Furutech Discussion

:joy: got one a few weeks ago …

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The earth cable on the Nordost AC connector is missing here. This strip is designed in such a way that it only develops its true sound quality with an earth connection to the amplifier

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@Dibus480710 hI … ah… ok… I learnt something here … shall check out w the dealer… thanks :ok_hand:t2:

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Amplifier must be connected to Nordost in slot no. 2. then connect amplifier to all other devices via ground cable. Brings more pressure and transparency, I also have the QBase 4, series 4. incredibly good.

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Thanks !! I shall do some enquiries w the dealer as according to your post … :clap:t2::muscle:t2:

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As several know I was a 25 year Naim owner (the last 18 with a 552DR/500DR) who moved to DarTZeel separates one year ago. Please take my Furutech comments in the concept of a DarTZeel system, with dCS front end, so they are not necessarily relevant to the application of Furutech with Naim. My previous outlet was a Cryo’d Hubbell from AV Options, and AV Options Cryo’d Tibia Plus power cables.

In a nutshell call me not a fan of Rhodium. I had the full Furutech GTX-D R NCF, NCF wall plate and NCF outlet cover. I lasted the excruciating 700 hour break in period. I also have a custom made DPS 4.1 power cable with FI-50 NCF Rhodium ends to play around with.

I have read more than I care to on this thread and on the various threads over at WBF. There definitely is a significant contingent of people who simply do not like the sound of Rhodium. While I found the GTX-D R NCF outlets performance to be commendable, with a definite lowering of the noise floor, I simply found Rhodium too cool and un natural sounding. My opinion echoes those of others.

This week I finally decided to throw in the towel however I then decided to have one last go at things. Yesterday I installed a GTX-D Gold plated outlet (they do not make a NCF version) - and I am using it with my existing NCF wall plate and outlet cover. I will now be testing this out with a Siltech Classic Legend 880 Silver power cable - which happens to come standard with Furutech Gold plated plug and IEC (for all of those fans who extoll the virtues of keeping like for like plating materials).

Now for the big question. How long should one expect the Gold plated version of the GTX-D to take for break in?

PLEASE do not tell me another 300-500 hours :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Best
Gregg

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299-499 hours lol

I kid Gregg. Hopefully someone will come along with a good answer for you. I’m really curious to reading / hearing about your experience. Gold plated sounds like the business for your Siltech.

Furutech need loooooong hours to run in .

Aware of that as I just went through it with Rhodium.
My question, and hope, is the gold plated outlet does not require as many hours as the Rhodium did.

Initial (after 24 hours) are promising - a natural sound has returned (compared to the un natural sound of the Rhodium).

With that said, considering the sonic attributes of Naim, I can see how many would enjoy Rhodium in a Naim system.

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Yes you are right . Gold need much lesser time ( a good 150 hrs will unleash its potential I believe ) to run in, as compare rhodium. Enjoy your run in :grin:

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Spec wise, that cable shouldn’t be hard to beat as those are your typical “entry” level grade components. As far as how it sounds, that you likely can’t judge on construction alone, as similar construction can have very different sound. You had mentioned below about swapping ends, & yes this isn’t a bad idea, just that we can’t really say how your current wire sounds, which would make recommending ends hard to do. Furutech does make some very nice sounding wire & in the larger gauges. I’m not sure as I’m in CDN $ but I believe in your higher budget you should be able to do FI-50 NCF R ends combined with S55N cable. I could highly recommend that combo & it will ass some warm/body to the sound (though can’t say how it would compare exactly to your current combo).

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With regards to Rhodium & sounding to “cool & un natural” the thing is the FI 50 NCF are very transparent connectors, they don’t add much of their own sound, so if the sound your getting is “cool & un natural”, they are more then likely just exposing something else in the chain that isn’t to your liking. There is a reason many companies use this connector for their flagship cords (Siltech included). The DPS 4.1 is also a pretty neutral sounding cable as well, you would probably have been far better off with S55N cable instead. I have heard DarTZeel a few times before & it was too bright/analytical for my taste but I wasn’t familiar with the other components in use in the system so couldn’t say for sure if the DarTZeel components were the cause or other components in the chain.

Its the rhodium plating that takes for ever to run in, the gold plated ends will run in much quicker.

Yes … rhodium is like for ever to run in

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Thank you for the reply and happy to hear gold plated will not take as long as the Rhodium did. I was not happy during that break in process.

As for your comments on Rhodium let’s say we respectfully disagree. The largest body of information I have found on Furutech components has been on the WBF forum and there are numerous posts going back years. I believe you even started a thread there last year when you began your Furutech journey.

My conclusions from WBF “thread surfing” is that many use the Rhodium plated GTX-D outlet, those who do almost never use Furutech power cables, and there are significant numbers of people who do not like Rhodium. I liked and appreciated what the outlet did in terms of noise reduction, blackness of background etc. Its just, for me, the tonality was off.

While yes I do use Siltech cables, and they do use the FI-50 connectors on their Royal Crown series, many manufacturers do not use Rhodium. My speaker dealer, one of the veterans of the US hifi scene, echoed the common refrain “Rhodium messes with the sound and tonality”. I tried my AV Options Tibia plus cable, an Iconoclast Power Cable (US Belden/Blue Jeans), and finally a high end Siltech silver power cable - all on my GTX-D R outlet. I was not happy. As for surrounding gear - DarTZeel separates and dCS RossinI APEX are not bright - they sounded excellent on my previous Hubbell Cryo’d outlet - the standard for US based Naim owners - together with Chris/Nick AV Options Cryo’d Tibia power cable. As an interesting aside, my aforementioned dealer, who is also the brand rep for Harbeth and Stenheim speakers, as well as a Siltech, Shunyata, and former Nordost dealer, remembers when Chris Koster demoed him the original Tibia cable from many years ago. He was impressed!

I will report back on how my GTX-D Gold outlet progresses. Tonight I will have 50 hours on it so I am hoping by the end of the week I will be able to say something. At least proper tonality is back.

FYI - here is the post from WBF on Rhodium and which manufacturers are using/not using it


“While a lot has been said on this forum about Furutech Rhodium plated connectors, not many top tier cable manufacturers use them for their highest end cables (Audience and Siltech have used them), and Rhodium plated connectors generally are in the minority. Ansuz, Argento, Audioquest, Hemingway, Lessloss, Nordost, Shunyata, Stage III Concepts, and Stealth make their own connectors for their highest level power cables with only Argento and Stealth using Rhodium plating. Crystal Cable, Echole, Fono Acustica, Gryphon, and Pranawire use (non-Rhodium) Oyaide connectors. Sablon uses Platinum plated Bochinno. Ansuz and Lessloss use gold plating, Stage III uses palladium/silver/copper. Audioquest uses silver plating. Note that while the Nordost Odin PC uses Rhodium plated Furutech connectors, with the new Odin 2 Nordost has switched to gold plated connectors that they make in-house. Shunyata warns against using their new “Copperconn” connectors with a rhodium plated outlet. In his recent reviews of Audience Front Row (“Audience Rhodium Connectors”) and Fono Acustica (Rhodium free Oyaide connectors) cables, which included comparisons between the two, Marshall Nack of PFO preferred the Fono Acustica, calling them the most musical cables he had ever encountered”

And as a followup - there really are not many outlet options here in the US. As a 25 year USA Naim user I have used the Hubbell outlet for years. After that AVO started Cryo’ing it. Shunyata makes a “CopperCon” outlet which they use on their power distribution/filtering boxes - it is simply a modified and rebranded Hubbell. There are the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium and Gold outlets, and Oyaide makes the R1 in unplated or Platinum/Palladium plating. I was told the plated R1 was actually darker sounding than the GTX-D Gold. Some Wattgate product is rebranded Marinco.

Audience and Torus use Hubbell on their power distribution/transformer boxes. Audioquest uses NRG Edison outlets on the Niagara series - I am not familiar with this brand.

After that not many other outlets I have come across here in the States.

Yes, agree to disagree. I’ve read all the posts on WBF as well & don’t come to the same conclusions as you. Yes, there are some that don’t like Rhodium but its something like 80% like vs 20% that don’t (& there are some that are wrongly blaming Rhodium for other problems). As far as not using Furutech power cables with their GTX-D NCF outlet, I wouldn’t agree with that either. I will say there are just not that many people using factory finished Furutech cables in general if that’s what you mean, but there are many with Furutech based DIY pieces, especially their ends plugged into the GTX-D NCF.

Yes different manufactures use different materials, you mentioned Nordost changing, Nordost is more on the analytical side of things, so not totally surprising they swapped ends. Did they reduce their prices when they did so? (they may have just made the change to increase their profit :grin: )

Different Rhodium ends sound different , as do different gold ends. Furutech uses very thick plating, so their gold stuff is rather coloured (more so compared to some other manufacturers). If their gold combo works for you, great, that’s all that matters but it is a more coloured combo vs the Rhodium.

Are there any other high-quality outlets to consider? Just forward planning in case the gold plated GTX-D does not work for me. I really do not want to go back to my Hubbell as I am hoping there is something better than that on the market. The only thing I can come up with is the Shunyata CopperCon - however, in the end, it is nothing more than a glorified Hubbell

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I’m not up to speed on other manufacturers gold outlets, but I know there are a few fans of the Audioquest Edison & have heard good things on the Cardas 4181 wall outlet.

I am a fan of Siltech cables as well, I’d let it run in with the gold outlet & see what you think. If its too much gold, maybe swap back to the GTX-D NCF, try the cord with that & see how it works (not ideal with the mix match platings (which could introduce some harshness) but never know till you try) or try swapping out just the male end of the Siltech cord with the FI-50 NCF if you still have it. That might give you what your after, still have the warmth from the gold at the IEC end & the Siltech wire itself probably has more warmth/body compared to the DPS-4.1.

Well - I sort of beat you to the punch re your recommendations. As we know - changing out outlets is not fun! The Siltech 880 w/ FI-11 Gold ends which was sent in for demo was already a broken in version. I tried it first with the GTX-D R outlet - and still was not happy.

While I was tempted to return back to my Cryo’d Hubbell I decided to have one last stab at things and had a GTX-D Gold delivered on Saturday. As an aside I do not know why they do not make a NCF version of this outlet - I have to count on my NCF wallplate and outlet cover to get that goodness.

I have the impression it all starts with the wall outlet being the most important with the plugs and IEC to follow. In fact, when I was not happy with the GTX-D R I decided to ameliorate some of the effects of the Rhodium and brought back my old Torus isolation transformer. It has Hubbell outlets on the back. I ran a DPS 4.1 w/ FI-50 R NCF ends between the wall GTX-D R and Torus - and then used AV Options or Iconoclast PC’s between the Torus and DarTZeel and dCS. Things were better and the tonality came back. The problem is I really would like to be able to plug the DarTZeel amplifier directly into the wall and use a power strip/isolation transformer for my source components. The beauty of the DarTZeel preamp is that it utilizes battery power - no effects of power cables or mains variability.

Let’s see how the gold outlet breaks in. By the way - my speaker dealer who also carries Siltech and Shuynyata is a fan of Cardas as well. I will have to google their outlet and see what it is made of. I believe the key to the Furutech, at least from what I have read, is their ability to use Copper for their outlets instead of Phosphor Bronze. It seems like the underlying material is very important.

Boy do I miss my Naim days. Way back when (pre Chord Cable Sarum development) it was so easy - just use the cables in the box. Sarum development back around 2010 changed everything and the way Naim owners looked at cabling. I was a guinea pig for Chord and Nigel back when Sarum and then Super Sarum were first developed and released. Eventually made my way through Sarum, Super Sarum, Sarum T, and ultimately MUSIC.

Boy have times changed.

Best
Gregg

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You can always come back Gregg!
On another note, did you try the Furutech eTP609 by chance? I can’t recall our last conversation about it.

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