Finally, they are here, both the CopperCONN outlets I ordered last month
Audiophiles are a strange animal for raving over an electrical outlet, or even audio grade fuses but well, you know, it is what it is. So, I wanted to give my first impressions of the outlet as I cannot install them for now (but very soon hopefully) to have a listening. A proper review will come at a later time after an extensive listening experience with them. So stay tuned for this. But for now, let's unbox these things!
I was actually pleasantly surprised with the packaging. From what I was told there was no plan to actually release the CopperCONN as a retail product but this information was since their introduction in 2015 and until recently I got the same message. It turns out it look very well like a retail product. The box it came in looks like a jewelry box, or wrist watch box. The quality is very good and right from the start it exudes quality of the product it contains. Ok, ok, it's still a box but this gives a really good first impression.
After looking at the outlet itself, quality does not disapoint. It looks and feel like a high quality product. In some ways you would be right to expect this from a 295$ outlet (ouch) as, as far as I know, it is the most expensive outlet I am aware of. While it is very nice to have a cool looking body, what matters most is what is under the hood. From what I have been gathering from the interwebz (posts from Caelin himself), these outlets are made from Tellurium copper and do not have gold or rhodium plating. From my experience with other competing outlets, "platingless" copper offers the most intimate sound, removing layers of haze between the music and the listener. I don't pretend to have tried them all but some others audiophiles and reviewers echos that experience. And, Shunyata could confirm, this is part of the design philosophy behind the CopperCONN. For my part, I wanted an outlet to get closer to the music and not sugarcoat anything. I will see if this assertion meets my listening experience once it's installed.
Just for the heck of this, I grabbed my wife's culinary scale and weighted the outlet. A shining 94 grams it shows. Once I remove my actual Shunyata SR-Z1 and Furutech GTX-D NCF, I will weight them as well just for fun of comparing. Speaking of the SR-Z1, it is currently feeding my amplifier (Yamaha CA-1000) and the source (Bryston BDP-2) and just to compare apples to apples, I will swap only this one for a CopperCONN. I have some other upgrades on the grill but I will hold on before I can start making to critical listening since I am quite used to how my system sounds now. I have decided to go straight from the SR-Z1 to the CopperCONN because I want to compare both Shunyata's outlet "head to head". There was some demand that I test the Furutech GTX-D NCF against the CopperCONN, which I will do, but only once I am accustomed to the CopperCONN. Then I will swap in the GTX-D NCF.
So, here it is for now. I know, that's a bit of a teaser but life and Covid have the upper hand over my audio addictions for now.
REVIEW (KEEP READING BELOW)