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Perfect Path Tecnologies ‘The Gate’

Having been a music lover and audio enthusiast for more decades than I care to admit to I’ve had the privilege of owning some tremendous components over those years and thought I had attained a level of musical enjoyment that would be difficult to improve upon without spending more money than I could afford. Then along came The Gate to turn my audio conceptions on end. 

While I was quite skeptical of all of the positive proclamations regarding the Perfect Path mats, cards and contact enhancer ( how could they possibly bring about such sonic improvements?) I took the plunge and purchased a nano bundle to see what the hubbub was all about. Much to my surprise they not only brought about improvements to my systems’ ability to recreate a more musical sound but did so in spades. 

When Tim of Perfect Path Technologies asked if I wanted to try his new product, The Gate, I jumped at the chance thinking it would be a nice addition to what the other products provided. I wasn’t prepared for the quantum leap The Gate brought to my music listening pleasure. As much as the other products brought about a much lower noise floor, greater detail and delicacy, improved dynamics, richer tone and more realism The Gate does so in magnitudes difficult to describe. The best way I can describe its affect is unreal purity leading the most realistic musical sound I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.....outside of a live performance obviously. It has me listening to all of my CD’s as if for the first time again.

I have no idea how The Gate actually works or what it does I just know it’s the most dramatic tweak to my system I’ve ever experienced and I wouldn’t think of being without it. As to how it’s implemented, it’s installed in the electrical panel with one lead connected to the common buss and the other to a breaker ( preferably 220). Hope I got the terminology correct.....I’m far from being an electrician!

At $4,999.00 it’s not cheap but worth every penny to me as I’ve spent more on components with less sonic improvement. 

Lastly, I realize some will scoff at something they can’t understand and I get not understanding it as I don’t, but I would hope people could keep their skepticism healthy and civil. I am not here to promote or sell, nor do I have any affiliation with PPT. I am only sharing something that I’ve found to be transforming in my system. Sorry for the lengthy introduction.
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oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
@folkfreak  ...

The Gate is such a significant improvement in every system in which I've heard it, that I find it interesting that you're not bubbling over with enthusiasm.

 I'm wondering if you've installed it incorrectly. Did you connect it to a 220 amp breaker switch? If not, then you are totally missing out on what The Gate does so well. It will work off of a 110 switch, but will not be as effective as when attached to a 220 switch. If you have it on a 110, try the 220.

If you have installed it elsewhere in the system, take it out and put it in the circuit breaker box, then sit back and enjoy your new, very improved audio system. 

Hope this helps ...

Frank
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@mrs_ppt the Gate was installed by Ron Hedrich (Marigo Audio) based on advice provided by Tim. It is on the 240V input side of my Torus WM-75BAL wall conditioner. Electrically this is identical to installation across the 240V breaker that the Torus is connected to - just at the other end of 30' of Romex from the breaker box to the Torus. This was the best compromise between space/ease of installation and closest to the main system -- I accept that it may give up something in "whole house" treatment (although again electrically it's the same as being in the breaker) but in no way compromises the impact on my audio system. I added a photo in my system so you can see -- the black lead is hard to make out but is connected to the 40A block just under the left side of the transformer.

By the way having a dealer to work with you is a major positive and I hope Ron is only the first of many local dealers that you will be working with.

@oregonpapa this is me being enthusiastic -- I am British after all and we are reserved. Perhaps another way of looking at it is to realize that in a system with $200K invested in acoustical, power conditioning and other tweaks (not including cables btw) the addition of The Gate made a positive and differentiated impact not achievable by any other such change -- that's quite an endorsement is it not?
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
Just as an addendum to my last post when taking the shots of the Gate in situ I wondered if as the Torus wall case is a noisy (actually, it's quite hummy) environment if some additional isolation for the Gate via fo.Q damping material might help

Answer is "don't do it folks" -- having fo.Q anywhere near the Gate messes things up big time. Think collapsed soundstage and rolled off highs. Clearly the squidgy material the Gate is made of has some special properties and trying to second think it with other footers or damping materials is not advised. I'd also guess there's some of that eMat special field source in there as well that a second type of damping material interferes with

Anyway hopefully this advice can avoid anyone else wasting their time -- and also act as another good demonstration of how effective the Gate is
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
folkfreak  ...

Thank you for the response. I'm really happy that you're enjoying your Gate. It is an amazing device. 

I'm sorry I took your reserved comments to be a lack of enthusiasm and I apologize.  I am, after all, a "Yanker" ... and as you know, we can at times be Wankers. :-)

Best ...

Frank
resolution1
140 posts
 
About 5 days ago I installed e cards on the remaining “un covered” power chord connections, digital and analog interconnects and speaker connections in both my main and office systems. I did not think that they would provide this much of an improvement in resolution and dynamics on both of my systems. I had previously treated all of those connections with TC and have one Mat on the main power panel, one on the CD player’s power supply and one on umbilical chord from the power supply to the dac/transport. As stated before my main system consists of an approximately 15-20 year old dac / CD player amp and preamp.

The question I have is, if these cards can further improve my system to this level how much improvement will The Gate bring to the table once installed in this old of a system?

Thanks,

rc
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