Electrical outlet upgrade worth it?

Czbbcl,
In your post you bring up some excellent points (that I have thought about many times myself). I hear what you're saying; there are no hostilities on my behalf. Enjoy the music!

Hey, it's only $12 at Home Depot. That's for a hospital grade outlet. If you want to go for a fancey shmancey outlet for $50, coated, frozen, baked and touched with only gloved hands: go for it. The $12 one will give you a tight connection. That's all this deal is about. A good, snug, connection, however, is important. I haven't dared to read the other posts, so maybe this is superfluous. Remember, this outlet is just the very beginning of your electric insanity possibilities.

Tubemiser, Lak

Which outlets have you compared and then which one did you ultimately settle on.

Lak

Please do not take what I said personally, I did not mean it that way, you sound like a very nice person. This is after all a hobby that should be enjoyed with time spent listening to music not spend haggling over whose is better or who hears what. What I was aluding to is the thought process I go through every time I replace/upgrade a component. Sometimes / most times it is very difficult to ascertain whether or not the upgrade was better (improvement) or just different. The point being that, in general, different is easier to ascertain than better.

Back to the subject. I think that if one can improve ones system by merely replacing an inexpensive component like a receptical, even the expensive ones are cheap in comparision to the equipment, then by all means one should experiment. After all experimenting is fun and if it improves the system then all the better.

I'm an apartment dweller, too. About 10 years ago, I switched to Hubbell 20 amp hospital grade outlets for my Quad-63s and Quicksilver Mono amps (tube). Watta grip! The AC cords no longer semi-slipped out. And it gave the Quicksilvers a boost in sound that seemed like 50% more wattage - better bass, larger dynamics, etc.

There was no doubt at my eardrums and I never looked back.

Try it - worked for me. Turn off the juice first, before it bites you!

Todd

Czbbcl, I settle with a Tice audio grade outlet eight years ago. I'm not sure if Tice is still producing this outlet. In those days I could only A/B outlets I could afford, hospital, industrial, and spec grade outlets, I still have no regrets on the $30 I shell out for the Tice, it has a blk background and lots of layering, and at least it was more musical than a $.75 Levingtion outlet.

I see the market now is flooded with many recomended outlets. I do agree with you that it is difficult to A/B outlets, and I offer at least a suggestion/luxury of having two wall outlets available for outlet comparision.