I found a cheap and immediately noticeable tweek

I just wanted to pass this along. Since I've got my system finally finished (or as finished as can be for an audiophile addict!), I was playing around with my AC outlet last week. What I'm going to tell you isn't AC recepticle specific, it's good for any brand you like and use. But I believe what and the way I found out about this will be interesting to everyone.

I only have two components, so I only need one recepticle for them. I personally had an Avatar Acoustics Afterburner 8 recepticle in my wall that I chose over the Porter Port and all of the Oyaide recepticles.

I had a power conditioner (Topaz isolation transformer) plugged into it which had a Porter Port on the output side for my components. I replaced the Porter Port with a Maestro and it worked really well.

I sold the transformer two weeks ago, so all that I needed was my recepticle in the wall. I thought that since I really liked the Maestro, I'd swap out the Afterburner 8 and just use the Maestro. The Maestro didn't sound like it did when it was connected to the transformer. I put the Afterburner 8 back in and had my sound back.

The next day I told Roger (Irish65) about this and he told me that it was because the Maestro on the transformer was being fed the sonic characteristic of the Afterburner 8, and that's why I liked the Maestro.

He than told me that every recepticle on the line with my system feeds and affects how that one recepticle where my components are connected sounds, and that replacing my three other stock recepticles will enhance it even though nothing is plugged into them. It's the quality of the connections, or replacing the weak links on the line.

I called Darren Censullo at Avatar Acoustics and ordered three more to replace my stock recepticles. He asked me if I'd added to my system, and I told him what I'd found and what Roger had told me.

Darren told me that Roger was right, but it's not something that a good majority of audiophiles even think about. I hadn't thought about it either. He explained it the same way Roger explained it and sent me the other three Afterburner 8 recepticles.

I put them in two nights ago and the difference was immediately obvious and has gotten better since as the outlets have the current running through them.

When you think about it, it's a very cheap tweak that will reward you with an extremely good gain.

Chuck