Another new sound system

(Insanely) SUPERCHARGED POWERPOINT

I bought a Deta quadruple powerpoint from Bunnings. I selected this brand because (1) it was disassembleable, and (2) the outside of the mechanism housing was a matt plastic.

Image 1 = Disassembled powerpoint pre-treatment

Image 2 = Front casing (inside), and cowling (inside) after 3 coats of spray-on plastic primer. Finish is now matt and has lost its politically incorrect hydrophobia.

Image 3 = Front casing (inside) after 3 coats of substance abuse

Image 4 = Inside of mechanism housing. The brass suffers from severe hydrophobia, so I used the long deleted, oil-based contact enhancer. A few days later I applied a coat of Contact HYPE SE. The brass runners and copper slugs behind the top of the switches received only a coat of the second mixture as they were finicky to access. On reflection, the Contact HYPE SE would probably have adhered satisfactorily directly onto the brass runners. The inside of the mechanism housing has up to 3 coats of various paints on the reasonably accessible areas.

Image 5 = Inside of cowling after 4 coats of various paints. Any external treatment of cowling is now redundant and superseded.

Image 6 = outside of mechanism housing, painted in-situ. This has received 4 coats of various paints (up to 8 coats in certain areas).
 
For those interested, the primer I used is pictured below and available at Bunnings. I treated another powerpoint after the one shown above and this time used only Contact HYPE SE to treat the brass runners and copper bars. The coverage was far more complete and uniform this time. I also managed to thoroughly coat the copper switch contact thanks to my new prescription glasses, a fine brush kindly gifted by Mark, and the good accessibility provided by the design of Deta (compared to HPM).

IMG_5586.jpeg
 
bosshoss said:
Very nice job Daniel. Please let us know how it sounds when you install it.
Click to expand...

Some problems with doing a before / after comparison: I couldn't set up my sound system until the electrician mounted my TV. After installing the TV, he asked me if I wanted him to install the quad (which I'd shown him to allow him to leave adequate room for an upgrade when he was installing extra powerpoints). I said yes to avoid sounding like a dick, and also to save myself the trouble later. Trying to compare the sound to how it was in Sydney is fraught with other problems: about 3 months of intervening time; different room acoustics; different speaker placement; and differences to the electrical and wi-fi system treatments; different laptop (both in terms of treatment and model). However, when I listened to some recent FLACs yesterday (installation was on Friday), the realism and musicality was eye-watering! The only drawback was weak bass, but I can't say to what that's attributable as there are far too many variables as listed above.

Not to worry: I'll be customising a double powerpoint for you so you can test it for yourself. One will be obsessively treated, and a second merely primed so you can administer your own latest treatments.
 
Mark kindly gave me the formula for HYPE X. I ordered the ingredients. When they arrived, I first made some contact enhancer.

I made an outlet farm with 6 adapters. As always when I plugged it in, there was some improvement. But, the bigger improvement would come in a day or two. This was the best sound yet. The sound was improved across the board but especially the bass. I made another 6 adapter outlet farm & put it in my office. Again, a huge improvement in the sound in the office.

Next I made a small box with 5X7 copper sheets. I got it done the night before I was leaving for Seattle for a week. There was a bigger than normal improvement. I left it plugged in. When I got back from Seattle, the improvement was the biggest ever. I still can't believe how good it sounds. I have run out of audiophile words to describe the sound. It just sounds real & pure. My reference recording sounds like the band is in the room. Well recorded songs are improved the most. I don't see how this could be improved further. The picture on my TV is now amazing. Especially for live broadcasts with good HD cameras.

I just got back from a trip to Vancouver, BC to visit my old friend Dave Wilkie, who was the bassist for the Bethlehem Exit. I made him a couple of outlet farms with HYPE X. Dave, his wife, my girlfriend & I were all amazed at the improvement in sound. The picture on his TV also improved greatly.

Once again, thank you Mark for bringing joy to so many lives!

-- Rich
 
Reading Rich's post made me want to try something with HYPE X, so I got a small syringe of HYPE X from my stockpile, and a fine sable brush. I squeezed out a tiny, tiny amount (a pinhead at most) of HYPEX onto the brush. In the photo, the red box is my 4 TB hard drive which contains all the HYPE X FLACs. I play the FLACs on my Apple Airpod MAX headphones via the Mac laptop. They sound good! I unplugged the red cable from the short black/silver adapter cable, and painted the USB pins inside the red connector. Then I plugged it back into the adapter cable.

Immediately, the sound playback quality via the Airpod MAX headphones went from "good" to "incredible!". I could also paint the other two connection points (going into the drive itself, and into the Mac) but I wanted to play it safe and only risk the adapter cables. It paid off. Immediately I heard things I never noticed before - like the cat whistle 12 seconds into the beginning of "Are You Mad At Me" by the BreakOuts. But more importantly, far better bass extension and overall smoothness and clarity.

RedTerror2.jpg
 
I have completed the Double Powerpoint SE. The time-consuming and painstaking nature of the work probably means it's the only SE I'll ever make. It's likely as close to being a Sonic Brick a powerpoint will ever come.

Photo 1: The front casing has 5 coats - up to 10 in some parts. Bottom coats are Black, upper coats are Grey. I made the coverage as complete as I could while trying to keep it safe. I scraped off the paint from any hight points I thought might contact metal. The mechanism housing barely fitted back in: I don't think I would have gotten away with another coat!

Photo 2: I used HYPE X to coat the copper bar and brass runner around the switch contact points. The remaining brass runners are coated with Contact SE. I left the inside of the wiring barrels untreated, so that the recipient of this powerpoint can apply his own product during installation. I painted as much of the black plastic surrounding areas as a could (3 coats of Black).

Photo 3: I painted the back of the mechanism housing in situ. It has 4 coats of Black and 4 coats of Grey in alternating layers.

Photo 4: I painted the inside of the front cowling with 5 coats of Black.
 
Looks great Daniel! It should be spectacular.

For my own latest experiment I went ahead and painted the connector going into the red hard disk shown above. I only used half a pinhead or less, haha. A truly minuscule amount.

What HYPE X does for digital connectors with direct application is absolutely NUTS!. But it's always terrifying, wondering if it's going to destroy the connector, and therefore the appliance. But it doesn't. Except for once when I was careless and overloaded the connector...

Painting digital connectors directly with half a pinhead of HYPE X is more effective than any other treatment. I can't really understand why that should be.
 
As those following this thread will have noted, I recently moved my Marantz sound system to new premises. Although I made some treatments to the electricity / internet supply in the new place (painted the inside of the breaker box cover, painted the inside of the internet box cover, treated the immediately relevant powerpoints, and placed 5 Sonic Bricks around the internet box), it didn't sound as good as the set-up in the old apartment; and that despite having upgraded the speakers to Krix Equinox Mk 3s.

Today, I garnered enough courage to paint tiny amounts of HYPE X onto the Cat cable connectors from the internet box to the modem, and from the modem to the LAN input. When I resumed playing music I heard a difference. It wasn't a difference you might attribute to the imagination, or any form of wishful thinking: it was a difference in fidelity so profound, there's now a hole in the reinforced concrete floor where my bottom jaw hit the ground! Frequency range has extended in both directions, and music is filled out and given a richness, especially in the bass. I haven't even treated the cables on the TV / amplifier side yet. (I was listening to music streamed through the TV.) :yikes::yikes::yikes: If you haven't experienced HYPE X, you haven't lived; nay, you're living a tortured existence!!!
 
Having recently treated crucial parts of the electricity supply for two different homes of late, I can confidently claim that there are two major aspects of treatment to the power supply, both of which are essential: treatment of the connections with a contact enhancer; and treatment of the length of the wire with an STB paint. Doing either one has a huge effect, but neither treatment alone can make up for omission of the other, no matter how thoroughly done. The same can be said for treating the power supply of the analogue section of a sound system vs a digital source. Treating digital cables will always give you detail over and beyond what treatment of the analogue section alone can achieve. Treatment of analogue source and cabling releases a huge amount of extra detail; and treatment of the amplification section enables you to hear that extra detail. (Of course, treatment of the amplification system and its power supply supply alone will give you extra detail, but limited to what the source is supplying.)

Unlike any commercially available product, STB and HYPE products are roughly linear in their effect, and practically limitless. Meaning the more you use the better the fidelity will be - in a roughly proportional manner; and it's almost impossible to achieve an upper limit in application (supply issues aside). However, you definitely need both products.
 
HYPE 4X is getting better by itself, every day. It has been doing this for at least 10 days now, just a little each day, but the improvement is significant. I notice the daily improvement as soon as I turn on the stereo and play something. I estimate the initial improvement was 75% on the first day, and each day brings about 5% additional benefit.
 
bosshoss said:
HYPE 4X is getting better by itself, every day. It has been doing this for at least 10 days now, just a little each day, but the improvement is significant. I notice the daily improvement as soon as I turn on the stereo and play something. I estimate the initial improvement was 75% on the first day, and each day brings about 5% additional benefit.
Click to expand...

Time to trial it in a paint perhaps? Does it mix with PVA as poorly as BDG?
 
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