What is your take on AC outlets

[HedgeHog]

Thanks for the info regarding ground pin up!

BTW, I'm guessing everyone who are hearing improvements plug their equipment directly into the outlet and not have a conditioner in between? Guessing it's a moot point to get a fancy receptacle then have the conditioner (like the Richard Gray) potentially affect it?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Thanks for the info regarding ground pin up!

BTW, I'm guessing everyone who are hearing improvements plug their equipment directly into the outlet and not have a conditioner in between? Guessing it's a moot point to get a fancy receptacle then have the conditioner (like the Richard Gray) potentially affect it?

forget logic with your power grid issues. even with a power conditioner, assuming a reasonably high resolution system, you will hear the differences between outlets and even power cords on your conditioner.

 

[Steve Williams]

I must admit that the reason that initially lead me to look further into these AC outlets was based on the heaviness of my cables and the fact that they just didn't sit securely in the wall

 

[andromedaaudio]

Ive listened to many power conditioners in shops , ive seen a lot of brands come an go , first praised into heaven ,then after which a lot vanished after a couple of years , most of the time even the shops which are supposed to sell them dont use them .
Ive got a normal good houseinstallation and i use cheap and proper cabling , i guess i am not a " real" audiophile , i d rather put money in a treated room
What i did hear with some power conditioners was dynamically compressed sound , i dont mis it and i rather buy a second hand Halcro DM 38 or JL 2 sign for a try out than a high end cable.

I dont mind spending some $$$ but i like to buy technically advanced stuff , most of the cabling " technologie" is all over the place .

 

[treitz3]

BTW, I'm guessing everyone who are hearing improvements plug their equipment directly into the outlet and not have a conditioner in between? Guessing it's a moot point to get a fancy receptacle then have the conditioner (like the Richard Gray) potentially affect it?

Hello, HedgeHog. In my case, I no longer use conditioners. With that said, I do use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. From the wall>PS>rig.

Tom

 

[mep]

Hello, HedgeHog. In my case, I no longer use conditioners. With that said, I do use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. From the wall>PS>rig.

Tom

And the difference is...

 

[GaryProtein]

Hello, Speedskater. We reside in a new house and one of the first things I noticed upon the final inspection prior to purchase was that some of the outlets were installed "upside down". When I told the builder that this needed to be corrected, I was informed that the reason some were installed upside down was to indicate to the user that the particular outlet was associated with a light switch and the ones that were "correct" were not. FWIW.

Tom

That is a clever idea. I like it.

As an alternative, switched outlets could be white, beige or almond, or black or brown depending on your color scheme.

 

[treitz3]

Hello, HedgeHog. In my case, I no longer use conditioners. With that said, I do use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. From the wall>PS>rig.

And the difference is...

Not worthy of the price I paid. It's basically a glorified 4 outlet power strip to me. Please allow me to digress. When I got it and installed it, I never did test it out all by itself. I had just gotten rid of the various power conditioners and I needed something to offer me something to plug into. At the time, IIRC, I had a system that was able to gulf 4200 watts and had multiple amplifiers. Saw the RG at a dealer on a system I was checking out, figured that it wouldn't hurt.

Fast forward to today....having been through a plethora of amplifiers and equipment since then, I still haven't tested what it can actually do for the end result. I will tell you this, the end result is better than that of any power conditioner I have used. Honestly, that's about all I can tell you having never really putting it to the test before. My apologies for not really being able to answer your question. Perhaps one day, I'll break down and test the effectiveness of the power supply to the current rig.

Tom

 

[HedgeHog]

Hello, HedgeHog. In my case, I no longer use conditioners. With that said, I do use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. From the wall>PS>rig.

Tom

Thx, Tom.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with RGPC as I decided to run dual 10ga Romex to one 240V/20A outlet for the Substation 240/120. Then I run a Custom 1200 to service the source components from it. I'm not able to run multiple dedicated lines into my space.

Was thinking if I can get something better than the hospital-grade Hubbell 240v/20A NEMA 6-20R in my wall, I'll put that in.

For my novice ears, I really couldn't tell if the RGPC did anything better/worse/nothing than before. I think the video seems "blacker" on the blacks but I didn't measure with equipment. I don't think it's limiting current neither (I run 2 x Classe CA-M400 and 1 x Classe CA-5200 directly from 3 of the Substation outlets).

Cheers.

-Hedwig

 

[mep]

Not worthy of the price I paid. It's basically a glorified 4 outlet power strip to me. Please allow me to digress. When I got it and installed it, I never did test it out all by itself. I had just gotten rid of the various power conditioners and I needed something to offer me something to plug into. At the time, IIRC, I had a system that was able to gulf 4200 watts and had multiple amplifiers. Saw the RG at a dealer on a system I was checking out, figured that it wouldn't hurt.

Fast forward to today....having been through a plethora of amplifiers and equipment since then, I still haven't tested what it can actually do for the end result. I will tell you this, the end result is better than that of any power conditioner I have used. Honestly, that's about all I can tell you having never really putting it to the test before. My apologies for not really being able to answer your question. Perhaps one day, I'll break down and test the effectiveness of the power supply to the current rig.

Tom

My question was more related to the comment where you said you no longer use conditioners, but you use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. Is that not a conditioner?

 

[Bill Hart]

I have the Richard Gray stuff, including the big 240v step down and the 12 receptacle conditioner for my video system. I bought it years ago, when I had the video equipment installed in the room, before I decided to use the same room for hi-fi. I never tried using it on the hi-fi system, though i know that there were a lot of disparaging comments about how it sounded somewhere- perhaps on the Gon. I do use the step down for one thing on my hi-fi- it was the only thing that could effectively isolate the electrical 'zap' (which I could hear in my hi-fi system) the tone arm air compressor makes when it cycles. The hi-fi stuff is otherwise all on separate dedicated lines thru a subpanel, etc. and has nothing to do with the video system power hook-up and no power conditioning.

 

[treitz3]

My question was more related to the comment where you said you no longer use conditioners, but you use a Richard Gray Pro 400 power supply. Is that not a conditioner?

No, that's actually just a power supply. The RGPC 400 Pro doesn't do any filtering technology, battery backup or power regeneration.

Tom

 

[rbbert]

No, that's actually just a power supply. The RGPC 400 Pro doesn't do any filtering technology, battery backup or power regeneration.

Tom

Yet reviews say it improves the sound of the system. By what mechanism (other than the reviewers wishful thinking?)

 

[treitz3]

As far as I know, at least from what I was told prior to purchase, was that it has a bank of 6 soda can type capacitors that supply the rig with additional power during a heavy transient without instantly draining the circuit. In theory, this would provide an extra boost of additional needed power for a quick, demanding load. Now I'll admit, I have never tested this or verified this but this was what I was told. Not much information was provided with the unit, so take what I just relayed to you with a grain of salt.

At the time I purchased it, the RG Pro 400 served one single purpose for me. That being additional outlets. It was actually cheaper for me to purchase this than run more lines into the wall the rig was against at the time and it was my understanding that they could be daisy chained [If I ever did decide to add HT to the rig]. I didn't notice any change to the sound upon installation but I also have to keep in mind that I have progressed exponentially, along my audio journey, with regards to the quality of gear I have gone through since then. I wasn't kidding that for me, it was basically just a glorified outlet strip.

When I do decide to rip the walls apart and install multiple 20amp dedicated outlets, I will have no "need" for the RG. Perhaps that would be a good time to test its effectiveness. While I could be wrong, I don't think it would be a good test to just compare it to a normal outlet strip but I guess I could do so if someone has interest in me doing so.

Tom

 

[Ethan Winer]

Those measurements aren't measuring what I think matters, which is whether or not the noise is audible. Tons of products are out there to reduce noise on power lines, the question is do they make an audible difference. And for that you need to measure the audible differences not how much noise is on the line.

Give this man a cigar. Further, that video is useless because it doesn't even explain what sort of "noise" is being measured.

The only thing that matters is how the audio output of the connected equipment changes. But "power product" vendors never show that. All they ever show is the AC power before and after. Competent audio gear is immune to normal amounts of noise and hash riding on the AC power. So you don't even need a blind test. Just stick an RTA on the output of the audio device with and without the magic outlets.

--Ethan

 

[mep]

As far as I know, at least from what I was told prior to purchase, was that it has a bank of 6 soda can type capacitors that supply the rig with additional power during a heavy transient without instantly draining the circuit. In theory, this would provide an extra boost of additional needed power for a quick, demanding load. Now I'll admit, I have never tested this or verified this but this was what I was told. Not much information was provided with the unit, so take what I just relayed to you with a grain of salt.

At the time I purchased it, the RG Pro 400 served one single purpose for me. That being additional outlets. It was actually cheaper for me to purchase this than run more lines into the wall the rig was against at the time and it was my understanding that they could be daisy chained [If I ever did decide to add HT to the rig]. I didn't notice any change to the sound upon installation but I also have to keep in mind that I have progressed exponentially, along my audio journey, with regards to the quality of gear I have gone through since then. I wasn't kidding that for me, it was basically just a glorified outlet strip.

When I do decide to rip the walls apart and install multiple 20amp dedicated outlets, I will have no "need" for the RG. Perhaps that would be a good time to test its effectiveness. While I could be wrong, I don't think it would be a good test to just compare it to a normal outlet strip but I guess I could do so if someone has interest in me doing so.

Tom

Tom-I'm not picking on you, but if the Richard Gray device has a bunch of filter caps, than it contains "filter technology."

 

[Btselect]

When I do decide to rip the walls apart and install multiple 20amp dedicated outlets, I will have no "need" for the RG. Perhaps that would be a good time to test its effectiveness. While I could be wrong, I don't think it would be a good test to just compare it to a normal outlet strip but I guess I could do so if someone has interest in me doing so.

Tom

Tom,

If and when you rip out the walls and install your dedicated lines, make sure you have a dedicated line for each of your components and install 1 inch conduits, that way you won't have to rip out the wall ever again.

 

[wes]

I use this http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/203492...10051&N=25ecodZ5yc1v&R=203492706#.UQIQ9aHHdt0

and this for my subs

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...GE_1G_MIW_Surge_In_Wall_Surge_Protection.html

 

[Andre Marc]

I have been reading about them the past couple of days and there is no consensus. The conversation goes from 3.00 basic outlets to outlets costing hundreds. No one can seem to agree on anything. I want to know if it is worth Investing 2-3 hundred on some Ac outlets. If not I'll just by more music and call it a day.

I find expensive AC outlets simply shocking.

 

[Shaffer]

When we moved into our house, right around the time we had the record shelves built, we hired an electrician to run a number of lines. My system shares a 100A subpanel, (kinda) separate from the rest of the house. Shared, meaning it also runs the stuff in the garage (ie. the other (errr...) listening room). We installed P&S outlets; forget the model numbers, but they grip like something fierce. For extensions I use Hubble 4-Plex(s). Same for extension cords. Some examples below:

^^^ Some of my other DIY cords, including the Area 51 cable that was graciously reviewed by Bill Cowen ~10 years ago. It's the thinner, reddish cord an top. In case anyone is wondering, I look for interesting wire and build a cord for the fun of it. Sometimes the cord works out, and other times I use it on a kitchen appliance.