I would like to thank Frank for his steadfast and truthful enthusiasm for the PPT products. If I had listened to wilfully ignorant posts such as fsonicsmith, I would never have placed my initial order. I almost didn’t, because of people like him who have posted similar ignorant garbage here.

I’m so glad I did indeed take the plunge. Total Contact, PPT E-Mats, Alpha Cards, and Stop-It plugs not only work as advertised (or better than advertised), they are the future of audio. I really mean that. The Future/Now (sonically speaking). It’s the most excitement and enjoyment I’ve ever had since geting interested in audio in the early 1970s. My real name is Mark Taylor, I have run the G45Central 60s garage collectors website since 2006, which fsonicsmith may know if he knows anything about the real Fred Sonic Smith (RIP).

Don’t be put off by 100% uninformed posts such as those spewed in ignorance by fsonicsmith. As Frank said, and as my own experience has confirmed, you’ll most likely get more than you bargained for.

And if fsonicsmith would like to hear a PPT-enhanced digital transfer of one of Fred Sonic Smith’s first 45s with the MC5 on AMG (maybe "One Of The Guys" or "I Just Don’t Know"), let me know and I’ll put up a link in a day or two.
Mark
Frank - I've had them for weeks now. When I ordered my Gigapack Tim included a 10-pack at no charge. After hearing what 10 of them could do for my system, I ordered 20 more. Now the whole house is decked out with Stop It duplex plugs. Wow! I'll write about my experience when they are released on the PPT site which shouldn't be long now. I even made a video to demonstrate how they work. Pity the video can't show how they sound...