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Just out of curiosity, I bought a pair of the Sonar Quest plugs. These are the aluminum body versions that are a little more expensive ($40/pair) than the plastic body ones. Comparing these to the Furutech FI-11's is, well, a waste of time. There is no comparison. It'd be like comparing a set of wrenches from Harbor Freight to a set from Snap-On.
But considering the price difference, the Sonar Quests are not terrible. I have no idea what the true purity of the copper is, but the finish is decent and is of sufficient thickness to do the job. The wire clamping mechanism is also sufficient, although not even close to the robustness of the Furu's. The aluminum body is acceptable, although the fit and feel is kinda cheap. But I'll give them a try. Can't really compare them apples-to-apples sonically with the Furu's I have now as the Furu's are gold plated. But Music Direct has the FI-11 copper versions on sale for $47 each, so I just ordered a pair. I'm interested to see what differences the huge disparity in materials and build quality have on the final sonic properties.
Round 2 of my DIY power cable is in the Cooker, so I'll be listening to that shortly. I already have most of the stuff here for Round 3, and I plan on doing the comparison with that cord once the Furu's arrive. Should be fun!
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FWIW, my Cullen CrossOver PC's came with the plastic body Sonar Quests.
I swapped them out for Oyaide's(004) just last week in fact. I believe I heard a nice subtle improvement, but let's just say the Sonar Quests weren't exactly chopped liver. I reused them on my subwoofer's DIY PC.
The plugs AntiCables is using on their power cords appears to be the plastic body Sonar Quests as well. I have a Level 2 and a Level 3, and at retail prices of $230 and $330 respectively you can't really expect them to be outfitted with high ranking Furu's or Oyaides.
Now if the Furu FI-11's turn out to be a significant improvement over the Sonars, I know how to make the AntiCables sound better. :)
Exactly. I think the Oyaide plugs took the Cullen PC up a notch, but it certainly wasn't night and day. (compared to the Sonar Quests)
Mike, Would you conclude that the Sonar Quest was better than mediocre even at is much lower price?? Man it's been a long time since I've had chopped liver. Personally I love the stuff. Nothing mediocre about chopped liver! The stuff gets a bad rap. Tweaker
Tweaker....Yep, the Sonar Quest plugs certainly qualify as a good "bang for the buck"...... or well into gourmet chopped liver status.
The Sonar Quest plugs are $21 for a single plug compared to about $47 for the Furutech, just to clarify a bit. T
Thanks Tweaker. That certainly clears up the widespread confusion caused by saying the Sonar Quests are "$40/pair" and the Furutech's are "$47 each."
This will be a very beneficial test. All "copper" is not identical, as there are so many different formulations, and a visual inspection tells us little.
As the variables are limited to just the unplated copper connectors (which many people prefer to plated), this will be a great service to all of us.
Copper is non ferrus and should not stick to a magnet. This is my first test of anything made from copper. You wouldn't believe how much product is on the market that professes to be pure copper that will stick to a magnet. Total rip off.
Just did. No magnetic attraction at all to the copper. Interestingly though, the screws that secure the outer body are magnetic as hell. I thought they were aluminum, but they're obviously a carbon steel with a plating. Shouldn't be too difficult to find some aluminum or 300 series stainless screws to replace them.
And if you want a really strong magnet to play with, go get that old 5 1/4" hard drive that's corroding in the forgotten box in the basement and take a sledgehammer to it (or I guess you could remove screws and stuff, but the sledgehammer is way more fun). The magnets inside those things will give you a nice blood blister if you get your finger between the magnet and something ferrous. Ask me how I know. :)
I found the same problem with some higher-grade Hubbell plugs I had planned to use for a custom Cooker adaptor. The set screws were highly magnetic. Trying to remove them (in their patented structure) looked to be a fools' errand, so I sadly said "no go".Be aware that the stainless screws (which is a great idea, btw) need to match the thread pattern of the (likely Chinese) screws you want to replace. I went through that exercise as well on another adaptor. Size was fine, the thread pattern wasn't. I even went to a local fastener distributor, hoping for success. Even with all their inventory, including metric, nothing would match up. No go there as well.
Edits: 10/04/16
Thanks Alan. Perhaps "shouldn't be too difficult" will prove to be an overly optimistic perception.
I'll give one of the screws to my Fastenal guy and let him do the work. He's in the plant every Thursday. Worst case, I can always ditch the screws and glue it together. :)
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