Wall outlets


Hey everyone, don’t kill me I know it’s been talked about a bit. I’m am currently about to upgrade my wall outlet. Commercial vs Audio outlets. The general consensus is commercial hospital outlets would work but they can strip the coating off our nice power cables. I have talked a bit with @audphile1 on this matter. Furutech has my attention. I have considered upgrading my power cable to the Furutech DPS 4.1 cable and get a Furutech outlet with the same finish. A friend of mine is an electrician and has offered to install a new outlet behind my rack. He said I could pay with a case of beer. Haha. Sorry if I started a new 🔥🔥🔥. The forum is fun, there is far more knowledge here than we are going to find anywhere else IMO. Also I finally got my virtual system up for anyone to take a look. Thanks everyone

shtr74sims

Opinions will vary however I'd recommend one of the Audiophile-type outlets.

After trial and error, I settled on the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium outlets. I'm not stating it is the best but it's what sounded the best to me.

Just remember that the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium outlet has about 300 hours of break-in to achieve what will become its signature sound. I realize some will criticize me for what I just stated but if you research the outlet you will see that many others agree. One should not be critical unless they have heard and experienced the product in question.

@lak I agree with you. @audphile1 has recommended the same ones too. There are fixes for things here and there but likely cost more in the long run vs just doing it right the first time. 

@ghdprentice when I installed my 5 lines in my listening space I did an experiment. Installed a Leviton 8300-R 20 Amp, Hospital Grade. Installed a standard HD .99 cent outlet, installed Monosaudio 20 Amp Audio outlet, installed Cardas 4181 and a Audioquest NRG Edison Duplex.

Zero difference after 90 days and swapping from outlet to outlet, amps and integrated Zip, Zero, Notta. so buy the .99 cent outlet works as well as the $200.00 one. Electricity has no sound, interference on your lines  will have an impact but these outlets do nothing to filter noise. 

BTW the Cardas and the Monosaudio look identical.

Electricians do recommend replacing receptacles as the get old, baggy (lose clamp force) and the plastics can crack. Copper or copper plated silver are your best conductors for outlets. Hospital grade often uses is rhodium

Is Rhodium more conductive than silver?
Rhodium is a precious metal from the platinum family. It is hard, acid-resistant, and has a very high melting point (1964°C). Compared to other platinum metals, it is a very good conductor, but still only half as good as gold and just one third as good as silver and only 50% of Copper. 

 

hospital outlets would work but they can strip the coating off our nice power cables.

I’ve been around this forum a long time and yesterday is the very first time I’ve heard this ever happened. Before I believe this even happened I’d like to see pictures along with brand and model numbers. Also, if it did happen I’d blame a cheap plating process.

In other words: I call BS. Prove it ever happened or this is another UFO story. "I knew a guy who lived in Roswell who had a dog that claimed it saw aliens being taken out of escape pods...."

About Rhodium: It is so very pretty, and not a very good choice for any contact in audio, though I admit to using some RCA male plugs in a board a long time ago.

The issues are not just conductivity (as mentioned above) but also hardness. rhodium is almost as hard as Nickel (from my experience) and therefore wont’ deform at all. That’s BAD in a high current connector. You want it to deform at least a little so the contacts squeeze and get a grip. Basically in AC plugs rhodium on rhodium feels lubricated, like it can slip out easily. In a speaker spade with equally hard terminals you just can’t tighten the terminal enough for a reliable connection.

Copper is simply a far superior conductor AND has better grip strength. Next to that, gold plated copper because gold, unlike rhodium, is still soft.