I realize it's a crazy merry-go-round but I'mattempting to remain knowledgable (LOL)!
Any one try the new Synergistic Research BLUE UEF Duplex receptacle?
Looking for comparsons to other high quality outlets.
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I now have three weeks on a Synergistic Research Blue duplex outlet. It replaces a SR Black outlet that powers my audio system. The sound is improved with a more 3D effect to the sound stage and an increase in texture to the notes. Importantly there is no sense of damping or masking of information. I do not hear any brightness or thinness like that I hear in the Furutech GTX-R outlet. I have spent a lot of time evaluating wall outlets including the Oyaide R-1, PS Audio Premier Outlet, PS Audio Audio Grade Outlet, Furutech GTX-R, earlier other Furutech outlets, Synergistic Research Red, and the Synergistic Research Black. Each outlet imparts a sound to the music. All are significantly better than a standard house construction outlet. I think all are priced fairly except the Oyaide R-1 which I do think is overpriced. Deciding on which outlet to use to optimize one's system is time consuming and expensive. If you want the best sound for most systems, I do think The Synergistic Blue Outlet is the answer. The Red outlet has more Grit and a more Forward presentation. Compared to the Red, the Black has a bigger soundstage and a more relaxed musical flow. The Blue seems to achieve the positive aspects of both the Red and Black outlets. I do like the Synergistic Research policy of the 30 day trial and return for refund. No restocking fee, no store credit, no hassle. If working on a limited budget I would consider ordering two different outlets and after breaking each in for 10 days, do some serious comparing. Send the other outlet back. If on a limited time to evaluate and you want one of the best sounding outlets available, order the Synergistic Research Blue outlet and then sit back and listen to great sounding music. David Pritchard |
@davidpritchard Thanks! Very helpful. My Black Duplex is fully broken in now. I concur with your description of it. I'm looking forward to comparing the Black Duplex to the Red Duplex that @folkfreak was so generous to let me have. Then the Blue at some point in the future. If, as you find, the Blue offers the best of the Black/Red it will be an easily justifiable addition. : ) |
My thoughts on the Blue from the other thread, definitely a keeper, much more dynamic and wide open than the Black, even to the extent that it can highlight problems elsewhere in the system https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/synergistic-research-hft-s/post?postid=1580952#1580952 and grip is fine, not hard to use but firm enough, like the Black in that regard |
The R1 is not outdated but the Synergistic Research Black outlet has a different sound. The Black outlet takes 10-14 days to fully break in. The Blue to me does have a more enjoyable sound, but in any one system a combination of different outlets may well provide that magic that many audiophiles chase. The Blue outlet definitely has a faster break in time, David Pritchard |
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I was using the Black for several years, and was very happy with it. I then started reading so much on the Furutech GTX D NSF R that I decided to try it even tho it needed 700 hrs of burn in to sound its best. I found the biggest change in the upper frequencies at 700 hrs. I,d like to have someone who has heard both the Blue & GTX NCF version fully broken in units report back there findings. Im interested in the blue. I can imagine how the Blue UEF and Blue Fuse together would impact a system. When I decided to try the Furutech the Blue UEF wasn't out yet. |
I find the NCF-R to be better then the Black in Transparency, bass with a holographic soundstage. I hadn't really thought of musical until David Pritchard mentioned it above. Im preferring the NCF-R currently, to be honest Im running NCF IEC in all my components along with the FI 50 NCF on the FP S55n PC cables. As of now I really enjoy the Furutech flavor throughout in my system. Just amazing transparency, layering,bass, detail, finesse and holographic soundstage. The one downside with the NCF takes 700 hrs vs the Blue of 15 days. |
The SR guy is a joke with zero qualifications to create anything other than overpriced junk that requires no customer support or maintenance. His background is 100% marketing. Sadly, the hobby is littered with gullible people who pretend to be knowledgeable and desperately fall for his marketing tactics and demos. He hides behind that 30 day guarantee like a late night infomercial because he knows he'd be an FTC target otherwise. It's a marketing tactic where a healthy amount of returns is already factored in the price. Plus, he knows most people won't go through the trouble of disconnecting fuses, outlets, or admit they were wrong and fell for his ads and hype. Nevertheless, SR does provide a side benefit. I like reading threads on audiogon about SR because the comments tell me who is clueless and who to never trust their "advice". I can't wait until a year or so from now when he creates a purple fuse or outlet, and we see more mindless audiophiles rush to the forums to evidence just how gullible they are. At least the cheap quality fuses and outlets he makes aren't seen by most people. I especially appreciate those crazy enough to stick his black box of nothing in the middle of their room and pretend it's defying physics and attenuating low frequencies...or better yet... The atmosphere room thing that does ZERO except gives you a different picture to look at on an app in hopes of subliminal conditioning...or most comical are the ones that take random amounts of blue tac and stick it to the back of $.01 nut-sized things and sprinkle them all around their room pretending that it improves the performance of Magico speakers. |
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I have to give labtec credit for stating what he believes.When he sees other audiophiles as gullible fools I have to take exception. I do though, find it ’interesting’ that the products cost so much. As if the high price is the perfect promise the product is worth the value?One reason I went with Furutech duplex (recently) rather than try some of the other boutique duplex. .At least the Furutech have some solid work put into them. Some products are sold at elevated prices with only the notion that there MUST be a reason??? for the price... Perhaps due to the maker thinking he has reinvented the wheel. Bybee purifiers come to mind. A few dollars worth of parts sold for hundreds (since the maker thinks of himself as a ’genius’)...$150 for a fuse? that is ridiculous. Marketing indeed. So in a way I hate labtec for belittling other audiophiles, and yet I also agree with him to some extent. So it goes.... And on duplex. Am I a ’sucker’ for spending hundreds for AC duplex when I can buy ’almost as good’ ones for $6? Yeah I can feel the common sense argument for that. Or even halfway upgrades like a $50 outlet. But I decided to splurge. (It IS my money LOL) SO I say if folks want to try $$$ fuses. fine by me. Just I would be very unlikely to buy a $150 fuse. |
First....... I am a believer that an electrical outlet can have an impact on the sound of an audio system. Take a good look at the two outlets in the two Links below. Not the Blue, but the Black. I would be willing to bet the Blue is also a P&S outlet as well. https://highend-electronics.com/products/synergistic-research-black-uef-duplex-receptacle https://www.amazon.com/Seymour-TR5362WCC12-Receptacle-Resistant-125-volt/dp/B0052EDREA?th=1 Are they the same? Sure look the same to me. For those of you that have the Synergistic Research Black or Blue UEF outlet the mounting back strap of the outlet sure looks like it is made of galvanized steel. That’s not good, is it? Have a magnet? Check it out. Is the magnet attracted to the back strap? While you are at it check the screw terminals on each side of the outlet with the magnet. Are they also made of steel? . |
elizabeth Best practices for terminating stranded wire to an electrical receptacle outlet is to use a receptacle with a terminal plate to hold the stranded wire in place. When using solid wire the wire should be curled around the terminal screw in a clockwise motion. This type of wire termination will give the best solid termination of the solid wire to the terminal screw and the receptacle. Though the receptacle is Listed to use the wire terminal plate to terminate both stranded as well as solid wire it does not hold the solid wire tight in place. Just moving the receptacle around after terminating the solid wire so as to install and push the receptacle into the outlet box will loosen the wire connection. I would suggest if you must use the terminal plate for solid wire work the wire and receptacle into place in the wall electrical box. Then pull the receptacle out of the box just enough to expose the side terminal screws and retighten them again. . |
Just installed my Blue duplex and glad I did as the old duplex had very loose wire connections on it, could not have been helping and quite possibly a fire hazard as it was. Now I have solid wire too and yes it is a bear to get the Blue to tighten down on it securely, I redid it three times before happy but I am definitely going to pull it out and recheck in a month or so too. |
I purchased and installed a Synergistic Blue outlet to replace my Oyaide - XXX. The Blue immediately seemed quieter to me (less grain) but right out of the box it’s compressed dynamically and in terms of soundstage. Everything does sound pretty ’organic’ though (I hate that description but that’s all I can come up with).
I’m sure it will get better with break-in time.
What’s the best way to break it in? I have my equipment plugged into a PowerCell 10 UEF which is plugged into the Blue outlet. I hope I don’t need to keep the system running for 14 days to break it in. Maybe the PowerCell will draw enough to break-in the outlet. Maybe not... As far as the cost, yeah it’s not cheap within the context of outlets but in the world of high-end audio it’s not bad. I know people that have $10k amp & preamp and $20k speakers that refuse to pay $150 for an outlet or a fuse. That’s just foolish to me but to each his/her own. |
ihmeyers48: Congratulations on trying more than one wall outlet. I do find it fascinating that wall outlets do effect the sound as much as they do and that different brands definitely do sound different. The Synergistic Research will definitely become more dynamic and the soundstage will expand over the first 14 days after installation. In my opinion after installing three of the Blue outlets, they do not need a lot of current passing thru to break in. I think the Power Cell being on 24/7 will do the thick. David Pritchard |
(There are three new components in my system that are not fully broken in including a blue fuse in my amp; therefore, take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt.) Just today I installed the Blue receptacle into my power conditioner. The Cardas 4181US was replaced by the Blue UEF as the first receptacle in the series of 3 receptacles. The reason was so that the benefits, if any, can be shared or passed along to the rest of the receptacles. The conditioner's transformer is connected directly the the Blue UEF being the first receptacle in the series. The conditioner's current configuration consists of a Blue UEF, GTX-D NCF with a .47uF copper VCAP in parallel , and a Cardas 4181US as the last receptacle in the chain also with a .47uF CuTF in parallel. The Blue UEF has the computer (source) and Pass XA-25 amp connected to it. The GTX-D NCF has the Lampizator Amber II DAC and computer monitor connected to it. The Cardas 4181US has a hard drive reader connected to it. My first listen was very positive. The imaging is more solid/vivid; improved 3D image. The sound is very dynamic from top to bottom including more bass than I've had in my system. The bass is solid and not bloated so it does not sound artificial. Soundstage seems larger and has improved layering and separation. It appears that the Cardas may have been restrictive to the sound system. Remember that it fed power down stream to the other receptacles. The Cardas receptacle is now last in the chain so it cannot contaminate any other receptacles. I'm not trying to bash the Cardas receptable at all. It is definitely the best constructed receptacle that I've seen. The build quality is top of it's class. It's sound quality will be investigated further. http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h162/triggr_357/20181010_180726.jpg http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h162/triggr_357/20181010_174211.jpg |
There's another variable that I forgot to mention. The ground wire that connects from the receptacle to the circuit board now runs at the top of the case and no longer touching the other live and neutral wires that rest at the bottom of the case. I don't know how much this may have helped but it is a modification when comparing to the previous configuration. |
Repeating an SR Blue outlet post on another thread: I replaced the SR Black outlet powering my main system with a Blue outlet three days ago. It sounded good right out of the box and into the wall. My first impression was that it in no way was a step back from the Black. After giving it and all the cables and gear I had to move around several hours to warm up and settle, I noted better detail and texture due to a much quieter background as well as greater air and extension. Drive and pacing seemed improved as well. At 24 hours, I thought things took a bit of a step back, the sound seeming a bit bright and threadbare. I am now over 72 hours in at this point and I am loving what I am hearing. Dynamic contrasts are much more apparent with quicker transients--especially clear on percussion instruments such as congas. Bass has better weight and definition has taken another big step forward. The sound was very relaxed with great clarity and detail. By far the biggest difference I detected between the Blue and the Black outlets was the much blacker background against which instruments and voices were placed. Imaging was improved with the sound-stage being more clearly rendered placing instruments and voices more in their own spaces. Even audience noise and applause was dramatically clearer and more distinct. I don't know how they did it, but the Blue outlet is another big step forward. Next week I will introduce three more SR Blue UEF High Current AC cables into my system as I shift more and more away from earlier generation Nordost AC cables (Brahma and Vishnu). I thought that my first Blue cable was a great addition at a quite reasonable price and with the October special of three for the price of two and a 30 day trail period I'm jumping in with both feet. Geronimo! |
When I finally had 1200 hours on NCF (in the wall) it was a love hate thing with it. Good bass detail but just wasn't musical for me, so I bought outlet for conditioner, a furutech gold to fix problem , I was wrong. I tried SR black. Haven't tried blue. I ended up with PI Audio outlet, it may be just a modded Pass Seymour outlet but is a perfect match with NCF. Nothing is lost from NCF all detail is there plus you get extra. It just adds body to the music, it's relaxed without slowing things down or losing jump factor if that makes sense. I didn't think it was going to work just a modded outlet playing with top end outlets, but it did for me. Got me off outlet merry go round, it just plays music together with NCF. |
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Has anyone gone from the SR Tesla Plex SE to the SR Blue? If so, what was the result? I have my amp plugged in directly to one of the outlets in the duplex (SR Tesla Plex SE), and the power conditioner is plugged into the other outlet. I have a second duplex (another SR Tesla Plex SE) for my sub, but I am not replacing that outlet at this time. I’m not sure if it would make that much of a difference. Dave |