Cheap power strips for best sound.

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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

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Ducks
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by tokenbrit »

markiteight wrote: 2021-02-02 04:59
Beavers: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xk30uuh0pgcjj ... 6.MOV?dl=0

Ducks: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mik4hjbskraqo ... E.MOV?dl=0
(mixing up the movie references because I'm running out of ideas)
Was going to duck this round, but duck it: Ducks 🦆🦆🦆
Beavers has me sitting just a little too close to the percussion for my liking, which is distracting me from the music, making my brain think about it, whereas with Ducks the music flows better & is less effort for me to enjoy...
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

I like Column A better than Column B. There is something about B that bothers me whereas I can comfortably listen to A with no problem.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

Duck, duck, goose! Oh sorry, wrong game. Well, rather than duck out on this one I'm afraid I'll have to go with
Beavers. I find the guitar, hand drums and voice all easier to follow on that clip than on the ducks one.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by lejonklou »

markiteight wrote: 2021-02-02 04:59 Beavers: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xk30uuh0pgcjj ... 6.MOV?dl=0

Ducks: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mik4hjbskraqo ... E.MOV?dl=0
(mixing up the movie references because I'm running out of ideas)
I'm going with Beavers as I find it a touch more expressive.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by Spannko »

I like beavers.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by markiteight »

Drum roll please:

Beavers: 6 socket Koppla (again)
Ducks: Wiremold L10320

I fall into the Beavers camp* as I find that with the Koppla music is more immersive and easier to get lost in. The L10320 is closer to the Koppla than previous candidates, and this appears to be reflected in the results here. What's interesting is that with the breaker bypassed in the UL100BC it's basically just an L10320 with 4 fewer sockets. Same housing materials and construction, same sockets, same internal wiring, same external wiring. But even with just 4 sockets occupied the L10320 is better.

I'm working on a new round of clips and should have them posted soon.


*As a diehard UW Huskies fan I have a deep-seated hatred for the Ducks, so there might be some bias in my choice.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by beck »

Used a lot of time on this one. Even turned to youtube to listen to the song.

I end up picking “this” as my choice. Slightly more emotion in the singing......
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by Eli7 »

"That" for me. The music touches me more.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by beck »

Eli7 wrote: 2021-02-05 06:30 "That" for me. The music touches me more.
I downloaded and had a listen again. I will change my stand and agree with Eli7. I also think “that” is the 6 sucket Koppla.
Last edited by beck on 2021-02-05 09:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by kampak »

„this“

here, too.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

I'm in That group. I didn't care for This much even before hearing That. But That was enjoyable. I'm with beck guessing another win for the Koppla with 6 "suckets"? Is that because we have to sucket and see? I'm afraid This is getting a little ridiculous so That's all I have to say about That.

You certainly shouldn't be running out of names yet. Even if you don't want to used ones that might have biased connotations (Heaven, Hell, Hot, Cold, Light, Dark, etc.) there's still Up, Down, Helter, Skelter, Back, Front, Wet, Dry, Out, About, etc.
Last edited by ThomasOK on 2021-02-05 20:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by beck »

ThomasOK wrote: 2021-02-05 18:03 I'm in That group. I didn't care for This much even before hearing That. But That was enjoyable. I'm with beck guessing another win for the Koppla with 6 "suckets"? Is that because we have to sucket and see? I'm afraid This is getting a little ridiculous so That's all I have to say about That.
:-)

Never let my bad spelling go unused! You made me laugh Thomas. :-)
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

beck wrote: 2021-02-05 19:05
ThomasOK wrote: 2021-02-05 18:03 I'm in That group. I didn't care for This much even before hearing That. But That was enjoyable. I'm with beck guessing another win for the Koppla with 6 "suckets"? Is that because we have to sucket and see? I'm afraid This is getting a little ridiculous so That's all I have to say about That.
:-)

Never let my bad spelling go unused! You made me laugh Thomas. :-)
I'm glad to hear it. We can all use a little humor here and there as we work our way through this "interesting" time.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by beck »

ThomasOK wrote: 2021-02-05 19:51
beck wrote:
ThomasOK wrote: I'm in That group. I didn't care for This much even before hearing That. But That was enjoyable. I'm with beck guessing another win for the Koppla with 6 "suckets"? Is that because we have to sucket and see? I'm afraid This is getting a little ridiculous so That's all I have to say about That.
:-)

Never let my bad spelling go unused! You made me laugh Thomas. :-)
I'm glad to hear it. We can all use a little humor here and there as we work our way through this "interesting" time.
Amen!
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by markiteight »

Hey now, between "sucket" and "sodem" I almost feel obligated to put on my moderator hat...but not quite. ;-))) Instead, would you mind if I adopted the term, Beck? It seems fitting for that pesky little Koppla.

And you were right again, Beck. "That" is the Koppla. "This" is a revisit of the Cablepro Revelation, this time rewired with the Integrity's internal harness. Ditching the fancy-pants silver plated wire for the cheaper solid core copper is definitely an improvement. The uneasy hi-fi-ness is gone and it's clearly more musical. Rewiring is a positive step, and while the Integrity's heavy (12 gauge) wiring is better than the silver plated stranded audiophool approved stuff, it's probably far from ideal. I think Thomas mentioned he had rewired a Revelation with 14ga Volex wire. Given my experience here I am quite intrigued to hear what that can do.

There's also the matter of the cable from wall to strip. What I have been using might be a limiting factor, and the Koppla has the distinct advantage of eliminating that variable altogether.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by tokenbrit »

Good to know that, with a little Integrity, the Revelation can be a revelation - that's what you get when you rip the fancy pants off, baby! Shame it's still not quite a Koppla toppla despite the insertion of some solid core... :D

Def keen to hear what the Revelation is capable of, with the right wiring, especially if that extends to a short cable from wall to strip with the same wire.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by beck »

Thank you markiteight! :-)

I find it rather fitting to be associated with the no nonsense cheap 6 “sucket and see” Koppla.

No nonsense, nothing fancy. Thats me! :-)
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

I mentioned that I was going to get into this power strip evaluation thing again. I am not quite ready yet for the first clips (for one thing Fredrik is keeping me busy with these upgrades) but I am doing some more prep work. So last weekend I needed to go to the hardware store and while there I looked at their power strips. They had one with 6 outlets and just a power switch that also had a nice 14 gauge SJT unshielded power cable on it for $4.99. Then I saw a two pack of them at the special low price of $9.97! I couldn't resist the deal so I bought the two pack. (You could say I got a koppla them.) Today I had a little time and popped one open to find this:

Image

It uses the kind of single brass strips for each connection I had mentioned. I took this one and wired past the power switch directly to the brass strips. The original wires were welded (except the ground which was welded and soldered for some reason) so I clipped off the positive and neutral and soldered the wires directly to them. That now looks like this:

Image

I also brought in an old 7 outlet strip that has both a power switch and a circuit breaker. (Interestingly that is the exact number of outlets I need for the 230 Volt part of my system.) As you will see below, it also has single brass strips but the positive and neutral strips are made a little differently in terms of how they grip the blades of the plug. I thought for starters I would just use the 18 gauge wire that came with it and bypass the switches. Then I opened it up and found that I had already done it! Seeing that I was convinced that I had already tried this strip and found it inferior to the Revelation so I modified it by putting in a 14 gauge cable. This is a Volex cable using the same construction as Fredrik's US power cable except that it is 14 gauge, as he recommends for going to the power strip. It also has a plated plug instead of an unplated one as that was the only way I could get it. I bought a ten footer with bare wires at the other end and used some of this in rewiring one of the Revelation strips as I mentioned earlier. I only used 2.5 feet for this as Fredrik had recommended a short cable there. That leaves me a bunch more to use inside strips if I find that works. Here is a photo of the inside before I put the heavier gauge Volex wire in it:

Image

So now I have three cheap strips to burn in and test to see how they compare. It'll be a few weeks yet but it should be interesting.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by tokenbrit »

Looking forward to the results, especially if they include "three cheap" vs. rewired & unmodified Revelations.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by markiteight »

I'm glad to see you jump in here, Thomas, as I am running out of options to try at the moment.

Do you know a source for that heavier gauge Volex wire? I'd like to try some similar experiments too.

Have a great weekend!
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by ThomasOK »

You can get various Volex AC cables from Mouser Electronics. Unfortunately they don't make everything in every length. For instance I couldn't find the 14 gauge in a short length and it does come with the plated plugs. But they have a short 16 gauge that I purchased to try going into the Revelation units along with a short 14 gauge Longwell I bought a while ago elsewhere. You just want to stick with the SJT wire on Volex cables.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

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ThomasOK wrote: 2021-02-12 00:20 I mentioned that I was going to get into this power strip evaluation thing again. I am not quite ready yet for the first clips (for one thing Fredrik is keeping me busy with these upgrades) but I am doing some more prep work. So last weekend I needed to go to the hardware store and while there I looked at their power strips. They had one with 6 outlets and just a power switch that also had a nice 14 gauge SJT unshielded power cable on it for $4.99. Then I saw a two pack of them at the special low price of $9.97! I couldn't resist the deal so I bought the two pack. (You could say I got a koppla them.) Today I had a little time and popped one open to find this:

Image

It uses the kind of single brass strips for each connection I had mentioned. I took this one and wired past the power switch directly to the brass strips. The original wires were welded (except the ground which was welded and soldered for some reason) so I clipped off the positive and neutral and soldered the wires directly to them. That now looks like this:

Image

I also brought in an old 7 outlet strip that has both a power switch and a circuit breaker. (Interestingly that is the exact number of outlets I need for the 230 Volt part of my system.) As you will see below, it also has single brass strips but the positive and neutral strips are made a little differently in terms of how they grip the blades of the plug. I thought for starters I would just use the 18 gauge wire that came with it and bypass the switches. Then I opened it up and found that I had already done it! Seeing that I was convinced that I had already tried this strip and found it inferior to the Revelation so I modified it by putting in a 14 gauge cable. This is a Volex cable using the same construction as Fredrik's US power cable except that it is 14 gauge, as he recommends for going to the power strip. It also has a plated plug instead of an unplated one as that was the only way I could get it. I bought a ten footer with bare wires at the other end and used some of this in rewiring one of the Revelation strips as I mentioned earlier. I only used 2.5 feet for this as Fredrik had recommended a short cable there. That leaves me a bunch more to use inside strips if I find that works. Here is a photo of the inside before I put the heavier gauge Volex wire in it:

Image

So now I have three cheap strips to burn in and test to see how they compare. It'll be a few weeks yet but it should be interesting.
Nice data in there Thomas :0)

I was in Lidls yesterday and saw a switched 6 distribution block for 4.99,although there was no buy 2 for 9.97 so I managed to refrain.
I Cant see it beating my Woolies one with no switch though ,but I will never know untill I try ,so will probably pop in tomorrow.
I'll be doing clips with and without switch to see if it makes a discernable difference.
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Re: Cheap power strips for best sound.

Post by markiteight »

ThomasOK wrote: 2021-02-13 19:25 You can get various Volex AC cables from Mouser Electronics. Unfortunately they don't make everything in every length. For instance I couldn't find the 14 gauge in a short length and it does come with the plated plugs. But they have a short 16 gauge that I purchased to try going into the Revelation units along with a short 14 gauge Longwell I bought a while ago elsewhere. You just want to stick with the SJT wire on Volex cables.
Thanks, Thomas. I'll have a look. I just want to confirm that you meant SJT and not SVT? IIRC all the good 18ga cables have been SVT. According to the specifications I found the insulation and jacket on SJT cables is twice as thick as SVT. I wouldn't be surprised if that makes a difference.
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