Enjoy your system. It’s great that you’ve found a suitable solution. And I hope that the upcoming 3.11 firmware will be a good solution for everyone! I have every confidence in Naim and the Beta Group.
I’ve mentioned it countless time in here that, price for “just an outlet” is ridiculous but the price vs performance is one of the best I have come across in audio. For me, I now consider power related items a fundamental in regards to getting as much potential as you can out of your current kit. Some have even mocked me when recommending these NCF outlets vs the more generic outlets they were looking at installing, but I just laugh to myself with knowing how much potential performance they are missing out on.
I was quite amazed how much more detail these outlets retrieve while at the same time sounding smoother & more refined, with a blacker background. They step up all the “hifi aspects” while at the same time not losing any musicality & if anything, increase it further. A lot of the time, improvements in one area often lead to negative aspects in other areas but to my ears, in my room with my kit, all the NCF things I have tried have been positive all around.
I believe a big factor is just changing old outlets to new be it hifi outlets or standard ones. Mine were from the early 80s and looked horrible. I’m sure a standard outlet would outperform it by a big margin.
I wasn’t really expecting a significant improvement but was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Whist I would never have berated your views prior to the upgrade, I would certainly have been sceptical. I don’t think there was any expectation bias at play either, as my expectations were not that high! The improvement, to use a cliche is akin to a major component upgrade.
I get your point and I suspect that could well be a factor in some cases. Not too sure that has played a significant part in this case Blackbird, as the MK socket it replaced was relatively new, having been installed along with a dedicated mains by the previous owner of the house. Something I didn’t realise until after we moved in!
I’m naturally sceptical about all of this stuff but somewhat taken aback by something which to a degree defies logic.
I’ve given up trying to rationalise it and have just accepted that some things defy explanation. ![]()
Hearing is believing, as they say. People who don’t wish to try and choose to believe it won’t make any difference without trying, well, it’s their loss.
Enjoy~
Might add that I also use Furutech NCF outlets but looking at the plates for connection on the former outlets being 40 years old I in my case would assume a big part of the upgrade was fresh cable ends and plates more than NCF material and such ![]()
I would disagree that it is a major part of it. My outlets (EU) were brand new installed at the end of 2021 so only a couple years old and you have seen how much it improved my situation.
I’ve just been listening Johnny Cash American V and the realism / body to his voice is now stunning. Previously unheard subtle detail in guitar backing is gorgeous. Like he and the band are there in front of me.
Similar realism to Anouar Brahem, The Outstanding Eyes of Rita obviously with no vocals to speak of.
I played some female vocals earlier. These were a challenge earlier due to sibilance. That was even with fairly smooth voices like Norah Jones.
I can’t drag myself away from the listening position but I have stuff to do !
I’ll wrap it up there!
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While possible, depending on what you started with I would say that isn’t always the case. I have upgraded to other “hifi” outlets in the past from 30 year old builder grades & the uplift was very minor. When I first swapped in my GTX-D NCF is was vs a 6 month old builder grade outlet & the upgrade was massive.
No doubt, that’s why when people ask about the upgrade I try to explain it as best I can, as personally myself I had a hard time believing it when I first experienced it. But you know, its the internet, everyone’s an expert on things they have zero experience with ![]()
NCF is defiantly addictive, currently all my outlets (5) are GTX-D NCF & have power cords that make use of 7 of the FI-50 NCF connectors. My SCDR & 300DR have Powerlines, I’m in Canada so have been thinking about swapping the cheap Wattgate male end for sometime but more recently have actually been thinking about maybe just swapping the whole cord. When I installed the PL’s it was in a different room, with lower kit then I currently have but the uplift I got from them was nothing like what I experienced when I swapped in some of my FI-50 NCF based power cords with either S55N or DPS4.1 wire. I don’t have enough FI-50 based cords to swap out both my PL’s at the same time but I would be able to swap out one at a time, so this may be my next experiment,
I upgraded my wall plates to MS HD Power Silver Plated sockets and that made a big improvement SQ.
Plus the plug was a much tighter fit and the socket was so much more robust.
DG…
I used the Oyaide R1 for many years.. I did not use Furutech cables. I used Shunyata from wall to Shunyata power distribution. I have had Cardas Rhodium binding posts with no issues, My current speaker cables are terminated with Rhodium spades as are I believe the WBT binding posts on my speakers. As far as wall plated these are the best I’ve found, not because of some magic materials but because of the design.
I’ve been thinking about these lately. I wonder if they still fit since I also have the gtx wall plate.
That’s cool. Looks expensive too!
Looks like it’s ~ twice the price of the Shunyata one you posted. It does include the NCF material as well, so did help to clean up the power a bit, but nothing earth shattering.
@marcusman as far as I’m aware this should fit your combo. If you have a flat surface large enough, it should work (just sticks in place with double sided tape). At some point I’ll likely add the aluminum wall plate & the 106-D Plus NCF cover.
I assume it’ll add value for you. When I bought mine I got all of them at the same time. The “package” deal. Probably the faceplate/cover is purely for cosmetic appeal
No doubt it adds some “eye candy” but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did add some value, you get some more NCF material some resonance/vibration control & RF shielding. Since I built my room from scratch, I used actual acoustic drywall (has a dampening material between layers), so maybe less impact vs other wall materials but I find all these small impacts can add up over time.

