Is the Maestro AC outlet basically a cryo'd Cooper BR20 found at Lowes for $3.47?

Gbmcleod, 

I havent been auditioning equipment so am not in a position to comment how these 2 outlets synergise with certain charateristic of particular brands of equipment each given there particlar sonic footprints.  

I have a teslaplex se feeding a psaudio p300(with red fuse)  which has a Ncf and black outlet. 

The black feeds my esoteric k01x and clock and the ncf feeds a bsgt qol,  w4s/sonos streamer and FMC switch(with black fuses)  and i find it just rightly balanced now although i have another black outlet and gtx to introduce. 

I have tried adding the gtx elsewhere,  but now leads to a slightly warmer,  mid centric balance which is more musically pleasing to the ear but not as extended in the extremes over the mix of outlets i am using now. 

I do however find both outlets  have a very distinct sonic footprint even when used on another power line feeding my router and internet. But dont discount both as the very best overall soynding outlets. 

I have used all incarnations of oyaide (now totally removed),  wattages and some earlier furutech outlets and used and still using all incarnations of synergistic outlets. 

Of interest is that my red fuse has intentionally been installed in the p300 in the wrong direction.  This gives a slight less upfront,  vivid and detailed presentation as the "added clarity and forward focus" sounds less relaxing and musical to me.  The black fuse in this location upstream again adds another small meaningful stepup up in clarity and detail,  again seems too much. I am thus hesistant  to replace the Teslaplex se with the black outlet upstream before the ps regenerator. 

The trick is that there is no clear winner between with the blacks and gtx/ncf or the red and black fuses and find they complement each strengths of outlets  and fuses as they have different sonic character and excels in different areas. 

The time i have spent comparing the Red and Black fuse and also had used  the SR20 many year back is that the red fuse went the way of a softer more musical presentation.  Now the black fuse has added clarity,  definition and frequency extremes,  but also a less musicall saturated tonality which i find as a slight washout sonically(but allows a better perception of depth as the details are nit upfront compwting wirh one another) and takes a step back in time towards the presentation of the SR20 fuse.  

My summary is that the black outlet will most certainly work in a warmer less upfront sounding system and the gtx in systems wanting more fullness and richer musicality in a less technical fashion.  

Again,  introducing a number of both these outlets might still be the best compromise to acheive the best sonic balance when used synergistically together in whichever mix and number in any given system where one has carefully strived to achieve a more sonically balanced presentation. 

I am unfortuantely not familiar wirh the current cj gear,  but have owned the 12monos and 14 pre years back. Then intending to upgrade to the 17 and 16 pre lead me to finding a different setup. When auditiing the cheaper 17, the gains in dynamics,  clarity was a jump improvement purely on technical aspects as the comparing the 16 again took away from this technical presentation with a new level of musicality lead me to stratch my head and seek out an overall more balanced soumding equipment that is more acceptable over a larger genres of music. 

I have gone though my share of  phases of upgrading or so called changing the setup and tweak towards a particular sonic presentation where clearly direction  of tweak or cables away made an distinct improvement and relate back where i would have solely and clearly chosen the black outlet/fuse presentation.  They have voice their tweak in a certain direction similarly and will appeal to a larger audience,  who doeant like added definity,  clarity,  tighter bass etc.  All sound great,  but there is no free lunch where one should carefully assess areas where these gains may cause detraction in other area,  much like a see saw i must say. 

Overtime,  i understood that is was purely a result of my earlier system not being balanced enough and overly skewed in 1 sonic direction and found adding certain tweaks giving tigher bass,  clarity etc to compensate for this difficiency. 

The black outlet is a $5 item and it IS magnetic,  tested and confirmed.  No special or audiophile approved strap used.  Period. 

Justubes2, that’s great how you’ve arranged units. I did the same thing in my PS Audio: however, it had the Teslaplex SE and an FIM outlet. I couldn’t get both units to fit in there: the Furutech is larger than a standard outlet. So, I could put in either a Texlaplex SE or A Furutech. I’ll have to retry it, since I also have a Power Plant P300 and see if I did something wrong the first time. The sides of the units were nearly touching in my unit.
In any case, thanks for the expository on your experience. And just to clarify, I wasn’t asking for brands: my phrasing was clumsy there. I meant it to be a query about whether or not you’d tried it with ss AND also tubes or one more than the other.
I did finally put everything on the Shunyata Venom PS8, plugged first into Synergistic and then the Furutech, but I’ll have to listen longer, since, with Shunyata, moving the power cord (or anything else) dooms immediate critical listening. I’ve found the system to settle down after around 2-3 hours, and had company, so my listening time was limited. Also, I had a Nordost Frey on the CD player, so it wasn’t a "pure setup," although I have enough Shunyata power cords to power the entire system. The only observation I had was that on the Rolling Stones Rhino release on "Gimme Shelter," Merry Clayton’s words were clearer, but the sound was slightly artificial. Now, keep in mind that the PS8 has only been my system for 8 days, so I’ll have to wait longer, but putting it on the Furutech did not make it sound better, ALTHOUGH, Mick Jagger’s voice certainly gained a veracity that was not due to dynamic intensity, but a more full representation of his voice as I’ve heard it (on say, vinyl). What I think you would call "organic." I find all this fascinating and don’t mind the experimentation at all. I’ll wait another week, when the PS8 has nearly 400 hours on it, although Shunyata says 200 hours is enough (I’ve never had the pleasure of a Shunyata cord - or anything else Shunyata - being at its best at 200 hours (speaker cable being the only other Shunyata products I’ve had). Never the interconnect, except for the first generation Aries, which benefited their power cords, which were slightly recesssive in the upper midrange, where the Aries was just slightly bright, so it made for a ...synergistic match, as do most designers when they voice units. Dave Wilson used to use Rowland to voice the WATTS, Transparent used Wilsons’ Grand Slamms for their cables, etc. Everyone is gong to have a certain voicing because they have to use another manufacturer’s preamp, amp speaker, turntable or CD player to create THEIR product, so if you know say, CJ uses Nola, or Magico speakers (or CJ’s own speaker), you can reasonably assure yourself that part of the sound of the CJ comes from the product the’ve used in its creation. Of course, some manufacturers use several different amps, preamps, etc in the creation of their product, so yet another variable is thrown into the monkey wrench works, as it were.

I should mention that I also noticed that the Synergistic did an about-face shortly after my Nov. 3 post, and that the guitars seemed a bit dull again, meaning transients as the most obvious change, and then, the image placement in the depth field collapsed slightly again. I thought perhaps the strip the microwave (in the kitchen) was plugged into wasn’t turned off (dedicated circuit or no, both here in CT and in my apartment when I lived in San Francisco, I could easily tell when the microwave was powered on. And I demonstrated in an acquaintance’s house, someone with an excellent High End system, that the microwave could reliably be identified as "on" or "off" and they heard it within a minute (I was wathcing them out of the corner of my eye and I saw them cock their heads as they realized that the sonics were noticeably different, which they confirmed after the cut finished). The microwave, by the way, was NOT on, so I couldn’t blame the change on that. I just thought "more break-in time."
So, I hear exactly what you’re saying and I agree. What I’ll have to do is try to put both an NCF AND another "Black" into the PS Audio (meaning, replace the Teslaplex SE that's in there) to see the results. I will say that, so far, although I like the Venom, I haven’t heard it - other than to move the presentation closer to my listening seat - demonstrate an unparalleled improvement over the P300, but I’m willing to wait longer. Right now, it has exactly 224 hours on it and counting. But, neither is it easily distinguishable from the P300. Yet. So, I could be hearing the "Black" outlet or it could be the Shunyata, and it’s too soon to know which, without more time.
In any case, I appreciate your extremely thorough analysis and comments and I think other will benefit from reading your post as well. Thank you.

Gbmcleod,

The teslaplex se will not fit together with a GTX, but the narrow Black (of Non SE) which combo i was using previously could. 2 GTX or 2 Teslaplex SE's will not fit the P300 in this combination.

I especially value the cleanwave of the p300 which does clear the sound a bit, much like running a demag disc.

It's been a pleasure engaging in meaningful discussions with you and it very constructive in our tweaking quest.

My other black outlet is installed, yes, a calmer or organised sound with a tad more rigid sound, still good and does better slightly the SE it replaces.

This control of sounds appears to also limit the high frequency brilliance and any residual bloom in the mid regions and bass, though it does go deeper. Please read brilliance  that this is not glare, harshness , hardness or tinnitus effect. I may be fortunate to not have any traces of these negative artifiacts in my system now.

As from a fresh memory. this brilliance in treble and high frequencies even compared to the SE and even more so to the GTX or GTX(NCF) could be considered as a downfall, though still sound good and pleasing.

The changes introducing another black outlet and fuse does not make for a large change, it's improvements now, i would consider more a change sonically. Do not that this is 2nd black outlet including fuses.

I would not fret over leaving the SE or have any real preference over the black now.

It goes for the fuses and the red fuse can and will probably stay. Incidentally, i have intentionally compared these 2 fuse in the wrong orientation (which i prefer actually sound more musical over the hyped up sound i was getting in the "correct" position which though technically better in audiophile terms was fatiguing and less musical to me.

As with equipment, the voicing or match has now to be determined by the user and tedious comparisions of various equipment  and tweaks.

i do look forward to your further findings, so as that may provide me with a 2nd opinion with these outlets and also re-evaluate which areas may be lacking and re-optimize the combinations of outlets.

To hasten the burn-in process and settling time in the systems, i have found using the cleanwave of the p300 (Multiwave set) together with a burn in disc afther reintroducing any component does seem to normalise the sound thereafter rather quickly especially set to repeat overnight or even a shorter time frame.