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In Reply to: RE: Don't be affraid of the Rhodium AC connectors... posted by Cougar on September 01, 2016 at 07:37:34
My dislike for rhodium plating goes back over 17 years, from Hubbell to Oyaide to Furutech. I always found it very forward in presentation, with little or no depth of soundstage....the music started and ended right at the speakers. This was confirmed again more recently in auditioning some very fine power cables from overseas....they used Furutech FI-11M-N1(R) connectors.
On the other hand, I never experienced brightness or top end exaggeration....just the overly-forward presentation. And oddly, I've not read anyone else's comments on this forwardness over many a year....
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Has not been good either with stranded or solid core wire. Just closed in and lacking. The Hubbell HBL 8215C connectors were way better.
So what works for one person may not work well for others. The Neotech cables and ac plugs are very nice and work very well in my system. Also it may depend on what type of system you have be it tube or SS.
Everyone I've talked to (regarding the new NCF connectors & NCF wall duplex) has told me that there is no forwardness to the presentation, regardless of the rhodium plating....and they were familiar with that forward characteristic in the past, though not on everything they'd listened to.
The NCF connectors & wall duplex may set a new standard for high-performance....we'll see. I need to install my NCF duplex soon and compare it to the R-1. This new technology does come at a higher price, unfortunately....but I do understand the cost of materials and superior build quality, something that Oyaide understood over a decade ago, raising that bar for everyone else.
but with a little more depth than before. You can just hearing all the little details in the background that you either couldn't before or were just very faint.
I know the soundstage will change again once I get the new power cord and connectors for my VTA-120 tube amp. Seems like every extra component that is tube gets a little more deeper in soundstage but I don't want it too deep like I'm in a back row. Chris Brady mention something like that with his all tube system.
With the 2 way horns will be building this will not be the case. :)
Alan, my experience with (non-NCF) Rhodium plated AC connectors was the same as yours. A couple months ago I tried some NCF Rhodium IEC inlets on my amps in place of the Furutech Gold inlets I was using previously. My initial reactions were positive, but after making some other changes to the system recently I decided to try the Gold inlets again. I am now back to Gold inlets all the way! To my ears they are better balanced tonally and they have more refined mids and treble than the NCF Rhodium. Of course, the type of IEC connector on the power cord makes a big difference, so perhaps someone using a different connector might reach a different conclusion. My power cords use Audio Note ISIS copper wire and have Furutech FI-11 Silver IEC plugs and FI-11M Copper AC plugs.
I fully agree that a silver Furutech FI-11(Ag) IEC connector sounds better when mated with a gold Furutech IEC inlet.
I got the idea of using those particular Furutech connectors from you, so thanks for the recommendation. It makes an especially synergistic match with the Audio Note ISIS mains cable.
Hi Salectric,
Finding audiophile synergy can be difficult since listening to an audio device is a far more complex experience than say the synergy of mixing & matching colors involved in industrial or artistic applications. You can have multitudes of color swatches to choose from, while mixing & matching audio devices can only be determined by putting rubber to the road, and going though what some folks might consider tedious investments, installations, modifications, and further evaluations they simply don't have the time, funds, dedicated interest, or endless evaluations to endure. I have looked at the process from a different angle -- I do it for my own creative, intellectual, aesthetic, and social purposes rather than settling for less within my audiophile hobby.
Cheers, Duster
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