Review: Porter Port AC Outlet Customized Hubbell 8300 Tweak

I just installed two porter ports in my system. One to a new dedicated line for my AV gear (Cary pre, amp and DVD player) and one for my video.

Yes the audio had tremendous improvements including a quieter background, better detail, imaging, livlier sound etc. But it's hard to tell if the difference is with the dedicated circuit, the Porter Port or both.

But I also added one to my projector outlet that doesn't have an audio circuit. This I can tell you made a major difference. The contrast and black level increase was obvious to everyone present, including a guy visiting us that owns a Hollywood film restoral business.

My projector is a Sony LCD unit with somewhat challenged black levels and contrast - so obviously an extremely worthwhile tweak. Especially for the price. I'd guess the improvement in black level would be similar for DLP, Plasma, etc but who knows?

The new thread activity prompts me to post an update letting Tubemiser and Hdm know that my system's wall duplex was replaced a few months back with a Porter Port.

I'm glad to report that the PP is a much more substantially-built connector, which it ought to be given how flimsy my old outlet was upon close inspection. But I couldn't leave the old one in place for sonic comparisons, nor could I install an otherwise-identical, non-cryoed version of the PP for tests regarding the effectiveness of cryo in this application.

The PP certainly grips the plug more securely, which was really all I had been after (the old outlet actually permitted the plug to vibrate when drawing power). Although I heard no differences before and after installing the PP, as I have explained to Albert, I don't draw any conclusions from that casual finding one way or the other, for the reasons I outlined above.

Nevertheless, I did manage something in the way of a reasonably objective A/B comparison test: I was able to reposition my gear rack far enough to one side that it just allowed me to move my system's central AC plug over to another outlet on an adjacent wall, normally out of reach, and still barely reach the regular duplex as well. This second outlet, like the main one I replaced with the PP, is as old as my house - close to 50 years.

This second outlet is also happens to be located on a different breaker circuit than the one my system normally plugs into. But regardless of different outlets and different circuits, I could not reliably or consistently identify any meaningful sonic changes when moving my system plug between these two duplexes, repeating audition cuts with about a 30-second delay to swap the plug's position.

As I also related to Albert, it is entirely conceivable that I don't hear any difference because I don't expect to hear any difference (based on my reasoning which I won't go into here, but which is spelled out with excrutiating detail in another archived thread on this general subject). I don't personally believe this is the case mind you - I like to think I'm open to hearing whatever there is to hear - but I must acknowledge it is possible in theory.

Another potential explanation for why I don't detect a difference might be that the alternate outlet is not just located on a separate, but on a somehow 'better' breaker circuit - the sonic superiority of which is just about right to confoundingly offset the outlet superiority of the PP located on the inferior circuit. Again, I don't personally buy this story, but it needs to be mentioned as a theoretical possibility.

Not surprisingly I'm not surprised by my findings, so to speak. I'm also not disappointed, and I hope no one else will be either, particularly those who encouraged me. I believe they only had my best interests at heart, and I assure them I do not have an agenda to 'prove' anybody 'wrong' on this topic.

Obviously many people are convinced that this works to improve their sound, and my experience won't and shouldn't disuade them. Or anybody else, especially given that a PP is a fairly cheap tweak, one on which no real profit is being taken.

Albert made these available, at no small trouble (yet little or no monetary reward) to himself, as a service, because he believes in this tweak's efficacy and wants to share the sonic benefits he perceives with others. As all can see, many pleased buyers have reported sonic satisfaction with their purchase.

Although it's true I don't hear a difference, I actually feel satisfied too - because, as I told Albert when I ordered mine, time and many trips to Home Despot had proven that this was the only way I was going to be forced to get off the dime and actually do something about my rickety old outlet (which may have been a lurking hazard for all I know - not long before, another original outlet in the house started smoking spontaneously due to corrosion, very luckily with me present in the room). Yes, I could've bought an upgraded outlet for less at the store without the cryo, but the point is I hadn't, repeatedly. So purchasing the Porter Port did indeed help achieve my goals in this area, and you can't ask for more than that.

Thank you Larryb, your results are what I experienced in my own system.

This may now be long forgotten, Porter Ports began as a personal project to avoid paying retail for the outlets I needed during construction of my listening room.

I sourced un-plated parts from Hubbell (special order) and an old friend who did contract work for NASA got the cryo work sourced.

After my positive experience, I posted this in my Virtual System and began getting requests from members for an outlet of their own.

We literally put together a group of 50 members who paid up front for parts and cryo and we waited for a couple of months for this to get finished.

It was so successful I continued to offer them.

Hi Albert, just calling em like I see (and hear) em. It's a very worthwhile upgrade especially at the price, and I hope you'll continue to offer them. Otherwise I'll have to pull outlets out of my house on my next move. :D

Porterports are quite possibly the best upgrade you can get for the money! I mean, imagine the hundreds of dollars we spend on some few inches of wire.