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In Reply to: RE: Please keep reviews succinct posted by Feanor on November 02, 2008 at 04:36:29
Hi Feenor,
Personally, I enjoyed this review tremendously, finding myself laughing several times during its reading.
As for the difference between a SOTA receptacle vs a standard one, you should buy both and compare in your system, especially since PS Audio offers a 30 day money-back trial. I think you will be astonished.
By the way, many of the hospital grade receptacles have been found to provide worse sound that standard versions. Most of the design attributes that make a receptacle 'hospital grade' are not the ones that benefit audio.
Follow Ups:
crossram says, " By the way, many of the hospital grade receptacles have been found to provide worse sound that standard versions. Most of the design attributes that make a receptacle 'hospital grade' are not the ones that benefit audio. "
I'll confess I don't know what these attribute are. I hope you will explain them.
It is my habit to try only those tweaks that seem plausible. I'm missing what makes $100 wall sockets plausible -- yes, I have read PS Audio's blurb (despite the verbosity). But I'd be glad to be enlightened
___
Feanor's Classical Survey: 250 Exemplary Compositions
Hi Feanor (sorry about this mispelling earlier),
The main attributes that differentiate hospital grade receptacles from standard ones are: 1) High Tension blade wipes to provide maximum contact area between the plug blades and the receptacle (good for audio) and 2) Special composition plastics for the receptacle body to withstand chemicals (not helpful for audio). There may be others, but I don't think they are important in this context.
The main thing that differentiates good audio receptacles from standard or even hospital grade versions is the type of metals used in the wipes, the terminals, and the backplate. Also, using certain plastic composites for the receptacle body provides vibration reduction.
Both PS Audio and Oyaide use beryllium copper base metals, PBT bodies, and multiple plating and polishing steps. Oyaide makes 4 different receptacles, each plating the beryllium copper with different combinations of metals (gold, platinum, rhodium, beryllium) to provide compatibitility to the different metals used in the male plugs of different power cords and also to tailor the resulting sound to your taste.
It escapes me why a lot of folks have so much trouble accepting that improving the quality of the incoming AC flow will make significant differences in the performance of their equipment. After all, the only function of audio equipment is to convert random electrons coming from the AC line to accurate electrical waveforms to send to your speakers.
One of the most common challenges to the benefits of power cords and other power enhancements is that the power coming in from the outdoor transformer to your fuse box and then through low grade-wiring to the receptacles is so poor, so how can 'the last five or six feet" make any difference?
It was explained to me one time that the flow of electrons coming from the public utility can be compared to water molecules in a raging whitewater river with a lot of turbulence. If you were to insert a smooth tube at the base of the river that was sufficiently long, the turbulence of the water would dissipate over the lenght of the this tube to the point where it would exit the tube flowing calmly (thus calming the movement of the water molecules) into a pool at the bottom. Good power cord designs do the same to electrons, reducing their agitated state and uncontrolled energy from the wall to the component and therfore providing a more friendly AC signal to the power supply. Audio receptacles optimize the conversion of electrons from the metallurgy of the house wiring (usually Romex) to the metallurgy that is optimally compatible to the metals in the cords plugs.
All I know for sure is that all this makes a huge improvement in the sound of my system.
Best,
Dave
Hospital-grade outlets have thick steel back straps for added strength. The power wires pass on either side of the back strap on any but the cheapest of outlets (that have no back strap). When the back strap is made of steel, it becomes the core of a one-turn inductor. Thicker steel increases the amount of core material and increases the inductance.
Since this inductor is a parasitic device and there is no attention to the magnetic properties of the steel used to make the back strap, it is not surprising this property of the outlet is detrimental to audio equipment performance. The easy but somewhat dangerous way to evaluate this for yourself is to place a strong ceramic magnet on the strap (Warning: AC is dangerous and the magnet may conduct electricity and cause a fire if you cause a short-circuit.) This will not eliminate the problem, but it will make the magnetic behavior of the steel more linear and reduce the effect on the audio performance.
The audiophile outlets have back straps made of brass or bronze, so they eliminate the extra inductance caused by the steel back strap. They also avoid use of steel screws or other parts.
Any outlet with a metal back strap that is mounted in a steel wiring box will still have some unwanted coupling of the AC current to a metal loop comprised of the back strap and the metal box. This loop can be broken by replacing one of the fixing screws with a Nylon screw and Nylon washer. This tweak works especially well with the audiophile outlets. For new installations, I recommend plastic wiring boxes and nonmagnetic stainless steel screws.
FWIW, The Hubbel and P&S hospital outlets 8200,8300,8200H,8300H all have brass backstraps and contacts. Indeed the larger Hubbell does nickel plate its strap, but its permeability is orders of maginitude less than that of steel backstrap.
:)
Indeed, the Leviton hospital receptacles have plated ferrous straps, which do comply with Federal Specification WC-596, section 3.5.1, as do the Hubbel and P&S with their brass straps, which would minimize your purported magnetic hokey pokey.
But honestly Al, who but the most inexperieced and tin eared would even mention a Leviton outlet if they'd ever bothered to listen to one? Even the all brass Leviton 5262 sounds like poo.
FWIW
The brass parts are listed as nickel plated in the Hubbell documentation (HBL8300*).
This is a problem for audio use, as nickel plating causes problems with the electrical contacts to these parts. Audiophile outlets generally have various exotic plating schemes that do not include nickel. This is another reason why hospital-grade outlets do not work well for resolving audio systems.
Have you forgotten your earlier post?
I did not say I preferred hospital-grade outlets, and the Leviton is why I haven't bothered with other brands in pursuit of better audio performance.
The magnetic response is a real issue, and can easily be heard by anyone with the inclination to actually try the experiment. Brass straps would avoid the back strap problem.
The porter ports sound great. I like them better then Oyaide which are nice but they really to add their sound to a system.
PJB
Agree with you on that one Doc.
Phil,
I appreciate the info. I've just ordered a HBL8200H to compare against the HBL5262. I've previosly auditioned P&S 8200H, 9300H, and found the sound much like the P&S 5262A, not bad, but not my cuppa.
Now that the HBL8200H is on it way, I too will be able to make pronouncements on how ALL hospital receptacles sound.
Regards,
Paul
Hi Paul,
According to the Hubbell catalog, the 8200H is a GFCI outlet. Don't think your going to find great sound there. Sorry!
Sorry dude. The HBL8200H is NOT a CFCI receptacle (the 8200H is). My apologies for the error.
However, there may be concerns. From the Hubbell catalog:
"One piece, nickel-plated brass mounting strap with
integral ground contacts, ...".
"Exclusive bypass contacts are made of nickelplated
brass alloy."
As you likely know, nickel plating is said to be detrimental to sound. That's one reason the Porter Port is recommended - no plating.
I installed a Synergistic Research Quantum Tunneled Leviton receptacle yesterday and I am very impressed. The sound with this receptacle is very transparent and lively, and has an amazingly open soundstage, just like the SR Tesla power cords. So far, I prefer it to my new Oyaide R1 (which is still breaking in, so this could change).
Hi Al,
I anticipated that there were other unique features of hospital grade receptacles, thus my lame disclaimer, 'There may be others, but I don't think they are important in this context'.
I guess the metal backstrap issue is indeed an important one. Fortunately, I am making good progress toward replacing all non-audio grade receptacles with Oyaide on my dedicated lines and all of my outlet boxes are plastic.
But this does bring up a question: I have a couple of good-quality outlet strips whose housings are metal and use non-audio grade Hubbell receptacles. These receptacles are isolated ground models - does this control the backstrap coupling with the housing or do I need to take additional steps to eliminate this?
Thanks for improving my understanding (as always).
Best,
Dave
You should check the backs of the outlets to see if they are steel or brass. As long as the straps are continuous and fixed to the metal case at top and bottom, they will complete a circuit that couples to the AC. If they are steel, they will also act as inductor cores.
Thanks Al.
VooDoo Cable offers a cryo'd Hubbell 8300IG (isolated ground) and I notice from the pictures that the PPP is also isolated ground. Please explain what the benefit of this is.
Dave
A standard outlet connects the AC ground wire to the back strap, and thus to the metal wiring box. The steel framework of a large building may be at a slightly different potential than the AC ground. If the wiring box is attached to the steel framework, the ground loop thus created may carry large currents and upset the operation of sensitive equipment plugged in to that outlet.
An isolated-ground outlet keeps the outlet grounds attached only to the AC ground wire from the local service panel, and breaks the ground loop. The building wiring has to have another ground for the wiring box. This configuration is not something that should benefit a typical home audio system.
I'm sure some people use them to provide a separate earth connection for the audio system's AC. This is illegal and can be very dangerous. If the system AC earth connection is physically separated from the main power earth connection, a nearby lightning strike can cause brief offset voltages of several thousand volts between the two earth connection points. This is caused by very large currents flowing laterally through the earth.
This spike can flash over and destroy your equipment. Worse, it can set the remains on fire.
*
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