Well, I got a GTX (R) from Dave yesterday (thank you very much, sir) and it sure is pretty. I went to install it right away and then discovered that with its little sliding doors on the sides that it won't fit in the single duplex box in my wall. I think I need to clear out some of the drywall around the old one and replace it - a nasty little project I am putting off until the weekend. In the mean time, I have it wired and suspended near the wall from the 4 12 gage wires that formerly fed a Maestro. I did also install the Maestro cover plate and taped the assembly to the outlet cover with Mapleshade damping clear tape to reduce airborne vibration until I can firm it up.
I have let it run for 24 hours with the following components drawing juice:
Ps-Audio PPP connected by Kaplan GS Mk2 power cord
Oppo BD95 disc player (Synergistics Master Coupler X2 active PC)
Thor 3000 tube phono stage (Waveform Fidelity GS3)
D-Sonic 600w monoblock amps (Waveform Fidelity HE Mk 3)
Wyred4Sound STP-SE preamp
VPI SDS (Acoustic Zen tunami) feeding a SSM Reference (2-motor belt-driven flywheel)
Genesis 6.1 500 w. class d bass amps and servo unit - TWL 10+ power cords
I have the following observations about the Furutech outlet while burning in:
1) First hour: bright, very bright. Soundstage is reduced to a small trapezoidal space totally between the speakers. No deep bass. Timbre is also a victim. Playing LP by the Nylons. Cannot figure out what instrument is playing a continuous unintelligible sound in perfect time with the tune. Focus on trying to at least determine what instrument group is making it. Turns out to be the baritone singer!
2) 5 hours - brightness and haze are gone. Stage is growing a little. Bass is still wimpy. Vocals now clear enough to recognize as part of the "winds" group of instruments.
3) 10 hours - brightness has gone completely. Detail reproduction is becoming a strong suit. Stage has become wider with some improvement in depth but little in height
4) 18 hours - (after running continuous loop over night) - timbre problem reduced significantly, but still not as neutral as the Maestro. Soundstage is becoming respectable - but still has a long way to go to equal the Maestro; before swap it was spooky-good. - Speakers can disappear again with better recordings.
I know it's going to take a while and I will not lose faith. I actually kept faith that I could get a pair of b-stock Class D amps to sound good in a system that had run Atma-Spheres for 20 years. I suspect that when the burn-in is over that this receptacle will give me a better detail presentation with no loss of clarity in the mid and low bass regions. I have been battling the speakers since I bought them in February, and have thrown both time and treasure at their introduction to my system and only got them to sound respectable a week ago with the substitution of the Kaplan cord for the PS-Audio Premier Sc coming from the wall. This followed a new rack, major cable upgrades throughout the system, NOS tubes in the phono stage, a new super-wide audio rack, new room location, fully groomed wires and contacts, outriggers, and a boatload of Herbie's stuff, so I can't credit this as the magic tweek to end all tweeks, but it did put it over the top. Now, I patiently wait to see what comes next...