AudioCircle
Other Stuff => Archived Circles => General Archive => Topic started by: HiFiSoundGuy on 23 Jul 2010, 06:01 pm
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Well, I just got my maestro outlets for my whole audio/video system today and I want to wait until the outlets settles-in good for a week or two before I say anything about how they sound. What I can say is how it looks with video, my HDTV looks sharper and the colors look more natural with these outlets in my system. It looks more like I'm looking through a window now! All this from just a outlet....more to come later. http://www.cruzefirstaudio.com/maestro_outlet.htm
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Well, these maestro outlets are starting to settle-in good now and they sound damn good. Comparing my porter ports to these new maestro outlets the porter ports sounds closed-in and flat sounding. The porter ports are not as clean or as clear. The porter ports low end sounds bloated when compared to the maestro outlets too. On complex musical passages I find myself turning the volume down more with the porter ports... much more! Now with the maestro outlets in my system the Trasparency of these outlets are truely amazing and I'm hopping it will keep getting better and better as time goes by! The soundstage is wider and deeper and there is more upper frequency air too. These maestro outlets have a lower noise floor that allows more of the suble cues to come through more. These maestro outlets also have better separation of individual instruments and vocals.....more natural sounding more REAL ! I think the non-plated maestro outlets gives you a much more direct sound than the non-plated porter ports because the maestro outlets have a higher quality copper content. My vintage sansui sp-5500 horn speakers just completely disappears now and I have a very entry level system too. Marantz pm 7001 with matching marantz cd player, dh labs power plus power cables, very cheap copper interconnects from Wal-mart, Synergistic Research alpha quad active speaker cables ..... I think these maestro outlets will become an Instant Classic !.. .. (UPDATE) .. I really did this review too soon because these outlets have not settled-in good yet. My system is still improving even more now.....cleaner.....more open.....and more spacious sounding! I going to wait another week or two and do a update review on them then.
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I gonna try these. Already have cryo'd Hubbels but not much else to tweak these days.
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It took about 40 days for my porter ports outlets to settle-in really good and sound their very best and the way its looking with my maestro outlets still improving more and more as the days go by now. I'm going to wait 45 to 60 days and see how much more they will improve. I have been having a lot of problems with my old computer lately and I'm hopping it will last a little longer because I don't have the money to get an new computer right now.
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(http://a.imageshack.us/img152/355/maestros.jpg) (http://img152.imageshack.us/i/maestros.jpg/)
Anybody recognize the Maestro outlet as starting from some other outlet, i.e. Hubbel, Pass Seymour, etc?
I sure would like to compare the Maestro with my fave Teslaplex but I already have so much darn $$ sunken into outlets to buy yet another one I may never use :duh:
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HiFiSoundGuy,
How exactly are you making these subjective comparisons between the Maestro and PorterPort outlets? Do you have both outlets in a double outlet wall or extension box, allowing you to switch between them?
TIA,
Paul
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HiFiSoundGuy,
How exactly are you making these subjective comparisons between the Maestro and PorterPort outlets? Do you have both outlets in a double outlet wall or extension box, allowing you to switch between them?
TIA,
Paul
Paul, I have them both in the wall and also have both inside my monster power hts3000 power conditioner too. I still can't get over how effective these maestro outlets are in a cheap power conditioner for my home theater video! Football games on Directv look DAMN GOOD!....SO LIFE-LIKE
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looks close to this manufacture
http://solutions.cooperwiringdevices.com/wiringDevices/buildToSpec/
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looks close to this manufacture
http://solutions.cooperwiringdevices.com/wiringDevices/buildToSpec/
Yup, that sure looks like it, especially in the structure and grooves on the side between the 2 screws.
"The Outlet is then taken through a professional microprocessor controlled deep cryogenic process and then treated with or special coating for RFI / EMI interference rejection and enhanced for mechanical dampening."
Cryo is relatively straight-forward, but what the heck could be the "special" coating they're talking about?? It would have to be clear/no-color coating that rejects RFI/EMI. That "mechanical dampening" thing sounds more like just marketing thrown in. Why not, I guess, since any coating can be claimed to change resonance characteristics :green:
Following the trails of previous audiophile "gems" including Pass-Seymour, then Hubbell, why not Arrow-Heart?
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looks close to this manufacture
http://solutions.cooperwiringdevices.com/wiringDevices/buildToSpec/
The Maestro outlets are not an off the shelf product. It took them a few years to make this all new ac outlet.
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The Maestro outlets are not an off the shelf product. It took them a few years to make this all new ac outlet.
If this is not off-the-shelf, then it looks like Arrow-Hart is OEM with certain specs, which I'd be curious to know. All I can gather from cruzeFIRST site is this:
"high-purity copper/brass alloy mix with no plating"
Is it Olin #688 brass (>70% Copper content) or with even higher copper content than that? I would love to know some of the actual specs because I'm getting the itch to order one, but for $79, I would hate to find out I bought an Arrow-Hart with regular #688 brass.
I've already got a bunch of Oyaide R1's, Teslaplexes (love'em), Pass-Seymours, Hubbels, Levitons, ACME, in various cryo'd states in and around my system/drawers..
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If this is not off-the-shelf, then it looks like Arrow-Hart is OEM with certain specs, which I'd be curious to know. All I can gather from cruzeFIRST site is this:
"high-purity copper/brass alloy mix with no plating"
Is it Olin #688 brass (>70% Copper content) or with even higher copper content than that? I would love to know some of the actual specs because I'm getting the itch to order one, but for $79, I would hate to find out I bought an Arrow-Hart with regular #688 brass.
I've already got a bunch of Oyaide R1's, Teslaplexes (love'em), Pass-Seymours, Hubbels, Levitons, ACME, in various cryo'd states in and around my system/drawers..
That was the first thing I asked Fernando, was this an off the shelf outlet that was just tweaked out? He told me NO. If I were to guess, I would say the copper content in this outlet is very very high indeed ! It is clearly superior to my cryo'ed non-plated porter ports outlets ! There is some kind of sticky clear coating all over the back side of these outlets too.
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I just drank the Maestro kool-aid and look fwd to it bettering my porter port.
Although its a royal PITA to crawl behind the stereo and change outlets, I will surely take advatnage of the refund policy if this does not live up to the hype.
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I just drank the Maestro kool-aid and look fwd to it bettering my porter port.
Although its a royal PITA to crawl behind the stereo and change outlets, I will surely take advatnage of the refund policy if this does not live up to the hype.
Why not just build a break-out box with parts from Lowes or Home Depot, that way you can easily demo outlets without the trouble of accessing your wall outlets.
TO get to my wall outlet I have to break down the whole HT rack, move it out of the way before I can even unscrew the wall plate. :nono: Too much trouble, so I built a break out box to experiment with outlets...
The Maestro is news to me, never heard of it...so I am watching this thread and taking notes. :thumb:
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Why not just build a break-out box with parts from Lowes or Home Depot, that way you can easily demo outlets without the trouble of accessing your wall outlets.
TO get to my wall outlet I have to break down the whole HT rack, move it out of the way before I can even unscrew the wall plate. :nono: Too much trouble, so I built a break out box to experiment with outlets...
The Maestro is news to me, never heard of it...so I am watching this thread and taking notes. :thumb:
No clue how to build one, and my logisitics are not quite as complicated, just a 20minute on your hands and knees operation. :duh:
Thx for the advice as that would be the wise thing to do for continual testing of outlets. I got my fingers crossed that the Maestro will be my final stop for a long time to come.
If not for the transparency of the Jenna I just tried :o (one thing I feel my porter lacked a lil bit of) I would'nt go for the Maestro. Fingers crossed it's the best of both worlds. :idea:
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I think all cryo'ed outlets should have an 45 day refund policy.
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Being very skeptical I (due entirely to both internal 'audiophool' and external audiophool pressures I 'caved' into the 'special' outlet madness and bought a pair of Pass & Seymour 8300MRI cryo'ed jobs. I did it only because I accept I am insane.
At ten times the price of a normal good Pass and Seymour 5362 i cringe at the wasted money.
Maybe eventually I will install the devils... I can only say I am certain ??? the sky will open and the angels sing when I hear the wonders of the outlet on my system.
LOL!
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No clue how to build one, and my logisitics are not quite as complicated, just a 20minute on your hands and knees operation. :duh:
You're going to need an easy way to compare 2 outlets. Aural memory is so tricky if you have to walk to your breaker box, walk back, unscrew/screw in your new outlet, walk again to breaker box, let equipment warm up again, etc....then listen to your just-changed outlet.
Luckily, you can build a similar box like this from parts from Home Depot. The box comes with a swing-out cover/door, which I took off. Currently sporting Teslaplex and Oyaide R1.
(http://a.imageshack.us/img257/9108/img2066hc.jpg) (http://img257.imageshack.us/i/img2066hc.jpg/)
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You're going to need an easy way to compare 2 outlets. Aural memory is so tricky if you have to walk to your breaker box, walk back, unscrew/screw in your new outlet, walk again to breaker box, let equipment warm up again, etc....then listen to your just-changed outlet.
Luckily, you can build a similar box like this from parts from Home Depot. The box comes with a swing-out cover/door, which I took off. Currently sporting Teslaplex and Oyaide R1.
(http://a.imageshack.us/img257/9108/img2066hc.jpg) (http://img257.imageshack.us/i/img2066hc.jpg/)
That is very kool John :thumb:
Thx alot John and Josef, I just went to homedepot site and for $14bux I can have same thing :D
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You can just buy a $4. wall plate, no need for the weather proof plate($7-8). A stainless steel plate is about $4...or get a wooden plate...the aluminum box JonL used is good.
Like so...only a duplex.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=17313)
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Wow. You stuck an IeGo power cord on it?
I see the outlet surface is not flush to the wood surface; do you have any problems with large audiophile male plugs not plugging all the way in?
Even on my aluminum face, those protruding "lips" around the outlet interfere with some of the larger male plugs from plugging all the way flush..
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You can just buy a $4. wall plate, no need for the weather proof plate($7-8). A stainless steel plate is about $4...or get a wooden plate...the aluminum box JonL used is good.
If you really cared about your receptacles, you would get them an aluminum framed carbon fiber plate.
Steve
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=34109)
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Wow. You stuck an IeGo power cord on it?
I see the outlet surface is not flush to the wood surface; do you have any problems with large audiophile male plugs not plugging all the way in?
Even on my aluminum face, those protruding "lips" around the outlet interfere with some of the larger male plugs from plugging all the way flush..
:lol:
Yeah, remember when IeGo was all the rage. THis was actually a Felix build, had to use the 1" extension. ANd no, all my plugs were able to be seated properly.
I do currently have a duplex breakout box with a Stainless Steel faceplate, but no pix to show.
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If you really cared about your receptacles, you would get them an aluminum framed carbon fiber plate.
Steve
Too rich for my blood.
Mhnnn, maybe I could line the underside of my SS plate with carbon paper...then I could boast...carbon paper lined for acoustic transflumagation. :lol:
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My units have shipped and are on their way. Presently using the Acme cryo'd units from Dedicated Audio in the 3 wall outlets.
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These outlets do go through a lot changes at first they sounded closed-in and then they opened up and sounded very tube-like and on day 30 they had a hardness with vocals and this stayed in my system until day 41. Now some of that tube-like effect is coming back and the hardness in the vocals is almost gone now. Over on audiogon forum someone posted that it took 59 day to hear the full potential of his Tripoint Audio Spartan power conditioner....this power conditioner has the Maestro outlets in it too. http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1280092337
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These maestro outlets are starting to open up more and sounding better and that hardness in the vocals is gone now. I 'm going to wait another 2 or 3 weeks before posting anything else so I can see how much more these outlets will improve but I will say this much, what I'm hearing now is..... VERY ADDICTIVE !.....
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Jon L,
How did you wire that box up? If you took your two wires and went to one outlet and then jumpered 2 shorter wires to the other outlet your second outlet is now getting it's power through the first outlet and the 2nd pair of short wires. If you wired the 2nd outlet first and then jumpered to the first outlet you would get a different sound. The way to correctly do it is to have a buss bar that the 2 wires that come into the box are wired to. Then you take 2 wires off the buss bar and go into one of the outlets. Then you would have to take another 2 wires from the buss bar and then wire the 2nd outlet. If you do not do it this way you are also listening to the first outlet when you are listening to the 2nd outlet. One could take the wire coming in and attach 2 wires to it and then use a large wire nut. Do the same thing to the other wire coming in. That would basically give you the same thing and might actually be better because you would not have the metal buss bar imparting it's sound.
Gregg
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One of my friends just got a Anthem i-225 Integrated amp and he told me that I could use it when I do the updated review on the maestro outlets. Its going to take about 500 hours to break-in the Anthem amp really good so it might be a month or so before I do this updated review on the maestro outlets now. These maestro outlets just keep getting better and better as the days go by now !...
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One of my friends just got a Anthem i-225 Integrated amp and he told me that I could use it when I do the updated review on the maestro outlets. Its going to take about 500 hours to break-in the Anthem amp really good so it might be a month or so before I do this updated review on the maestro outlets now. These maestro outlets just keep getting better and better as the days go by now !...
One might thing you own part of the co. since just about every Maestro review on every site happens to be yours :scratch:
Perhaps you are just so gobmacked and these outlets are SOO good, that you can't stop praising/reviewing them. Hope it's the latter :wink:
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One might thing you own part of the co. since just about every Maestro review on every site happens to be yours :scratch:
Perhaps you are just so gobmacked and these outlets are SOO good, that you can't stop praising/reviewing them. Hope it's the latter :wink:
No, I have no connection with this product in any way. I think more people should know about these GREAT outlets......they are DAMN GOOOOOD OUTLETS !... They need to re-name these outlets......" MUSICALITY OUTLETS " !.....
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No, I have no connection with this product in any way. I think more people should know about these GREAT outlets......they are DAMN GOOOOOD OUTLETS !... They need to re-name these outlets......" MUSICALITY OUTLETS " !.....
Well you now have a dozen posts that say the same thing,,,, how many more posts do you think it'll take for you to say what you feel the need to say??? :scratch: Your repetitous posts are getting sorta old for more than just 1 reader (that be me!) and I'm the 1st to harp the benefits of AC outlets. But you can only say the same thing soooo many times before folks start questioning your agenda. :o
FWIW, I feel the same way about the IC/SC wire harpies who feel the need to post the same message for months on end for whatever reason(free or discounted cables maybe??). :roll:
Cheers,
Robin
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Some of you that are trying out these maestro outlets might want to try my teflon tape on the ac prongs tweak, it took my maestro outlets to a whole new level !... The power lines do vibrate A LOT and this tweak helps dampen the vibrations and lowers the noise floor. Here's some pictures of this teflon tape tweak here... http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/16/165450.html
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Here's another cheap tweak that dampens those vibrations coming from the power lines even more !... http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1237170946&read&keyw&zzblu+note+audio