Power direct from the wall, or Power Conditioner?

[completeluxury]

pim, just copied this off the furutech site. not awfully technical but sort of answers the question

A Guide to Differences in Metal Plating Materials

Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.

Gold is a dense, soft, extremely malleable metal that — in pure form – won’t oxidize in air or water. Among gold’s more practical characteristics is its resistance to corrosion – better than nickel or silver – and its superior electrical conductivity. Gold is softer than rhodium and the surface is not molecularly flat. Over time some erosion takes place and a dark build-up occurs that is, in fact, gold dust! Furutech recommends periodically disconnecting and reconnecting gold-plated connectors with all components turned off, of course. Auditioning reveals that gold plating produces a warmer, slightly more plump and romantic midrange, somewhat more powerful but less controlled mid to deep bass, with high frequencies that are either sweeter or less extended than rhodium plating. As always it depends on the connected equipment.

Silver is very malleable and slightly harder than gold. Pure silver distinguishes itself with the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and the lowest contact resistance of any metal. It tarnishes when exposed to air or water with ozone or hydrogen sulfide and that forms the familiar tarnish, silver sulfide. Silver is effective at protecting bare copper heat oxidation and boosting the conductivity of braided shielding. Silver-plated copper conductor’s sound is more detailed and open than gold but slightly less natural than rhodium. It offers a very tight bass and detailed midrange, plus extended high frequencies with a tendency towards detail rather than warmth.

Copper is another very malleable metal and its low hardness is one reason for its high electrical and thermal conductivity, the second highest among pure metals. Copper is a good conductor because there are a lot of “free electrons” that can carry current flow efficiently. These free electrons don’t remain tied with the copper atoms but instead form an electron cloud around the outside of the atom and move through the solid very quickly. Long auditioning reveals that copper plating produces a sound that resembles gold; somewhat warm mid frequencies, a big bottom end, and relatively sweet high frequencies, but not as extended as gold or especially rhodium.

[completeluxury]

One of the guys in our local audio group of 5 just got his Cyclops V2 6 or so weeks back and of course we hacked into it 2 weeks after showing up. He's the only one in our group that's not retired yet and doesn't have time to build his own passive system like the rest of us. All of us question the CV 2's 'passivity' due to its internal componentry but if Caelin says so who are we to argue!?! Aside from that it's certainly dead quiet! Far quieter than the Hydra I was using years ago! Last weekend he brought it over and and borrowed one of my new back-up GTX-D outlets in rhodium and we installed it in place of the OEM Shunyata receptacle... I think its called a Z1 or something like that... appeared to be nickel-plated brass? I also swapped out his 20A IEC inlet with a spare F'tech 20A Rhodium IEC I had for an upcoming project. Took less than an hour all-told even with very minor metal cutting/grinding to mate the new IEC inlet to the V2. We then hooked it up to the D200 here. He "thought" it sounded better, quieter but couldn't say for sure till he got home, let everything burn a couple hundred hours then listen critically at his place for a couple weeks. Within a few days he was ecstatic! Says its far better than pre-modification! He said "best waste of a warranty he's ever done!" I told him all that's fine but there's this small matter of a F'tech GTX-D and a FI-33R 20A IEC. He said "I have new ones here for you but I'm holding them ransom till you come over and listen."  The right answer and opportunity to mooch someone else's food and liquor!

As an aside the FI-50 carbon fiber 120V AC male plugs will interfere with each other when plugged into the Shunyata/Hubbell CV 2 outlet! They can't be seated fully in either 120V receptacle and can't be parallel to each other when plugged in therefore remain in a slight V-configuration and partially "out-of-socket." We didn't find this out until after installing the GTX-D into the CV 2

And as you likely know the FI-50 IEC's won't fit under the Dev rear cover but its a worthwhile trade-off. Since mines wall mounted behind and half above/half below my roll-top desk I can't see the missing cover anyway

manoet have you been to his house yet to see what a difference it actually made?

[Manoet]

Not yet but four of us are meeting there Sunday afternoon. Tho I'll never be able to remember the difference from a month ago and will only be qualified at-best to give an overall rather than any qualified or comparative A/B impression. He's the only one that can do that.

And for those asking about Rhodium I can best describe it when used in the Furutech products and compared to gold; Rhodium provides a more accurate, detailed, true-to-source presentation while gold is a little warmer, more laid back & tube-like. Amazingly, a combination of both Rhodium and Gold holds pretty close SQ to percentages of each plating used. That is to say if you use a GTX-DR outlet with a FI-50R 120V plug at one end with one FI-50G IEC at the opposite end you can introduce a +or- 33% increase in warmth/tube-like behavior in that line. An incredibly nice feature for fine-tuning/tweaking that last snippet of a musical preference from the Devialet alone or other sources in conjunction with or separate from the Devialet.

[completeluxury]

today i received half of my power tweaks.

ive already got a furman spr 16-ie for all my computer audio products (5 x linear psu) and soon to be a lpsu for regen.

i got the lower end furman rhodium plugs and furutech cable to make up power leads for all of them. need some time to drill all my new holes in my cabinet to fit the ginormous plugs

[Pim]

pim, just copied this off the furutech site. not awfully technical but sort of answers the question

A Guide to Differences in Metal Plating Materials

Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.

Gold is a dense, soft, extremely malleable metal that — in pure form – won’t oxidize in air or water. Among gold’s more practical characteristics is its resistance to corrosion – better than nickel or silver – and its superior electrical conductivity. Gold is softer than rhodium and the surface is not molecularly flat. Over time some erosion takes place and a dark build-up occurs that is, in fact, gold dust! Furutech recommends periodically disconnecting and reconnecting gold-plated connectors with all components turned off, of course. Auditioning reveals that gold plating produces a warmer, slightly more plump and romantic midrange, somewhat more powerful but less controlled mid to deep bass, with high frequencies that are either sweeter or less extended than rhodium plating. As always it depends on the connected equipment.

Silver is very malleable and slightly harder than gold. Pure silver distinguishes itself with the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and the lowest contact resistance of any metal. It tarnishes when exposed to air or water with ozone or hydrogen sulfide and that forms the familiar tarnish, silver sulfide. Silver is effective at protecting bare copper heat oxidation and boosting the conductivity of braided shielding. Silver-plated copper conductor’s sound is more detailed and open than gold but slightly less natural than rhodium. It offers a very tight bass and detailed midrange, plus extended high frequencies with a tendency towards detail rather than warmth.

Copper is another very malleable metal and its low hardness is one reason for its high electrical and thermal conductivity, the second highest among pure metals. Copper is a good conductor because there are a lot of “free electrons” that can carry current flow efficiently. These free electrons don’t remain tied with the copper atoms but instead form an electron cloud around the outside of the atom and move through the solid very quickly. Long auditioning reveals that copper plating produces a sound that resembles gold; somewhat warm mid frequencies, a big bottom end, and relatively sweet high frequencies, but not as extended as gold or especially rhodium.

Thanks Complete. You're in Australia too aren't you? So do you use Aussie plugs or do you go the international way? The Aussie plug is such a flimsy design.

[completeluxury]

Thats right Pim im an aussie.

At this stage i dont use aussie plugs. My furman power conditioner requires female IEC plugtops and the shunyata cyclops requires US male plugtops. then of course all equipment is IEC.

if you are referring to changing wall outlets to "audiophile" ones - i use standard power points. being an electrical contractor the thought of getting caught by western power changing power points for not approved versions gives me nightmares, (i dont know of a single australian approved audiophile outlet)

if you are worried about flimsy have a look at this sturdy bad boy!

http://www.furutech.com/2013/02/02/1868/

[Music or sound]

I tried many Power conditioner over the years and eventually did not like any of them! They all degraded the sound. Presently I am using a Lessloss firewall module http://www.lessloss.com/firewall-module-p-216.html. No negative sound attributes but less background noise.

One other comment to US wall outlets: Most audiophile versions have a 20A neutral slot but all audiophile plugs have the 15A configuration (load and neutral parallel). The 20A neutral slot has 2 parallel blades for perpendicular neutral 20A plugs and a single extra blade for 15A and thus a not so good contact with a 15A plug. The Hubbell HBL5262 is the best real 15A outlet I found albeit not any fancy audiophile stuff.
I tried several plugs and IEC and even they sound different I see no advantage of the ultra versions. The only thing which really sounds bad is anything nickel plated (even if under gold) like PSaudio outlets or Wattgate plugs.

[completeluxury]

music or sound what brands have you actually used?

ever tried shunyata?

[Music or sound]

music or sound what brands have you actually used?

ever tried shunyata?

The only Shunyata product I tried was venom defender and that subdued a lot of highs and made the soundstage shifting with frequency and some of their outlets and I thought the Hubbell were much better. Other wise I used Bybee, MIT, Brickwall  and some capacitor based ones (can't remember the make). I use some caps as filters not in my audio but for the refrigerator circuit etc. and hidden so no one can accidentally be fried.

[AaronG]

Reading these posts I'm coming to the conclusion that it doesn't make much sense to talk about power conditioners independent of your electric supply. My electricity is lousy, I live in sth city and in an area with a lot of businesses, and I could hear big differences between evening sound and day sound. If the PSAudio is to be trusted there are notable shifts in voltage during the day and it seems like that can't be good for the Devialet et al. The sound is now much more consistent and generally improved.