Porter Ports or Cabledyne Cryo Hubbell 5362

HDM, Old or new stock 8300H, I don't mind as long as they sound good to me and, in my case, free from edge and harshness, and i certainly don't mind a touch of warmth if at all that's possible from an outlet. The revelator tweeters of my Kharmas are known for their aggressiveness in the highs and particularly in female voice.

Sonic genius, i read somewhere that the H versions of the Hubbell 8300 (i.e. ending with an H) are slimmer and are of unplated brass. If that is true then fine but, again, I've read conflicting descriptions in different Hubbell catalogues, some stating that the contact materials of 8300H are Ni plated brass, others stating they are of brass, and also same conflicting descriptions I've read regarding Hubbell HBL5362.

HBL 8200H (I have 3 of them here) and HBL 8300H have always been compact hospital grades with unplated Olin 688 brass contacts.

HBL 8200/8300 (have at least 3 of those here as well) is an entirely different receptacle, a typical full sized hospital grade with Olin 688 brass nickel plated contacts.

HBL 5262/5362 (have at least 3 of those here too) have always been full sized "specification grade" receptacles with Olin 688 brass non-plated contacts.

HBL 8300GY is simply a grey 8300. If you had a grey 8300H it would be HBL 8300HGY, a white 8300 would be HBL 8300W, a white 8300H would be HBL 8300HW, etc.

There's really not much confusing about the Hubbell catalog numbers if you know one thing: the better quality receptacles all share the prefix HBL while the lower quality contractor grades from Hubbell have a CR prefix. That is what Cabledyne is referring to on their website, although they could have done a better job on it and really spelled it out. Check out the price difference doing a google search on a Hubbell HBL 5362 vs. a Hubbell CR 5362. The key is to NOT buy the CR designated Hubbells.

As far as the 8300H being "special order", the only thing special order about it is that it is typically not stocked. Go to any Hubbell retailer, ask them to order it for you and you'll have it in a week.

Hope this helps eliminate some of the confusion.

Single outlets are the best sounding because they have less resonance..see the Hubbell HBL5361. Mounting screws are ferrous but those can easily be changed. Stainless steel is very slightly magnetic , go with brass. Tom

Hdm, i honestly feel you are an asset to the audiogon community.. keep up with the good contibution of imparting your experience and first hand knowledge.. better than any Hubbell catalogue.. imho

Theaudiotweak, I believe you make a very interesting and possibly very valuable suggestion. ... need some more research and comparative experience from fellow audiogoners to test this hypothesis.... contributions cordially invited..

Thanks very much for the compliment Lall! One of those makes up for all of the sarcastic comments from those who feel that receptacles in audio are all about snakeoil.

I have experience with a number of receptacles (most of the experimentation I did was about 10 years ago) but certainly not all and I can only say what has worked for me-there are lots of receptacles out there, including many that I don't have experience with and subjective preferences and system synergy certainly come into play so it's not a "one size fits all" thing.

That being said, I'd agree with the Audiotweak that resonance control does come into play (that idea is probably even more controversial than the effect of the receptacle itself). Current audio overkill resonance control with receptacles would probably be represented by the Furutech GTX wall plate:

http://www.furutech.com/2013/02/02/1780/

which I have no experience with, and the Oyaide WPC-Z:

http://www.furutech.com/2013/02/02/1780/

which I do.

I was given the opportunity to evaluate an Oyaide R1 and WPC-Z at no cost a few years ago. You'll have to dig into the thread a bit but if you'd like to read about my experience with that, the info is here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/oyaide-r1-wpz-outlet-loaner-program.259008/