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I bought one of these male 15amp copper plugs from the dealer on the Ebay link out of curiosity on how it sounds. The dealer is asking $14.00 shipped and I offered $12.00 and he accepted. After replacing a much more expensive OCC FIM plug, I have found this cheap plug to offer superior musicality in every respect. Not only is it neutral and dynamic, but the bass is unbelieveable. What really makes this cheap plug special is it gives music that breath-of-life that most others don't offer. I have since ordered two more and replaced two Wattgate 330i plugs with them and sure enough, the music came out with more life. I never thought that I'd be so enamored with a cheap plug. My previous all-time cheap plug was the Wattgate 320 and this copper plug walks all over it. By the way, the sound is great right off the bat, but does offer subtle improvements after about 80 hours of burn-in. The shipping is free, arrives within 10 days from China and service is excellent. One other thing that I appreciate and wanted to mention is the dealer or manufacturer doesn't try to pass it on as an Oyaide or other known brand.
Follow Ups:
I know their are Oyaide knock-offs, but the seller does not present them as Oyaide. The plugs are supposed to be gold plating over copper poles. For the price ($17 shipped for the pair), I might scrape off some of the gold just to see what's underneath. Anybody have any idea how to test for metallurgy beyond just looking at what's underneath?
Kevin T
"religion is the opiate of the masses"
I've had the knock-off P-079 / C-079 for a few weeks. There are branded as Oyaide on the back of the connector, but they are obviously knock-offs. I just installed the P-079 on a cheapie cord using Carol 10/3 wire from Home Depot and a Schurter 20A IEC. I can't comment on the sound as I don't notice any difference between the P-079 and the FIM plug it replaced. To be honest, I don't know how you listen to a connector, but what can I do?
The P-079 / C-079 are sold as gold plated copper for the neutral and load and rhodium plated copper for the ground. I dissassembled the C-079, and attempted to file down to see if it was really copper underneath, but never saw any. So I broke out my Dremel and cut a square out of the end of the prong. The entire cross-section is gold in color, leading me to believe it's either gold plated brass or just polished brass. Granted, I'm no metalurgist so these observations are using only my untrained eye.
For $17 shipped from China, I guess I could've done worse. I'm just slightly disappointed they're not pure copper underneath.
Kevin T
"religion is the opiate of the masses"
Sounds absolutely terrific!
I have now swapped out two older plugs for these genuine Oyaide P079 plugs. First was feeding my amp; second was feeding my entire analog setup through the power strip. In both cases the plugs were fed by Oyaide outlets - the amp by an SWO-XXX Ultimo and the strip by an R1 out of the wall. This is one continuous leg, BTW: wall to strip to amp.
The one on the amp replaced a very good Furu F1-11G. Very very good improvement in sound. Made me grin.
The second replaced an old P&S. Whoah!!!! What a major difference. Grin got really big.
What's the difference? In both cases the detail and nuance improved significantly. In the second case the entire bottom end got punchier and tighter (had to turn down the sub a bit) and the PRAT was noticeably improved overall. The entire spectrum improved. More musical, as they say.
My experience is that AC upgrades (plugs, PCs, outlets) do make a significant difference. Every time I upgrade I'm amazed at how much better things can get. So if you don't hear a difference, you aren't playing with the right stuff, IME.
I got sucked into those Chinese fakes years ago (they claimed they were genuine Oyaides and never corrected it on eBay, even after I wrote to eBay about this.) Sent them back. Even with a refund, the cost of shipping 2 ways to HK was about as much as a good Furu plug, so I felt really taken to the cleaners.
You may not get what you pay for, but you rarely get MORE than you pay for! Wish it weren't so for you and for me, my friend...
While these particular "copper" plugs are not claimed to be famous plugs, he also sells bunch of plugs that look like Oyaide; only he doesn't call them Oyaide, just "079", etc.
There's bunch of Audioquest, XLO, etc on there that have been mentioned in past here as fakes or copies..
By fakes, do you mean they are not copper/pure copper as claimed? Or do you just mean knock-offs? If they were made in the same factory and are really copper, that's pretty much the same as a generic version, not necessarily lesser quality. Although there could be some extra steps/proprietary process added by the higher level manufacturers. Our company visited a pasta manufacturing facility here in the USA once. The exact same spaghetti pasta rolling off the packing line, would go into a generic box sold by your neighborhood grocer or dollar store for 50 cents, then they would stop the line and put new boxes in for a "premium" brand of pasta that sold for 3 bucks or more at the high-end upscale type of grocer.
If you go into their store, there are tons of Oyaide Look-alikes. This particular store does NOT call them Oyaides (though other stores have tried) but gives them numbers alike 079, which ARE numbers Oyaide uses to designate their plugs.
These particular R-Copper plugs are not fakes since they don't claim to be made by any particular famous company. I'm just pointing out their other items for sale. On the other hand, do people know what "R-copper" exactly means? I presume it stands for "Rose Copper," since the same color copper blades are featured on Iego plugs, which are called Rose Copper. I have used these Iego plugs, which are good plugs. Hopefully, these no-name plugs use same high-quality Furukawa copper like Iego.
After looking at these and some of the other brands sold by the same seller, plus others on ebay and elsewhere, I am seeing a number of them labeled as red copper. However I haven't found if red copper is a better quality than regular OFC copper. There are also a lot of items now in red copper such as rca jacks, rca plugs, spades, banana plugs & interconnects, etc. Looks like its being marketed widely. They are reasonable priced though, with so many coming out & available now it looks like market pressure is making the prices more competitive. They have a variety of plated ones too.
Somehow, unless they are getting BIG bucks from us audio junkies for it, I doubt that "red copper" is more expensive as a material than regular "pure copper" as usually used in better equipment (Furu for example).
It's probably an alloy that is cheaper to produce; copper prices have gone through the roof in recent years, hence the massive theft of pipes and wiring from buildings!
Try this on for size from Wikipedia: "Red brass is both an American term for the copper-zinc-tin alloy known as gunmetal, and an alloy which is considered both a brass and a bronze. It typically contains 85% copper, 5% tin, 5% lead, and 5% zinc.[25] Red brass is also an alternative name for Copper Alloys C23000, which is composed of 84-86% copper, 0.05% iron and lead, and zinc.[26] It may also refer to ounce metal, another copper-zinc-tin alloy." I suspect that it's what we see as red copper in the ads.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass
Or try this one: "Brasses (C83300-C87900 and C89320-C89940) are copper alloys in which zinc is the dominant alloying addition, because of their excellent castability, relatively low cost and favorable combination of strength and corrosion resistance, brasses are by far the most commonly cast copper alloys. There are six subcategories of cast brasses; red and leaded red, semi red and leaded semi red, yellow and leaded yellow, high strength and leaded high-strength yellow (manganese bronzes), silicon brasses/silicon bronzes, and copper-bismuth (Cu-Bi) and copper-selenium-bismuth (Cu-Se-Bi) brasses. Red brasses: The cast red brasses (C83300-C83810) are alloys of copper, zinc, tin and, in some cases, lead. A “red” copper like color is evident in alloys containing less than about 8% Zn." ...From http://www.atlasmetal.com/brass-bronze.php
Copper is naturally a reddish color when in pure form. If it's more than the usual copper color and seems more reddish, then it must be an alloy or an oxide of some sort.
I did some more reading and it does seem that red copper (copper zinc lead tin) is really a higher-copper content (85%) form of brass, the higher percentage of copper makes it red and also softer, which makes machineability better. Wiki says it is considered both a brass and a bronze. I also found one reference that says "Red Copper has better electrical conductivity than Brass. " so while its not pure 100% copper it may be better than standard brass based connectors. Other copper alloys are phosphor bronze(70% copper, tin and phosphorous) and beryllium copper (97% copper and beryllium).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copper_alloys
if you ask me to guess, i think these are Brass not copper. the red colour might give the impression that they are unplated copper but in fact very often they are plated brass. file off a bit and you will see whether they are copper or not.
and sold on ebay as "high quality" you can usually bet it's cheap junk.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
There is no high end bare copper plugs that I know of by any high end manufacturer like Furutech, Oyaide, Wattgate and so on. Their metals are all plated with higher costing things like silver, rhodium, gold etc.
Then the high end plugs are polished/re-coated/re-polished to make the surface dead flat for a higher contact percentage. Same factory? No, not even the same process.
ET
I thought it was time to change my signature line
The Pasta Manufacturing Plant wouldn't happen to be near Kansas City, MO would it?
.
looks like a nice budget find. Remember though that plugs in service a while need cleaning or Pro Gold etc a couple of times a year for best performance. Maybe a lot of the pizazz of the copper plugs is their new and clean contacts. Also re-cleaning the wire you attach to the plug helps a lot too. Perhaps if you did this that is part of the improvement. Try reinstalling a 330i in 6 months or so and clean everything and let us know the result.
ET
I thought it was time to change my signature line
Edits: 07/12/10
At what point will you know when it's time to clean it?
Is there something wrong with a plating of nickel or gold?
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
...As to when one will know when that happens, you can either listen for the sound degradation to occur or plan a maintenance schedule to clean the contacts periodically. I also might apply a conductive paste which will help to prevent oxidation. I've never cared for things nickle-plated, but gold plating does sound okay on certain contacts. I guess I'm in the less-is-more camp. To each his own. IMHO. (o:
That's what I thought ;)
Conductive paste attracts dirt, dust and other nasties. It also needs to be reapplied periodically, which means you have to remove and clean off the old stuff.
Most connectors that are gold plated are nickel plated first. I wonder if anybody offers a silver plug?
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
I use IeGO IEC plugs from Taiwan - their top line is OCC SOLID silver with platinum plating I recall (which I remove). I'm in Australasia so have to use Furutech mains plugs (gold removed).
"Most connectors that are gold plated are nickel plated first."
Think so ? Of the major players in connector manufacturing, only Wattgate seems to have nickel under their gold plating. Oyaide and Furutech employ direct gold plating.
I was speaking about connectors in general, RCA, spade, binding posts and I dont' see why AC connectors would be any different.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Let's see now, gold FIM, Furutech and Oyaide AC connectors are direct plated, no nickel layer. Vampire Wire connectors are either direct gold plated or copper/silver/gold plated, no nickel layer. Audioquest connectors are direct gold or silver plated, no nickel layer.
Glen, that's great, I do not think that your short list constitutes the majority of makes, models or manufacturers.
I think the point of my post has been lost on you.
G'day.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
...I don't have a lot of experience with silver plugs. I do like the sound of this red copper plug, though.
Hey Sherod
Did you also try the IEC Connector version as well?
...same improvements as male plug. The seller has an ad to order both together.
Thanks Sherod!
Going to order myself a couple and try them out!
Sometimes completely unplated components can provide superior sound, depending what wiring they're mated to (cabling is always a crapshoot, unfortunately). The only caveat with this plug is that the unplated copper will oxidize over time....you'll want to clean it periodically for continued high performance.
Good post, and thanks.
If you use a socket with a substantial contact pressure wouldn't that form enough of a gas-tight area to protect the contact areas? After all homes aren't a very severe environment. I would think Cu would be a good choice as it's soft enough to scrape clean easily.
Rick
Rick, it's surprising how much "gunk" accumulates over time, even with a tight fitting. When dark gray and/or black residue goes onto your cleaning cloth (after wiping down with a solvent or cleaner), you become convinced.
Scraping or buffing with something like emery cloth will only abrade the surface. It will look clean afterward, but the surface will have so many more crevices in which oxidation can occur. My 3 cents.
Thanks Alan,
I figured you'd have a lot of experience with this. The thing I'm interested in isn't the general corrosion, it's how does it look at the contact areas? Naturally the places that don't have a gas-tight fit will corrode but they likely aren't carrying much current anyway.
I agree with your point that sanding the contacts may cause problems as it would make it harder to have an extensive, sealed contact area. The scraping I was referring to were the areas where there was an interference fit between plug and socket.
Rick
Pangea like pricing is nice.
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