Good outlet for amplifiers

BTW, from experience, I’m completely against the use of rhodium plated anything in audio for two reasons: It’s not a very good conductor and it’s too hard. I’ve used rhodium plated items in everything from RCA plugs to AC.

You’d think hard was good, but when you have two hard metal objects coming into contact with each other they fail to grip very well at all. It’s bad in speaker terminals (though nickel in this case is also bad) and it makes AC plugs far too slippery.

Copper, brass, gold, silver however deform in all the right ways (they squish together) and prevent speaker terminals from becoming unscrewed and keep plugs in their sockets.

No matter what arguments they may make for audio grade outlets you’ll never convince me rhodium belongs anywhere but on jewelry.  I'll take an affordable hospital grade plug and outlet over any jewel like plugs all day long.

@peter_s 

Another vote here for the Furutech GTX-D NCF(R) outlets.  I found very favorable sonic improvement of this outlet over a few other audiophile grade outlets.   

Regarding the ability to daisy chain from one Furutech to another, there are two sets of lugs to wire to on each unit.  A better way to extend to a second outlet would  be to pigtail separate leads to each outlet in the same box, or to extend the circuit to a separate box.  This way a loose connection does not affect downstream outlets.  Just did this on 1000’ of romex for four separate circuits and 22 outlets in my basement at the recommendation of my electrician.  If there is a problem with a loose connection for an outlet it will be at the outlet instead of the possibility of an upstream connection.  

Admittedly, the Furutech outlet doesn’t have the tightest connection.  But the sonic improvement easily offsets that.  
 

I met Caelin Gabriel (principal at Shunyata) at AXPONA several years ago during a slow time, and we talked for quite a while. When outlets came up he told me the following tips:

Hospital grade outlets are not appropriate for audio because they are designed to withstand corrosion from the harsh cleaning chemicals in a medical facility. That means the the female connectors in the receptacle are made of stainless steel which does not conduct electricity as well as copper. There is no reason to have corrosian resistant sockets in your home.

Caelin said that the best commonly available receptacle for home use is the Hubbel 5362. These come in 15 and 20 amp versions and are better made than typical outlets from Home Depot. They are all copper and are heavier duty than a typical outlet. They are under $15 each on Amazon.

I have just built a house with a dedicated listening room (we are just about ready to move in) and I used 3 dedicated 20 amp circuits for the audio room with one fo them using 10 gauge wire (the other 2 use standard 12 gauge). The 10 gauge circuit will be dedicated to my Krell KSA 300S amp which draws a huge amount of power. I'm using Hubbel receptacles for each circuit.

The best method? Don't use a plug. Hardwire in a sealed box. Cheapest and by far the best. You could simply cut off the ends, strip the wires and solder/connect them together in a sealed box. Then you don't have to pay a rediculious amount for a more 'snug' fitting hospital outlet. Of course the outlet can easily be reinstalled with a plug outlet at any time.

@pinball101 Wouldnt I get a better connection, at least to the first outlet, by going directly into the outlet rather than creating a pigtail in the box? That’s what I was thinking and why I would Daisy chain. Because the most important outlet will be the first one where the two amplifiers are set  also, this quad installation is the end of a circuit… So I’m not too worried about other outlets further downstream.

I’m glad to see that I can Daisy chain.  In order to isolate the ground, however, would I break off the tab that wraps around one side of the unit to the ground lug? I think I have a metal box… Because the cable is armored and therefore the metal box and armored cable all provide shielding together.