Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Audio Grade Power Socket :p (Read 6619 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

I just came across this "audio grade" power socket and thought I have to post it hear for a laugh.  It's totally ridiculous, especially the comments below the item.  I'm sure they must have paid people to make up all the reviews.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.c...=Wattgate%20381

Here's the product details as listed on the site:

Wattgate 381 Audio Grade Duplex Socket
If you are building your own audiophile power cord to improve component performance, you need the WattGate 381 receptacle. Why build a performance power cable only to plug it into the same receptacle that's been in use for almost 100 years? WattGate's 381 is a no compromise solution for the demanding AV enthusiast. Construction of the 381 is top-notch and features glass-filled, nylon front and rear housings. Mounting strap, rivets and grounding strip are gold plated, solid brass for the ultimate in corrosion resistance and power transfer. Installation of the 381 is simple and efficient due to rear wiring and large, #10 brass terminal screws. Terminal clamps are gold plated, solid brass and shaped to better grip the conductors. Like the 330 and 350, the 381 leaves the competition behind with its contacts. Configured in a triple-wiper design allows the plug blades to be gripped at three separate points. Additionally, the heavy-duty contacts maximize the clamping spring-rate and ensure conductivity. A three-layer plating process is also completed on the 381: Oxygen free copper plating, electrolysis nickel, and finally 24k gold plating. Receptacle contacts are cryogenically heat treat hardened. Receptacle is rated at 125 VAC, 20A.


EDIT:  Apologies, I just realized this should be posted in the hardware forum.  Mods, can you please move.  Thanks.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #1
Yeah... absurd!  I think that's been mentioned here before.  I wonder if they've sold any of those.  Last time I bought a power outple plug, I think it was 39 cents at Home Depot.  And, of course, all of the required UL & CSA power/safety ratings...

Parts Express mostly sells reasonably-priced stuff, but there's plenty for "audiophools" too.  They've got a banana plug for over $50 each.  You're going to need at least a pair per speaker, and if you need a pair on each end of a pair of your speaker speaker cables means over $400 for a set of 8!

P.S
The reviews I scanned-through are sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek.  The 1st one almost looks legit... Like the kind of thing you might read in Stereophile Magazine.  Then, he talks about the "floral overtones"...    (That may be unfair as I don't read Stereophile, but I've read a few online reprints.)

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #2
Why build a performance power cable only to plug it into the same receptacle that's been in use for almost 100 years?

I wonder when the first offers for audiophile home power generation become en vogue: audiophile batteries, or what about a hifi fuel cell in your basement?

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #3
I want to take things beyond even audiophile power delivery.  I'm getting ready to offer the ultimate addition for the most demanding listeners.  Would you like to see a sneak peek at my forthcoming ad?  Here it is:


Hey, neighbor!  You say you've invested a fortune and spent countless hours tweaking every bit of hardware in your audiophile hi-fi rig, but you still can't attain that sonic perfection that you seek?  Perhaps  it's your atmosphere! Presenting the "Audio Air-Swap 2000," a complete, turn key system that will allow you to vent the dirty, polluted air in your listening space and replace it with our patented mix of fresh, clean oxygen and nitrogen with our proprietary blend of polarized positive ions and nanotechnology.  One of our customers, Jon B. of Rancho Cucamonga, CA says, "I can't believe the warm and fruity open sound I hear now that I no longer listen to music in air that is contaminated by green house gases and smog!  The $100,000 it cost was the best money I ever spent!  The "Air-Swap 2000" runs great on my audiophile grade electrical system powered by a special audiophile grade generator that only operates on special audiophile grade "Monster Cable" brand extra-virgin methane." 

Listen, friend:  Why use the same old air that your grandparents used to breathe when they were listening to Edison wax cylinders when you can use special scientifically designed "Audio Air!" 

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #4
Yeah, I only had a quick glance through, but yeah, most of the comments are tongue-in-cheek.  Makes for some humorous reading though.

Also in regards to the new Audio Air-Swap 2000, you forgot to mention how the "audio air" improves speaker response due to the reduced drag on the speaker cone and allows for those sparkling high frequencies to reach your ear unimpeded.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #5
I just came across this "audio grade" power socket and thought I have to post it hear for a laugh.  It's totally ridiculous, especially the comments below the item.  I'm sure they must have paid people to make up all the reviews.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.c...=Wattgate%20381

Wattgate 381 Audio Grade Duplex Socket
<snip>

Won't you also need oxygen free copper wire and audio grade circuit breakers, Watt hour meters and pole transformers? What do you do about the aluminum wire from the pole to the house? Where does it END?


Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #6
Won't you also need oxygen free copper wire and audio grade circuit breakers, Watt hour meters and pole transformers? What do you do about the aluminum wire from the pole to the house? Where does it END?

We had that discussion a while ago. I came to the conclusion that the only valid solution is to have your own audiophile grade nuclear power generator in your front garden. Although $25.000.000 seems like a lot to spend for a power supply, consider what you have already spend in your audiophile equipment - essentially wasted running on ordinary current. Another plus is that it makes you independent from public power supply, so if the world's economy will collape, Tea Party reign the U.S. and marauding bands of paupers raid the streets, you can still comfortably enjoy your audiophile pleasures.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #7
Ok, that does it. Now I'm going to have to proceed with my plan of spreading word of the joys of "dirty" sound.

What, solid-state amps? Where's the tubes with the coloration and hum? It's not "analog" enough without the dirt!

And those solar/nuclear power supplies? Where's the power spikes and RF interference? It's "too digital" without the dirt!

"Something bothering you, Mister Spock?"

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #8
The first guy must have plugged the mains wire straight to his ears ..."just the shear pristine transfer of electrons straight from the generation facility to my ears"... it must have surely been a real shock in every sense!!
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #9
The first guy must have plugged the mains wire straight to his ears ..."just the shear pristine transfer of electrons straight from the generation facility to my ears"... it must have surely been a real shock in every sense!!
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.


99% of those reviews are a joke.  I think some group of people must have found it and 'flash mobbed' it with fake reviews with typical over-the-top audiophile-like reviews.  You can tell if you keep reading that it's all meant as a joke.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #10
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.

Oh, not all of them are rich in fact, as you can tell by this guy's tragic story (my favorite one):
Quote
When I first saw this marvel of technology I said to myself "I've got to replace all of my traditional outlets in my house with the amazing Wattgate 381." After purchasing the 22 new Wattgate 381s and installing them myself to save money because I'm thrifty, I realized I no longer have money to pay my bills. I now have 10 days to vacate and my power has been off for over a week. It's getting really cold and dark at home and I can only use the library computer for an hour before they make me go back outside. But I'm sure glad I have these swell new Wattgate 381's, they are sooo pretty and bright that I leave the outlet covers off to catch the glow from them. I bet they work really good too. You can see the reflection of my wife's tears in them if you lay on the floor near where the dog used to sleep before he ran away for warmer climate. I like to plug different things into the WattGate 381 and make sounds like we have electricity. The Wattgate 381 has claimed to be cryogenically tested and I have no doubts as it is nearly -5 degrees inside and they still look marvelous. My hour is up and maddog said it's his turn on the computer, I'm going home to my Wattgate 381s before he pees on me again.


Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #11
I loved this one!   

"Anyone in the biomedical sciences area knows how difficult it is to get scientific papers published in the 'big' journals, yet these can make all the difference in an academics career in today's difficult fundingenvironment. I had never had any success in this until I installed a Wattgate 381 Audio Grade Duplex Socket to plug my MacBook Air power adapter in, this being the computer I use to write most of my papers (on account of its exceptional thinness). I know I wasn't using the product for its recommended application, but as a die-hard experimentalist I simply had to try.
The results speak for themselves, paper after paper has been in Nature, Science, Cell, and even the North Korean Journal of Obesity."

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #12
Yeah, this joke got old a couple years ago when everybody started posting joke reviews on a Denon (IIRC) "audiophile" ethernet cable on amazon.com.

It's kind of a shame: connectors are, electrically, a really weak point in electronics. Wall receptacles can fail over time due to contact problems (weak contact generates high resistance, which generates high temperatures, causing eventual burnout etc etc). Cheap gold plating wears out quickly, and gold plating is useful when you want to avoid corrosion/rust over the long term. None of that affects audio quality except in a totally catastrophic sense, and the crap about cryo is also rather annoying (as is the price!). But I can still appreciate the engineering involved here.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #13
Yeah, this joke got old a couple years ago when everybody started posting joke reviews on a Denon (IIRC) "audiophile" ethernet cable on amazon.com...


Yes the joke got old, but I bet we could name many audio forums in which we could post a less obviously laugh-out-loud "review" of just about any "audiophile" product and readers would be nodding in agreement and posting their "+1".

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #14
The first guy must have plugged the mains wire straight to his ears ..."just the shear pristine transfer of electrons straight from the generation facility to my ears"... it must have surely been a real shock in every sense!!
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.

Amazing also how he's overlooked the fact that mains is (usually) AC - no electrons are transferred, only borrowed for a fraction of a second before being returned! Only *power* is transferred.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #15
"Receptacle contacts are cryogenically heat treat hardened. Receptacle is rated at 125 VAC, 20A."

How exactly do you cryogenically heat treat something? What am I missing out on?

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #16
"Receptacle contacts are cryogenically heat treat hardened. Receptacle is rated at 125 VAC, 20A."

How exactly do you cryogenically heat treat something? What am I missing out on?


they mean its heated until the metal is amorphous and then is quenched in a cryogenic liquid. usually nitrogen. audiophools might try helium though.

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #17
The first guy must have plugged the mains wire straight to his ears ..."just the shear pristine transfer of electrons straight from the generation facility to my ears"... it must have surely been a real shock in every sense!!
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.

Amazing also how he's overlooked the fact that mains is (usually) AC - no electrons are transferred, only borrowed for a fraction of a second before being returned! Only *power* is transferred.

You're completely right! but, who knows... these people are so picky when it comes to audio quality that he may have bought a custom built DC line from the generation facility straight to his ears ... he he
Just to hear (and feel) the shear pristine transfer of electrons!.. there are endless pervertions, you know... 

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #18
Amazing what stupidity can do to certain rich people's brains.

Oh, not all of them are rich in fact, as you can tell by this guy's tragic story (my favorite one):
Quote
When I first saw this marvel of technology I said to myself "I've got to replace all of my traditional outlets in my house with the amazing Wattgate 381." After purchasing the 22 new Wattgate 381s and installing them myself to save money because I'm thrifty, I realized I no longer have money to pay my bills. I now have 10 days to vacate and my power has been off for over a week. It's getting really cold and dark at home and I can only use the library computer for an hour before they make me go back outside. But I'm sure glad I have these swell new Wattgate 381's, they are sooo pretty and bright that I leave the outlet covers off to catch the glow from them. I bet they work really good too. You can see the reflection of my wife's tears in them if you lay on the floor near where the dog used to sleep before he ran away for warmer climate. I like to plug different things into the WattGate 381 and make sounds like we have electricity. The Wattgate 381 has claimed to be cryogenically tested and I have no doubts as it is nearly -5 degrees inside and they still look marvelous. My hour is up and maddog said it's his turn on the computer, I'm going home to my Wattgate 381s before he pees on me again.




This is the best one!... "...You can see the reflection of my wife's tears in them..." ... ha ha ha!!! pure genius!...

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #19
It's kind of a shame: connectors are, electrically, a really weak point in electronics. Wall receptacles can fail over time due to contact problems (weak contact generates high resistance, which generates high temperatures, causing eventual burnout etc etc).

Hm. The only power sockets I've ever seen fail were probably from the 1950s, in a flat never renovated, but not because of the contacts but because the cotton(?) isolation of the cable was rotten and caused a short when the socket was jolted by the plug.

Quote
But I can still appreciate the engineering involved here.

Engineering!? Someone took some standard socket for $5 and had the contacts gold-plated. What an ingenious work of enineering

Audio Grade Power Socket :p

Reply #20
My car stereo sounds better with premium gasoline.  Ethanol blends have a somewhat "leafy" midrange that I prefer for string ensembles.

Bass seems fuller with synthetic oil.
Was that a 1 or a 0?