Copper Sleeve over IEC

Yeah the blu tack is perfect for this application and semi-permanent, and has better mechanical and damping properties as well. Plus leaves no residue on the copper or your plugs which is nice, so you can test this out where you want and reverse it quickly. I also have decided to only do the IEC ends on my amps, and Do both ends on my DAC and Both ends on my Transport… Mainly I stay away from preamps with this kinda thing as it does seem to suck some life out of them.. Most analog gear accept amps for that matter don’t seem to benefit from this, such as phono stages etc.. I just do the digital fully and the amps just the IEC connection.

I am curious however if there would be some benefit adding a Drain wire by soldering a small wire onto the Copper coupler at the IEC end and connecting it to the back of the Component chassis screw with a quick conneect tab or alligator clip? It would be grounded this way as well, not sure if any benefit but interesting. This way you have a positive solid connection as it seems in the marantz video above he basically was just trying to hang the copper so to touch the IEC inlet screws…

I can see however its worth using stainless steel or Brass wall plates for more isolation on that end vs. cheap plastic ones.. However I would not pay the 30 to 300 dollars for the voodoo carbon fiber or brass plates from some of these guys advertising them!

I was able to rearrange AC ends on back of the Hydra adding sleeves over the AC ends of the transport, dac and preamp.

If I notice any decrease what so ever, I'll remove the preamp AC sleeve first, per above comment(s)

First few notes upon fire-up and wow again.

More fully developed harmonics and smoothness, like another component upgrade.

AC wreaks an evil havoc on sound, controlling it is the key, but not always an easy task.

I would be curious however if a couple of the shields are just simply NOT having any negative effect, but also not doing anything positive but lame ducks, like the ones possibly on the preamp.. So if you get a chance let us know.. But again it will really depend on the equipment too I am sure, tube, solid state, overall design and power supply in the component can make this tweak better on some and not so good on others who knows?

Undertow,

I gathered that conclusion among other things as well as tweaks, eg. P/C's, tube types, interconnects, speaker cables etc.

Power supply is a very key matter, ask a guy like Paul or Brian at TRL,
I had a long phone conversation with them.

I'll listen for a lame duck tonight, when everything's quieter and settled in !