I plugged mine into the same outlet as my wife's "bedside massager"....it got her pregnant. Ever since I've been trying to figure out a way to wire this thing up to my *****.
Agreed.........And here I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to measure the increased amount of goosepimples I'm getting from listening to familiar recordings but apparently I don't have to do that now. We do want to keep the speculators happy and coming back for a good thread crap or 2...... or do we?
Just give the willful believers their own echo chamber to radicalize each other unimpeded. Meanwhile, 90 years ago..
Furutech NCF Clear Line AC conditionerI have hade my unit for 6 weeks now. I will admit I thought it was snake oil, but some websites I feel have some credibility didn't dismiss it out of hand. I watched some of the YouTube videos where they compared the sound with it in and out of the circuit. I was skeptical and yet every time I heard a difference. Sometimes it was very subtle, but many times it was more noticeable that I expected. I figured $250 and 30 days to try it was worth risking. I was away from home when it was delivered and I had it installed for me so it could break in while I was gone. It had achieved the one week break-in time by the time I arrived back home. The difference was immediately audible. I felt no need to A/B it, the difference was that obvious. I explained my reasoning in 2 the posts posts linked below, I won't repeat it here. Initial Review: Furutech NCF Clear Line AC conditioner Quick A/B: Life is too short, the 2nd link isn't working for me. Scroll down to post 30 just below the link above which is Post 28. My comments are on some of the additional discussions on the matter in the last month. First there is an easy way to "prove" or "disprove" whether it will make a difference in your system. Frankly my eyes were rolling when I first read some of the explanations for the technology behind this device. I decided to watch some YouTube vids, which I'll admit could have been faked. When I did hear differences on YouTube demo vids I was intrigued, but still skeptical. One and only one way to prove it: buy it and try it. I heard a drastic difference with my room, in my system with my ears. Frankly that is all that matters for me. If you hear an improvement it is keeper, if not return it. As I explained in my posts linked above, I clearly heard a difference. As to why a given person may not hear it in their system, there are many reasons I could see for that. Possibly the electrical problems the Furutech is solving for me are not present in some others systems to the same degree. Perhaps some of the gear they are using inherently deals with the same problem already. Perhaps someone's hearing is less sensitive to the problems the Furutech is solving. Bottom Line: Buy it and try it for yourself. I never could have believed $250 for something whose description sounded like snake oil on paper would make this much of a difference in my system. In a way it is pointless to argue about it. Either you hear it and it is worth $250, or you don't and you return it. Thanks again @Sam for bringing it to our attention. Probably the most gain for the least expense I can think of in my hifi history.
Or just run your system on DC and avoid the problem altogether. Plenty of equipment these days runs on 12 volts DC from a power brick or wall wart; it's trivial to hook it up to a battery instead. Maybe Edison (who invented the electric chair to prove how dangerous AC is) was right after all!
Same here and I plan on adding at least one more once the holidays are over and I plan on installing one on each of my monoblocks dedicated circuits. It'll be interesting to see if I get as much of an upgrade as I do on the source circuit. If there's no change I'll send it back. If there is an upgrade that will mean there will be yet another one in my future. Presently my pocketbook is hoping for no change.
I've been thinking more about this device after revisiting this thread yesterday. Only recently, have I gotten audio gear which I where I would say I am dipping my toes into entry level audiophile waters. This happened starting in late 2017 when I replaced my entire system. In early 2018 I added a turntable into the system again. I have had to reset my BS meter since a bit since then. I am finding this level of gear sometimes lets me hear more and appreciate certain accessories which I would have dismissed out of hand before. But still I do have to hear it for myself. No one is going to tell me what I should hear with my two ears. I remember reading a speaker review in Stereophile or TAS where a very high end speaker was available in several different veneer finishes. "Of course" the reviewer noticed a big improvement in the speakers with the book matched South American tropical hardwood veneer. He attributed all kinds of additional attributes to this veneer over the cherry or oak veneer models. The extra $1,000 was worth it, so he said. Hmmm, same underlying speaker cabinet carcass-amazing what exotic veneer will do. Why do I mention this? Because when I read about the Furutech NCF Clear Line my initial thoughts were pure snake oil. That it did anything at all would be a surprise to me. All of the "tech" behind it seemed like pseudo-science and my BS meter was off the scale. But their Destat III was a good product that I already own, so I persisted in reading up on the product. Curiously, several sources for higher end product reviews gave it good reviews. These review had links to YouTube video reviews. I actually heard he difference in these video reviews, even though they were streamed audio. I realized they could have been faked. I decided to bite the bullet and ordered it. Buy it, try it, and return it if it is the snake oil. So as some suggested I DID have expectation bias. I sure did. I expected it to be a joke. After I returned home from 2 weeks away, I turned my system on. I expected I would have to intently listen but instead I heard an immediate difference. It was one I could immediately recognize with absolutely no doubt. I had only owned my new speakers for a month. In my listening room they did not sound quite as good as they had in the dealers listening room. The dealer told me that my speaker positioning, the differences in listening rooms, the speaker cables and his dedicated treated electrical power supplies would account for a difference in sound. Over the next weeks I had done some tweaks with positioning, grilles covers on-off, toe-in and the sound had gotten closer. I had quality audiophile grade speaker cables, though not as good as the dealer. The two things left I couldn't deal with short term were the room size/treatment and a dedicated power supply. Honestly I didn't think the electrical would make that much difference. I did use heavy duty AC cables for my gear and a high quality Surge Protector, but no power conditioning or filtering of any kind. So when I ever heard the immediately noticeable difference, nobody was more surprised than me. Reading this thread yesterday I started thinking: What might be the explanation for the difference I am hearing and what might explain it? Greater Clarity & More Realism: I was able to hear more of the notes without as much noise masking the source. Blacker Backgrounds: Again some of the background noise was removed. On quality material the instruments didn't have a background hiss to give away their sources. More Realistic Sounding Instruments: Cymbal crashes faded down smoothly and cleanly. The faded to nothing and didn't quaver in and out of audibility at the lowest volume. More Precise Sound Stage: The notes are not masked as much by random noise, allowing you to hear precisely where they are emanating from. Wider Soundstage: You are able to hear softer sounds and more reflection within the simulated space. All of these additional clues give you a more accurate sense of the space. So why does the sound take a day or a week to "burn in". I have no idea but it does. Perhaps the amount of this low-end noise reduction improves over time and allows you to hear more detail. Only one way to find out if this works. For me I was well worth the price. Someone else's ears or equipment may or may not allow them to hear.
@Jim0830 did the improvements go away when you unplugged the Clear Line, and then return when plugged back in? Mine is in the house but on hold until Christmas morning, which is kind of cool because even at 63, a little Christmas anticipation can be a fun thing. So, in keeping with the theme, I really want to believe, so @Sam and @Jim0830 (and others) thanks for the endorsements and keeping my spirits up!
Yes they certainly did!. Mine was a PITA to plug in and out because the outlet is behind my TV/equipment stand. You must reach far back and in between two pieces of equipment to reach it and it is a snug fit in the outlet and it doesn't just pop out easily. The differences were so easy to hear I didn't really feel the need to A/B it to prove anything to myself. I finally I had my brother get down on his knees on the floor and reach way back and unplug it for me a couple times while I sat in my listening position. Whether or not your ears and your system on your local power supply will allow you to hear this, I can't say. But if you hold out and actually wait to get it on Christmas, I'll guess and hope you will be telling us about your Happy New Year.
Is it just me, or are all these reviews a little too perfect? I mean, bullet points, as if they were copied off of the manufacturer's PowerPoint presentation!? And what better way to sell snake oil than to have every review begin with "I thought it was snake oil, but once I started using it, I became a believer"!
Yes, we ALL work for the manufacturer of this product! I guess the secret is out. LOL. Seriously, you are now attacking the credibility of anyone on this thread who posted a positive response to the use of this product. You can't call it snake oil until you try it. But I realize you're afraid to do so for fear that you may actually hear a positive difference AND not be able to measure it. Oh my, wouldn't that put you on the spot! I say "Put up or shut up." Get one and perform your own tests. But don't accuse me or others of promoting "snake oil" because we claim we hear positive results.
I'm going against my better judgement to feed the troll here........Get out your reading glasses sir, return to page 4 and re-read my review and try to comprehend. It details my instant a+b comparisons and measurements with no cut and paste. On page 5 your"elephant repellant" analogy arrived and page 5 is also where I mentioned "troll much". 3 pages later and your trolling continues. Obviously the free Furutech 30 day trial isn't for you so why not take your thread craps elsewhere as they're not benefical here.
Maybe it's getting close to a mods intervention? A tougher line is being taken on trolling in cable related threads (where the troll in question has also been active) and there isn't any reason why the same principle(s) can't be applied to this thread...
Power strips, interconnects, speaker cables, power cables, they all make a difference in a positive way. There are people that can’t tell a difference between a mp3 and cd, or think that 16/44 is perfectly capable of capturing what’s on an analog tape. This is a product that gives a 30 day trial so if you can’t hear any difference just don’t buy it but don’t accuse people promoting "snake oil".
*troll But what a fortuitous and entirely inadvertent example of autocorrect being more accurate that the writer!
No moderator needed because he is not a troll, he is a skeptic. A known skeptic. That is his schtick. I have visited his YouTube channel in the past. The content is sometimes interesting. He attempts to debunk various myths, legends and truisms in audio. I find he sometimes takes things to extremes, such as when he played a quote of Fremmer saying a Crosley would chew up the record grooves after 5 plays. Then he set about to prove it literally didn't' chew up the grooves, throwing up debris onto the record surface. Fremmer is prone to hyperbole and I certainly didn't need to watch a 12 minute video to see that extreme example didn't happen. Another time he dinged Audio Advisor for some over the top hyperbole in their copy about turntables and specifically belt drive vs. direct drive. In this case he had a valid point. Some may find his specific comments to be annoying or insulting, but I refuse to let his comments be insulting. I will just make my case and people are free to decide for themselves. First let me deal with the dreaded bullet points. I always have used bullet points with my writing. I am an architect and often acted as a the project architect for a building. I have to run the weekly job site meetings and conduct a walk through where I note the progress and state of the work. Few probably have failed to notice I am "detail oriented" and often verbose. Others might say boring and TMI-so be it. I regularly use bullet points to help organize, prioritize and sort the thoughts and main points I am making. People can choose to skip the detailed explanations and get right to the main point by jumping to the bullet points. Anyone who has seen some of my other posts, dating right from my earliest days here would see I often use bullet points for emphasis. Both on the negative and positive points I have to make. I often use + / - or numbered lists for the same purpose. That's me. Now just for our resident skeptic and to address some of his legitimate concerns, let me use some more bullet points: I don't blame anyone for being skeptical about these claims. I read about this device and my BS meter was off the scale. It looked like pseudo science. Honestly, it still does but the science is above my knowledge level. The only thing that made me persist in looking further into this device was a recent purchase of the Furutech Destat III to replace my Milty Zerostat. This product cost 3X as much as the Zerostat but there were YouTube videos that showed measurements of the actual static reduction offered by this product. My own trials proved it to be legitimate. Based on Furutech's track record in my case, I took the next step: I read some of the written reviews for this product. Once again they spouted some of the same "scientific" proof the manufacturer listed. Reviews these days often consist of spouting the manufacturer's type sheet talking points (yes copied and pasted into the" review") and calling that a review. But a few of these reviews offered addition insights and listening tests. Plus they were by reviewers or websites that have some credibility with me based on their previous reviews. That caused me to check on some YouTube links for reviews of the product. I thought I would have to strain to hear them particularly recorded and streamed over the internet. I even wore headphones for these tests. Sure these could be fake, but I clearly heard differences. There was only one thing to do. Try it and use the 30 day refund period to get my money back if I didn't hear any difference. I would have to decide too if the difference I heard was a $250 difference. I bought this product from an online retailer in the midwest. I paid full price for it with my own money. I got no compensation for saying anything about the product. Other than questions on this thread, no one has contacted me about this product. My return period has come and gone and I never considered returning it. Franky the I had two reasons for posting this reply to the thread by @Sam: First to thank him and next confirm for other's who would have good reason to be skeptical about the potential benefits product. Some of the points I made about the differences/improvements I heard were like what the manufacturer mentioned. Guilty. I did clearly hear some of these differences myself. No one told me what t say. It is not like I am making new claims for the audio performance of this product. A few others noticed differences on their video performance. I too thought I noticed an improvement on my 4K TV, but I didn't make that claim. I only mentioned it because I did notice a change. There are too many variables there to try to test that theory. Whatever the cause I'll take it as an unplanned bonus. I was in a unique situation as I explained above. I had one month old speakers that sounded really great in my listening room, but not as goods as they had in the dealers show room using some of the same equipment. One of the things he used that I didn't was a dedicated electrical circuit and power conditioner. Suddenly with the NCF Clearline on my system these speakers sounded much more like what I heard at the dealers. The attributes I heard could definitely be explained by differences in the low level noise. With this removed it would certainly seem there would be more clarity and better sound. For me $250 was worth testing out whether this product was legit or snake oil. I would have been pissed if I asked for a refund and somehow ended up losing my money. But this is sold by a known company at legitimate dealers of high end audio products. It is not being sold by a website for a "too-good-to-be -true" product by a guy working out of his garage. You should safely expect to get your money back. Now if it cost 10X: $2,500, I probably wouldn't have taken the plunge either. Different gear, under different operating environments may show completely different results. That is my experience. I make no claims beyond what I heard with my two ears, on my system in my listening room. Actually not quite just my own two ears. My brother and wife heard differences too, but I am only saying what I heard. I didn't feel the need to scientifically test the reasons for the improvement. I will leave that to the skeptics. Compared to what many electrical power related solutions cost, this $250 is short money. What is the worst that can happen? You don't hear any changes or what you hear is even worse. Then you get your money back and use it to buy LPs, CDs etc. to play on your system. I will not question those who don't hear an improvement. That is simply their reality.
It's been plugged in since the 8th and I've just done another comparison and as before there's no improvement, so it's going back. I've just seen that the 4 socket RA X Block is on offer for £229, on a 60 day return basis, so I'm going with that, as I've found Russ Andrew products to be of high quality and do show audible benefits. Whathifi X Block review here: Home review
I am sure these various members, @Sam for example signed up here way back in 2002 just biding his time, awaiting the moment when the Furutech NCF Clear was released. Then like an embedded spy he starts this thread enlisting various sleeper cell comrades who joined different times over the years to promote this product. It just makes so much sense!
