Just as I was about to purchase 3 Porter Ports yesterday, a friend of mine drew my attention to a new offering on the market, cryoed HBL 5362 by Cabledyne (www.cabledyne.com). Price wise there is considerable difference (as it appears to me): Porter Ports sell of $36 ea. + $12 shipping (for up to 3 units) against $25 each with free US shipping currently being offered by Cabledyne. My heart says Porter Port, but my mind -possibly biased by my friend - says Cabledyne. Would greatly appreciate the advice from and personal experience/comparison from fellow audiogoners. thank you in advance.
sorry to gatecrash here. Need Oyaide R1 experts input on the specification of the R1. pls see extract from their site. May I confirm that the Beryllium Copper contact is finished/covered with inner platinum layer of 0.5 microns thick and the outer palladium layer of 0.3 microns thick?
Just want to be sure that no Beryllium Copper is exposed, a little paranoid here as I have two small kids at home.
Plating Process To complete the R-1, the manufacturing process is started from foundation coating. The material which was punched out as a part is polished by hand piece by piece after machined barrel-polishing. The plating of the R-1 is a combination of platinum and palladium which was selected as a result of repeated listening tests. The inner platinum layer is 0.5 microns thick and the outer palladium layer is 0.3 microns thick.
Contact The contact of the R1 is made of beryllium copper-same as the F1/M1 series using a new and high level of performance. The use of heat treated beryllium copper insures mechanical integrity and high conductivity. It is 1.0mm thick and 6.0mm in width, reducing vibration at the point of contact with no loss of signal transmission.
I have one R-1 outlet. They are plated. Beryllium copper is the base metal which is harder than pure copper to provide a spring contact. In my listening tests, I find Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium to sound similar (brighter). Gold contacts are warmer and pure unplated brass (Hubbell outlet) is somewhere in the middle. Just be sure to use the same metal/plating on your power cords for the best sound.
Going with the Hubbell 5361 all brass single outlet. Will have to make my own custom mounted face plate 6 of them all double cryo'd out of .5 inch aluminum plate. These will be mechancally grounded. I now use the Furutech copper IEC connectors on my power cords. Tom
On a related point, I have some Porter Ports and now looking to buy some grey cover plates to use with them. Any idea where I can source these? It would need to be online as I live in Brazil. Thanks
Update: After several hundred hours I can say that the Hubbell HBL5362 bested some of my reference outlets. The only one that sounded warmer is the Furutech FPX copper. The Furutech GTX Rhodium was definitely brighter in my system. For the best overall balance the Hubbell is preferred. YMMV.
Hello group, Very interesting discussion. Quick question: I am running my system out of a Furman Reference 15i power conditioner; I'm also using Shunyata Venom power cords with my components.
Would buying a better outlet make a difference, or would it be unnecessary and redundant, given what I'm already doing?
I don't mean to hijack a thread, but this seems to be a good place to ask that question.
Jeff, you should always have a quality wall outlet as it makes a big difference in sound. Why would you want to plug your expensive gear into a poorly made 39 cent contractor grade outlet? This is like finger nails on a chalkboard! LOL :)
FYI all, I just received three new Porter Ports and these are Hubbell HBL5362W receptacles that are unplated and cryo treated (no green dots as shown on their website), so these should be virtually identical to the Cabledyne receptacles unless there are differences between the cryo treatments used. I did see that Cabledyne conditions their outlets on a Cable Cooker so I will do that myself with the Porter Ports. I am running some new circuits to make things easier to hook up. I currently have ACME outlets for my gear so will be interesting to compare.
I sent 8 Hubbell 5361 single outlets to be double cryo'd. I have 3 20 amp dedicated circuits in use and will replace the current FMS outlets with these. I have some 2024 aluminum 1/2 plate that I will have sized and cut to fit the outlets. These finished plates will be for wall mounting the outlets. The aluminum plates will be mechanically grounded to the concrete wall behind with brass rod and some special Audio Points. Tom
ARCAMGUY: You are welcome. I have added many more HBL5362s and now prefer them to the Furutechs after hundreds of hours of listening. Build quality is first rate.
The 6 single, double cryo'd Hubbell 5361's I installed with all non ferrous hardware and stainless steel cover plates sound wonderful. Less to resonate. Tom
Hi guys...!..i do not have any link with Hubbell what so ever but have to Admit that I have last month replaced my oyaide R1 wall socket outlet for Hubbell HBL 5362 w...it´s so obviuse that i did no wait to replace my power cell ps.audio réceptacles ..there is a huge différence in compareson with ps.audio réceptacles..day And night..Hubbell are Much Much Much BETTER.....!!!!....woooooooo...do yourself a favor ..have a try. You won't regret....chahed
I bought a Hubbell #IG5352 from Lowe’s. It is an isolated ground type. Cost was ~$11. Bought on a whim. Anyone know anything about how this outlet is related to those discussed above?
+1 Stringreen. I am impressed by how much the Maestro opened up my system. More refined, open and natural to me. For me that was going from a standard leviton outlet to the Maestro. It seemed like a change that I might experience if I sent my amp and source in and they upgraded all the signal components 1-2 levels. I was expecting a little improvement but not what I got.
Which outlet grips the power cord better between the Porter Ports and the 5362? The Porter Ports are supposed to have hospital grade contacts and the 5362 is industrial grade, so there might be a difference. Can anyone who has both do a quick test?
lall's ranking of these receptacles is a bit odd: "
My overall ranking based on the above tests are as follows:- 1. Cabledyne Cryoed Hubbell 5362 2. Hubbell 8300 (non cryo) – old stock all copper version 3. Porter Ports 4. Legrand 5. FIM Gold 880"
lall visually verified that the Porter Port was identical to the Hubbell 8300H with the same copper backstrap. A bit shocking that the non cryo'd Hubbell beat the cryo'd one!
I've got a couple vintage stock Hubbell 5362s in my system and intend to get some vintage 8200Hs shortly (identical to 8300H except not a true 20 amp connector as the extra clip deleted.) I've got to up my boutique outlet game a bit as I have 8 dedicated lines, but other than a variety of Hubbells, just a lone Maestro outlet. I'd like to get the Cabledynes, but limited to 2 at $35 each plus $10 shipping ($80 for 2). Up from $25 per unit to $45 now; the price of fame.
A shame theaudiotweak did not report back in detail on the single outlet HBL5361s. I've unfortunately noticed with my own dual outlets that one receptacle tends to sound a tiny bit better than the other. With 5361 you know you're getting the job done with just one outlet to choose. With duals it seems like one wire is connected fairly direct to one outlet while the other is reliant on the clippable tab to conduct to the outer
lak, have you messed with wall plates? I wonder at this development, but my 8 lines are actually housed in 4 dual duplex configurations. If cosmetics not an issue one wonders what the ambitious audio cheapskate might accomplish. I've also heard the GTX NCF is the cat's meow.
I've got some spec grade oddball hubbells in place that are unacceptable plus a gawd awful Cooper spec outlet from Lowes. 4 other slots are NOS HBL5362s from ebay on the under $10 delivered cheap. One Maestro which is the best.
I'm getting with Dave of P.I. Audio group who has polished cryo'd Pass&Seymour 5362As for $35 each (unpolished $25, and cryo'd P&S 5362 lower grade ones for only $10 each). He is user dBe over at audiocircle and responds to pms. This outlet might be superior to the Maestro and the new bargain champ.
Will get 1-2 of these P&S and try them out. I used to use a variety of power cords and switching in and out of my system was tedious. Hopefully I'll eventually have enough good receptacles in play to make some comments. Once installed its pretty easy to try them out, but I may rue swapping them in and out with the 10 guage wire likely to cause headaches.
@meles I run 10 gauge wire to my AC outlets also, and it’s a major pain to put outlets in and out, especially because my outlets are hard to get to.
Over the years I’ve tortured myself demoing various outlets. I’ve always preferred outlets that were cryogenically treated, after break in of course. That’s why I’m personally happy with my Furutech GTX-D Rhodium (R) outlets and am not planning on putting other outlets in or out...
I’m not saying there is nothing better, I’m just done switching those outlets in and out.
I had one Maestro outlet in my system and unfortunately, I was disappointed with it. Perhaps I had a bad one because the sucker broke (back strap) while it was in the outlet box after having the power cord plugged in and out about a dozen times. I also don’t think the Maestro outlet held up to the 10 gauge wire.
As far as wall plates are concerned, I do have a couple of the Furutech Duplex Cover Plates 104-D.
Haha the poor Maestro will be under some scrutiny.
I have two gang boxes so I’m lucky I can’t use 104-Ds. But Fim 308-2 is two gang (dual duplex) for $65 (aluminum). Oyaide has something like the 104-D in the WPC-Z2 for two gang and only $480 each.
I have two gang covers so that is TP82 instead of TP8. other letters like I stands for Ivory and CP for contractor pack. TP8ICP is ivory, contractor pack (10). "
Available in "TP" series, extra 3/16 inch width and height than Standard size plates; and "TPJ" series, extra 3/16 inch width and height than Junior-Jumbo size plates."
@lak, The TP is a junior jumbo size, see any issues with TPJ which is full on jumbo and even bigger? What about stainless steel?(see below discussion.)
After double taking on $480 for an outlet cover (FFS I would need 8 at nearly $4000, gad zooks). It may be time for DIY outlet covers. The late "Winston Ma discovered that the outlet cover makes an important contribution to the performance of his outlets. He evaluated a number of options, with interesting results. The cheap plastic covers used in residential construction are, as you might have guessed, sounded the worst. More rigid covers sounded better, especially those made from non-magnetic stainless steel. He also learned that installing shielding and damping material inside the cover plate paid huge dividends."
I’m thinking the TPJ style might be a good vehicle for tweeking (putty pads for outlet boxes, aluminum tape, copper foil, all on hand.) Also an option, Stainless steel plates much like the FIM 308 (stainless steel is nonmagnetic) and one then could provide vibration tuning/damping on the backside (essentially what the FIM 308 does). Fleabay has my double gang ones for $5 each delivered or 8 for $30. Any stainless steel will do as its all non-magnetic. $30 and supplies on hand sounds a lot better than $4000, haha.
Not all stainless steel is non-magnetic the SS82 is non-magnetic. Leaning towards these as starting point and only $12 delivered for 4 (I only need 4, not 8). These can then be damped. Sadly wood insert ones not available for 2 gang, just 1 gang. I've got some dynamat like material from car audio that I may try.
Ordered 2 of the polished cryo'd P&S from Dave: 2 ea P&S 5362A(P) + shipping = $70.00
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