In my experience, the Maestro, while a very good outlet, lacks the dynamic vigor it should. It seems not to have a very dynamic upper midrange/lower treble range, which gives it a "polite" sound in comparison to either Synergistic’s Tesla SE or Furutech’s GTX-D receptacles. Of those two, the Tesla is quite a bit more detailed, but then, it is a bit brash in the upper midrange/lower treble. I find that it works fine in the PS Audio Power Plant P300, but when put directly into the wall, although dazzling on vocals ( certain letters, usually the "p", "d", "t" and "s" and "k, as well as words like "kick," "can,""lost" and words that end in the letter "d" (which usually disappears in most vocals), pop out at you, as they would in real life, but with a little added sizzle), they can make classical compositions (especially Mercury Living Presence, already bright in the upper midrange/treble frequencies) sound a bit fatiguing. The Maestro - which has been called "natural" - is clear, but uninvolving on large scale music.
I got a GTX-D NCF a couple of months ago, and was please - and somewhat surprised - with the improvement over the GTX-D Rhodium outlet, which now shows itself to be a bit sterile (heard easily on chest/throat tones even on pop music, especially on female singers, but even Frank Sinatra’s voice lost some of its beauty). The newer outlet fills in that sterility, something I had missed somewhat, due to using an integrated instead of separates over the past few years. (Having finally gotten back to separates, I now have a CJ ET3SE with an EAT tube in it (expensive tube, but it’s quite good).
I’ve generally found the Furutech to be great stuff, but there is a signature sound, somewhat akin to first generation Nordost Valhalla: a slight suckout in the lower midrange/upper bass frequencies, where music has a great deal of its "power" (meaning, fullness and punch, easily heard live in say, Carnegie or Boston Symphony Halls). This is, not coincidentally, where the chest/throat tones of singers also reside. The NCF outlets are an improvement. I still have a GTX-D, but will be removing it tomorrow to put in Synergistic’s Black UEF outlet, when it arrives. What I like about Synergistic is that everything comes with a 30-day guarantee, so if you don’t like it, you can return it. It give the buyer a certain confidence that he/she will not be ’stuck’ with something they don’t like. I’m guessing here, but I imagine the improvement in the newer outlet will cure that brightness I heard. I asked what the improvements were, and was told there was less high frequency hash, more detail, more ’natural’ and better microdynamics. I’m guessing that the "hash" is the lower treble brightness instead of the highest frequencies, which allow music an ’airy’ quality. Just a hunch. For now. Other than that, I found the Synergistic to be quite good. It was hard to decide if I liked the Furutech or the Synergistic (Teslaplex SE, just to be clear) better, but the brightness was not endearing, so, just because of that, I guess the Furutech, while not as detailed, and with less ’pop’ on the consonants mentioned, came out ahead. But I sure missed the Synergistic’s vivid portrayal (somewhat similar to the Oyaide, but not the same: from cut to cut, the Synergistic would tell me about the recording venue, while the Oyaide did not). When a component changes more from cut to cut and record to record, that is an indicator of truer ’neutrality’ to me.
The Oyaide , which I had 5 years ago, initially ’wowed’ me, but eventually I realized it moved the soundstage forward on EVERY recording (RCAs should sound far back in the hall, but not with the Oyaide). The ’signature sound’ was evident on all recordings. resulting in a too-much-the-same sound on all cuts I played. I can see why someone would like it, though. It IS exciting, but it imposes itself too much. If imposition there must be, I prefer it to be less evident, and even then, only on certain genres of music (pop would suffer the least, since most pop music is overproduced and overdubbed), so the Oyaide would just bring the whole presentation ’closer’ to the listener, which will make it sound louder. It saves you the trouble of turning up the volume, too.
As for the steel strap on Synergistic outlets? Ted Denney commented once on this forum that he had seen the comments about the steel strap. The Teslaplex SE has a copper or bronze strap (I can’t remember which), and it seems unlikely, given his comment back then, that the then put a steel strap back on the newest outlet. I’ll know tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem logical to go backwards and put something that can be affected due to magnetic fluxes.
