Strongest blades and ground pins on a male power connector?

headrott

I need to buy a new, stronger male power connector for my DCCA Extreme Reference power cable as the ground pin on the male connector I had on it snapped off. :sad: Can people with exprerience recommend a male connectore that is very high quality (sound wise) and also has very very srong blades and ground pin. The DCCA Extreme Reference is a very very stiff, heavy and thick cable putting very high strain on the male connector blades and ground pin hence the need for suggestions. Thanks all for the help.

drumminman

I've had very good experiences with the Furutech FI-11 gold plated copper. I've used it on 3-4 of my DIY PC's; brought a nice improvement in sound over the Marinco I had been using and appears to be very robust.

Lots of folks swear by Oyaide as well. For an inexpensive alternative you could try the Neotech (can't remember model #) that's on sale at Sonicraft. The blades are UPOCC copper.

What outlets are you plugging into? Might be good to get the same brand plug as the outlet.

zingo

How about providing strain support for the cable and the plug body instead of relying on the prongs?

BlueFox

headrott wrote: »

I need to buy a new, stronger male power connector for my DCCA Extreme Reference power cable as the ground pin on the male connector I had on it snapped off.

PFB, is that you? :biggrin:

Agree with the strain relief suggestion. Hopefully, you have enough room in back to get the cable horizontal where it plugs in, and then can attach the vertical portion to a rack leg, or something else. If your rack is completely metal, legs and shelves, then maybe attaching the cable to a leg isn't a good idea.

Also, on the outlet where the ground pin broke, is the ground pin at the top, bottom, or sideways? If at the bottom it would seem, as gravity forces the cable down, most of the force is on the ground pin. If you could invert the receptacle and have the ground pin on top the downward force should instead be focused on keeping the two AC pins secure in the outlet.

Or you can always get a lighter, easier to work with cable. There certainly are enough vendors at this point in time.

headrott

drumminman wrote: »

I've had very good experiences with the Furutech FI-11 gold plated copper. I've used it on 3-4 of my DIY PC's; brought a nice improvement in sound over the Marinco I had been using and appears to be very robust.

Lots of folks swear by Oyaide as well. For an inexpensive alternative you could try the Neotech (can't remember model #) that's on sale at Sonicraft. The blades are UPOCC copper.

What outlets are you plugging into? Might be good to get the same brand plug as the outlet.

The original plug that came on it (that snapped) was a Furutech FI-25. Now this DCCA Extremem Reference is a relatively old cable (I believe it was made around 2003-2004) so that much strain for 10 years finally took it's toll. I guess the Furutech held up pretty well for 10 years really. I have one of the Neotech male plugs on my Neotech power cable I made and they are good (especially for the money!).

I have never used an Oyaide male plug, but I love their IEC connector! I'll check their male plugs out! Thanks for the suggestion!

I am plugging this power cable into a PS Audio Power Port Extreme! Fantastic outlet! That's the problem though is that you cannot get DIY PS Audiio male plugs and/or IEC female connectors unfortunately.

zingo wrote: »

How about providing strain support for the cable and the plug body instead of relying on the prongs?

Part of the problem with strain relief is that the pressure on the male plug is mostly a horizontal pressure (although there is vertical pressue too). The reason the ground pin snapped off is due to horizontal strain. I do have the male plug propped up on some Vibrapods, but there is still substantial horizontal strain. Any suggestions on alleviating horizontal cable strain Jake? Thanks guys for the suggestions.

Glen B

headrott wrote: »

I need to buy a new, stronger male power connector for my DCCA Extreme Reference power cable as the ground pin on the male connector I had on it snapped off. :sad: Can people with exprerience recommend a male connectore that is very high quality (sound wise) and also has very very srong blades and ground pin. The DCCA Extreme Reference is a very very stiff, heavy and thick cable putting very high strain on the male connector blades and ground pin hence the need for suggestions. Thanks all for the help.

Either a Leviton 8215-C or Hubbell 8215-C hospital grade plug is as rugged and indestructible as you will find. They were my first "audio grade" plugs before graduating to NeoTech, Furutech and Oyaide, which are on the softer side as prong material goes.

BlueFox

headrott wrote: »

Part of the problem with strain relief is that the pressure on the male plug is mostly a horizontal pressure (although there is vertical pressue too). The reason the ground pin snapped off is due to horizontal strain. I do have the male plug propped up on some Vibrapods, but there is still substantial horizontal strain. Any suggestions on alleviating horizontal cable strain Jake? Thanks guys for the suggestions.

What is horizontal strain? I can understand if the cable is being rocked back and forth while horizontal then force is being applied to the ground pin, but if the cable is parallel (horizontal) to the floor then there should be little force applied to it.

headrott

BlueFox wrote: »

What is horizontal strain? I can understand if the cable is being rocked back and forth while horizontal then force is being applied to the ground pin, but if the cable is parallel (horizontal) to the floor then there should be little force applied to it.

The DCCA Extreme Reference is so damn thick and stiff that it take a lot of effort to get it to bend where you want it to go. Because of the angles/positions I place the cord ends at there is a lot of horizontal pressure caused by the cable wanting to move horizontally (parallel to the floor). This causes a lot of horizontal pressure to be put on the blades and ground pin, and apparently the ground pin gave out first. Not sure I explained it very well? Hopefully it makes sense though.

Anyway, I just said "screw it" and bought a PS Audio Perfectwave AC-12 from Audio Advisor. for $199.00 it's a damn fine cable (I have one on my BAT VK-31). The thing I like about the DCCA Extremem Reference is the bass it brings to the audio. We'll see if the AC-12 can keep up with it in that department. I'll let everyone know.

That said, I will still buy a male plug to replace the Furutech FI-25. I think I would like something a little more audiophile than a Leviton or Hubbell. They are quality pieces, but I would not put them into the audiophile range.

zingo

Possibly... Any pictures of the outlet/plug and surrounding area?

headrott

zingo wrote: »

Possibly... Any pictures of the outlet/plug and surrounding area?

I'll see if I can get some good pictures of the area(s) and post them.

BlueFox

I think I understand what you mean by horizontal stress. While the cable is parallel to the floor there is not enough room for it to come in perpendicular to the plug. Rather, is is bent to get into the plug, and this bend is putting the force onto the connector. Is that correct?

headrott

I have attached a picture (somewhat terrible drawing on my part ) to help with what I am talking about. This should make it clear.

Glen B

headrott wrote: »

That said, I will still buy a male plug to replace the Furutech FI-25. I think I would like something a little more audiophile than a Leviton or Hubbell. They are quality pieces, but I would not put them into the audiophile range.

The main differences between Leviton/Hubbell hospital grade plugs and a most of the Furutech and Oyaide range is in the added plating materials and surface polishing. Except for the Oyaide P-004 plugs, which are made of beryllium copper, all of the others are made of phosphor bronze, same base material as the Leviton and Hubbell hospital grade pieces.

Plugs have to be brass or phosphor bronze for hardness. Furutech publishes ambiguous information on their plugs. They often claim metallic parts made of "OCC, OFC or phosphor bronze", so which is it? I suspect its the latter. Oyaide is clear that their plugs are "deoxidized" phosphor bronze. The other alternative is beryllium copper, which comes closest to pure copper while maintaining necessary hardness, but is more expensive because of the rarity of beryllium.

headrott

Glen B wrote: »

The main differences between Leviton/Hubbell hospital grade plugs and a most of the Furutech and Oyaide range is in the added plating materials and surface polishing. Except for the Oyaide P-004 plugs, which are made of beryllium copper, all of the others are made of phosphor bronze, same base material as the Leviton and Hubbell hospital grade pieces.

Plugs have to be brass or phosphor bronze for hardness. Furutech publishes ambiguous information on their plugs. They often claim metallic parts made of "OCC, OFC or phosphor bronze", so which is it? I suspect its the latter. Oyaide is clear that their plugs are "deoxidized" phosphor bronze. The other alternative is beryllium copper, which comes closest to pure copper while maintaining necessary hardness, but is more expensive because of the rarity of beryllium.

I agree with what you say Glen. I will also add that the plating and especially the polishing of the blades on the Furutech, Oyaide, and (another example of) PS Audio plugs makes for an improved audio experience over Leviton and Hubbell plugs.