PS Audio Ultimate outlet

You cannot affect the sound of your gear by messing around with outlets or power cords. The fact that you think you can only proves how much of this business is psychological.

Stevemj; your above assertion has not been my experience, but would you please tell us what components, including various wires, that are not clouded by nasty (and expensive) psychological overtones? This information could save us a great deal of money. It would be really be helpful if you would provide brand names of "the good stuff" as well as "the bad stuff". Thankyou. Craig

Stevemj, if it where psychological wouldn't most of these posts tend to prefer the "Ultimate Outlet"? After all these folks ordered one after reading the hoopla on the website about the improvements to expect, it costs a lot of more than the outlet in your wall so it would have to be better right? You really should try some of this stuff before shooting it down based on the numbers. Thanks.

Stevenmj: You gave the impression that you were going to give us a break in another of your posts, but I guess not, so it seems. You spout generalities but offer no information on the systems or circumstances of your findings. This is a gear/music orientated site in which the members walk the walk (actually own/demo and audition the gear that they post about). You on the other hand only talk the talk and it has already gotten very old very quickly. Most of us can hear very well, thank you, but you have nothing to say. You have also commented to the effect that you wish to stop us from wasting our money on "do nothing" products. Although it would be self serving, I wish that I could stop you from making such an ars out of yourself.

Craig - My intention is to save you money. I am sticking to the most obvious hoaxes. Line cords, power distributors, outlets etc. aren't in the signal path and can't even theoretically have an effect. The psychological aspect is not something that just affects the weakminded. Everybody, myself included, almost always seems to hear a difference when something is changed. The more you expect to hear a difference the more likely it is that you will.

Take line conditioners. The idea that a line conditioner reduces noise is so outlandish it can't be ridiculed. The electrons in the wire have been around for 15 billion years. Shuffling them back and forth for a few hours in an attempt to change something is preposterous. Does this stop people from hearing a significant difference. NO.

How about those arrows on the phono cables? The manufactures know perfectly well that the exact amount of current had better flow in each direction in those wires. Does that stop them from putting arrows on them. NO. They must have a very low opinion of the intelligence of audiophiles. Do you think people would hear a difference if they installed the cables with the arrow point opposite to the manufacture's suggestion? Of course they would.

Buying expensive line cords is another act of insanity. Think about it. On one end of the cord is a hundred feet of ordinary wire going round and round the transformer core and on the other end of the cord is several hundred miles or ordinary wire going back to the power source. Even if there were something special besides the price of the cord, what good is 8 feet of cool wire in line with hundreds of miles of ordinary wire going to do?

I say don't waste money on outlets, power cords, line conditions and cable conditioners.

I think exotic speaker wire is bogus too, however, at least it is in the signal path. I am going to test some cheap wire, the kind I use, as soon as I get the test equipment I have on order. The test is simple and will measured effects down to a small fraction of a db.

Spend your money on good speakers. That is where the action is. Even the very best speakers have much higher distortion than a Radio Shack receiver - as long as you are not driving the RS to clipping.