Results of Installing "Porter Ports" in system...
Category: Accessories
Well, I finally replaced the Leviton outlets in my listening room with the porter ports I'd purchased a couple nights ago... I'd been holding off, not wanting to change too many things at once or too soon in my system, as we all know what happens when you do that... I've been breaking in a pair of mono blocks for a couple of months now, but I felt pretty comfortable with what my system is sounding like now, with changes in the amps being hardly noticeable from one day to the next at this point... so I decided to go for it... I didn't clean the wires when I first put them in, as I wanted to hear what just the difference was between the outlets themselves, even if they're not broken in yet... and then yesterday, I took them back out and cleaned the wires and then put them back in, so I could tell what difference cleaning the wires alone made to the overall sound....
Cleaning the wires themselves seemed to add only slightly to the overall improvement, but it did add a bit more tightness and clarity to the bass area in particular... and as you know, in this game even slight improvements are sought after and welcomed, as they accumulate and add to the total satisfaction of the listening experience. The bass area in particular is one that is difficult to gain tightness and clarity in, and most people end up swapping out a ton of IC's and cords hoping to find the magic combination. Seems obvious now that unless the wires providing the source of electricity to the system through the outlets are clean, one will not attain optimum performance further down the signal chain. I opted to clean the wires rather than make a fresh cut, as I didn't have a pair of wire strippers handy to work with. I ended up using some copper cleaner that I had on hand to clean the wires first, then I applied some of the CAIG R5 contact cleaner to clean off any residue and take off any remaining oxidation and leave the protective coating which it contains... Boy, what a difference there is between adding the new "porter ports" and cleaning the wires...
I sat listening to the two tracks I normally listen to on the "Song for Juli" CD (Jesse Colin Young) over and over again last night, (tracks 2 & 3)... probably played them over a dozen times, just amazed at the amount of additional realism being conveyed on my soundstage... I'd play the second track and then wanted to hear how improved the first track was again... the realism was nearly addictive and I felt almost as if I was going through a bit of withdrawal as the realism began to fade from my memory and I'd want to hear the first track once again... each time I'd listen again it was just as exhilarating hearing the additional presence, the enhanced timbre, all the subtle nuances, and just how much more realism the images were now conveying in the system...
After doing this for a while I finally let the next track play.... I normally don't play any other tracks on this CD, as I generally don't care for the tunes... but last night I was so captivated by the realism, I kept listening to track after track, putting my attention on each of the instruments and marveling at the realism and the sense of interplay between the different timbres of the instruments, and the additional realism of the vocals... the sense of being live and present at the actual performance was very much enhanced...
I remember when I first began putting my system together and discovered on the CD's second track that there was a female vocalist also singing. I'd never noticed her voice before when I'd listened to that song on other equipment before I got into high-end. She sings in such unison with Jesse's lead vocal, never extending beyond him at all and singing in such exact parallel with him that her voice blends completely into his and it sounds like only one voice is present on other equipment... it seems like it is only the sensitivity of these high end systems that detect such minute differences in timbre that allows her voice to be noticed as separate from the lead... this is one of the tracks I've used a gauge of any changes I've made in the system for a couple of years now and it's always been a matter of generally how separated her voice has been from his and how distinctly I can perceive where she's actually standing... but last night, I was able to hear her voice more clearly and distinctly than ever before... not only was she clearly about 5 feet to his right and back perhaps 4 feet or so, but the sound of her voice was more clear, the image more solid, almost equal to his voice at times, and her voice, while still soft, had a slight edge, like it was coming from her throat rather than being so breathy, as though more vibrations were able to come through and onto the soundstage now... it was very noticeable... each instrument and each person was more noticeably present throughout the recordings... It seems adding these outlets and cleaning the wires has improved every aspect of what I'm hearing, though I'm a bit hesitant to say they've increased the palpability aspect from what I'm hearing so far, as the imaging in my system was already very palpable, although this may also improve over time as these ports break in more ... still, when you consider all the improvements that I am hearing overall, this has definitely been one of the better things I've done for my system...
From what I've read of others experiences with these outlets, they continue to improve over about a month and a half or so, but what I'm hearing right now is very satisfying and pretty impressive...
In case you might be interested in obtaining some of these Cryo treated Hubble 8300 outlets for yourself, just send a note to Albert Porter at aptx@comcast.net and see if he's got any on hand at the moment...
