Upgraded AC outlets

Hdm: My 381 has "LEVITON" stamped on the mounting yoke. From a manufacturing standpoint however, about the only thing that tells me is that the Leviton yoke tooling was used (probably to save many tens of thousands of $ in tooling expense). The metal that it stamped could easily be a different alloy and I don't recall a Leviton product with a gold plated yoke.

Tooling plastic components is also extremely expensive, but existing molds often easily work for differently compounded plastics.

A little background info from a former Manufacturing Engineer. Happy Listening!

Alexander and others: Check this out. Sorry about the pdf file on the Leviton page; it will take a little while to download. Look at page 4 of the Leviton site (specs on hosp. grade levitons)

http://www.leviton.com/pdfs/ind%20receptacles/b-616%20ind%20receptacles.pdf

Then look at:

http://www.wattgate.com/prod-381.htm

I particularly like how the Leviton and Wattgate both got an "upgraded" grounding system at the same time. Must be a coincidence. Yes, your Wattgate has gold plating on it, and I haven't heard it, so I can't really comment on its sound quality. But I can't help but think that people purchasing this receptacle are paying about $120 for that gold plating and that blue star. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe it's worth it.....

P.S. Sorry, forgot this. Page 2 and 3 of the Leviton site show a couple of the hospital grades with gold colored mounting yokes as well. Actually, that whole file is kind of interesting.

I put in a PS Audio power port and noticed no difference from the hospital orange outlet. Oh well...

...and how many "swipes" do you think that 24k several-micron plating is good for?! Sigh....