Let me finish the discussion starting at the beginning. I double checked this subject this week as we just returned from CES and we talked "face to face" with Wattgate. Here is the whole story...
(I feel as though I should start with once upon a time..hee, hee)
Ray Kimber wanted to build the best outlet. He contacted the (3) major manufactures of electrical supplies. Those being, Hubbell, Marinco and Leviton. Come to find out ... each of these manufacturers work in conjunction producing different parts for each other (tooling reasons). Leviton offered up it's top of the line hospital grade outlet to be semi converted. Thus was born the 380. It was nothing more than this outlet with the triple copper, nickel, gold plating. It performed and sold successfully for a number of years.
Mr. Kimber still was not satisfied. He then took that outlet and instructed Leviton to beef up the grounding strap and configure a "box" system to secure the ground wire. He additionally took all of the internal contacts and doubled the surface area. This also increased the contact force. He then triple plated the entire unit and this became the Wattgate 381. There is NO OTHER outlet that has this contact area and this cannot be bought in an over the counter format. ex: PS Audio's is nothing more than the Hubbell 8300 with PS stamped on it. The Acme is a silver plated/cryo'd P&S outlet. Both are great outlets, but not their own.
A couple months ago, we (us dealers) ran into a shortage for two months. Leviton needs to retool on every order by Ray Kimber. They cannot pick this outlet from the shelf and plate it. This is Mr. Kimber's outlet and he says when to build it. It says Leviton on the body, but it is NOT a standard outlet. They manufacture it to Kimber's standard.
I hope this clears up any confusion. I wish I could show you one cut in half. It is easy to see the difference.
Dan
dedicatedaudio.com
