Using Cardas 3455R Male/IEC AC plug versus Furutech AC plugs


Hi I was wondering Whether you would share your experience on using Cardas 3455R plugs vs. Furutech plugs.

thanks...
M.
michelzay
--" Huh, I can’t find reference where Cardas uses beryllium copper. Post a link if you know where that’s stated."

I called Cardas cs and that's what they said: Beryllium copper  is base conductor+Silver/Rhodium.

Beryllium copper or bronze are not bad as conductor but Copper is much better in term of overall quality.

cheers,
M.

Huh, I can’t find reference where Cardas uses beryllium copper. Post a link if you know where that’s stated.

Beryllium copper is actually not that bad of a material to use as a conductor. Both Beryllium copper and phosphor bronze are typically used in situations where you need high spring strength (such as IEC connectors). The male plugs don’t need "spring strength" since they are just sliding into a socket (and not squeezing something together). Yes, pure copper is better, but it is harder to devise a female type socket with pure copper because it’s so soft. Furutech has been able to do this with its more expensive connectors. However, Furutech still uses both beryllium copper and phosphor bronze it its high end carbon fiber XLR connectors. If you look at the Furutech GTX pure copper outlets, you’ll see that they had to implement a steel spring to hold the contacts together.

My bigger concern with Cardas is any item that introduces silver as a conductor element. Silver has it’s own sonic character and will tend to push the mids/highs and could be lean on bass. It can sound artificial to me as well. I’ve experienced this when just putting in some silver plated fuse clips -- the sound went too much towards that artificial character. Also putting in a silver Hi-Fi Tuning fuse pushed it too far. This is my own preference in sonic signature, others may have different opinions.

@auxinput  Thanks for your comment. It seems there are not too many people using Cardas AC plugs.
It seems Cardas uses Beryllium copper +Silver/Rhodium plating. It is clear Beryllium copper as conductor  is not as good as pure copper used in most of Furutech ac plugs. This is my main concern.
There are some physical similarities between Cardas 3455R (made in China) and Furutech Fi-15plus. However, contrary to what people think, Cardas ac plugs are not made by Furutech.


I looked at the Cardas as an option.  However, the Cardas used silver in the plating (copper that is  plated with Rhodium over Silver).  My own preference is not to use silver in my components, so I went with Furutech, which is just rhodium plated over copper.