Copper Sleeve over IEC

Since I have found, along with others, that aluminum is a better shielding material that copper or steel, I would whether simple and cheap aluminum duct tape would be better and would, of course, be easily contoured to any plug. I doubt that it would do anything for Synergistic Research power cords that I use, so I won't be trying this.

Hey, this is a great idea! I'll have to give it a try.

Note if you ground the copper, it becomes a capacitor relative to the AC Mains. If you don't ground it, then it is a shorted turn. These are quite different entities: one is a capacitor and the other is a very lossy transformer. Neither will help pass AC power to the unit but both will have a significant impact on any RF riding along the power cord.

My vote goes for the shorted turn effect, as that is what I would expect to see the biggest improvement. But I can try both easily enough.

A gent over at AA suggested using 3/4" copper union (sleeves, couplers) over a CD players Digital inputs and outputs.
He also suggested to use what he called digital "terminators" , which I call shorting plugs.

I was not sure about adding a shorting plug to an output and it made me nervous even trying it.
But, after some assurance from people who sell the digital shorting plugs that they were ok to use on Input and outputs on digital , I gave it a try.

I tried metal Digital shorting plugs on both the coaxial input and output on my Cary 306 SACD Player and it did indeed make a difference. The soundstage and center image improved.
I was very suprised that the shorting plugs will work both on Input and output on digital.

But, when I added the 3/4" copper sleeves over the metal shorting plugs, it dulled the sound, so no go for me on the use of copper sleeves over the digital shorting plugs.

Perhaps if the shorting plugs were plastic then the copper sleeves might have made an improvement...

Ozzy, I am not at all surprised with what you found, but shorting an output, if it is on, is a no-no.

We've got big rolls of 36 gauge copper foil at work, so I've tried cutting strips of this to experiment with. With foils, you can add layers to try different amounts of shielding. It can be tightly wrapped & pinch formed to close around the back of the ac plug. I must say I do hear some changes to the sound of the cd player & dac with added shielding on the iec plug. I'm not sure that I like what it does on my Marantz Sa11S1, but it's a definite positive used on my dac.