Furutech e-TP60 vs music-line Power Distributor

Posted by: Patu on 19 February 2016

I did little experimenting tonight with my power distributors. Some time ago I ordered Furutech e-TP60 power distributor to replace my music-line power distributor. It was a blind buy since there was a great offer going on. I thought that there's little risk since Furutech is quite popular among Naim users and e-TP60 had got good reviews. Well the distributor arrived back then and I just plugged it in and lived happily on after that. It was about 3-4 months ago. I used music-line's Naim power cable from e-TP60 to wall socket. All my other power cords are the stock Naim ones also. Of course I checked the phases also, everything was ok.

Well now for 1-2 weeks I've experienced some hardness and dullness in the sound of my setup and started to wonder what has caused it. I had made three little tweaks recently. First one was new USB-cable, then I spiked my equipment rack (Norstone Esse) with Oyaide spikes and spike shoes and lastly I had bougth the new power distributor. First I tried another USB-cable and to my surprise it made a clear difference to sound. I have been very skeptic about USB-cable differences before but now I had to believe since it was so clearly audibly. Anyway, that wasn't the cause after all. Second test was to plug in the old music-line power distributor and this is where I hit the jackpot.

The music-line distributor brought back all the life, PRaT and liveliness I had been missing recently. Suddenly the sound was easier to follow, instruments were easier to recognize from the sound and that toe-tapping effect was back there. Also the bass sounded slightly stronger and bigger. I was very surprised so I plugged back the Furutech and yes, back to the dullness and hardness. Also it seemed like Furutech shrinked the soundstage slightly also, bringing the sound closer together making it more difficult to follow what was happening there. It did some good things also like made sound snappier and tighter but at the same time made the most important things worse.

Anyway, wanted to share this with you. Furutech costs like ten times the price of the music-line distributor so the pricier solution isn't the better one always.

Posted on: 19 February 2016 by Frenchnaim

I suppose you are referring to the basic Music-Line Schuko distributor - I agree, excellent value for money. I wonder if anyone's tried the same distributor with a Powerline, which is one step above in the range (before the much more expensive Powerigel).

Posted on: 19 February 2016 by Patu

Yes that's what I'm referring to. I'm also interested about the Powerline version but it won't come cheap either since Powerline prices are through the roof nowadays.

Posted on: 19 February 2016 by Rui Marques

You are not alone in your conclusions.

I sold my e-tp60 Furutech because it really sounds crap with Naims. Even a simple Wirewold Matrix is much better and retain the PRAT.

The sound is metallic and thin with no body. It is very hi-fi in the most negative way.

Regards

Rui

Posted on: 20 February 2016 by Patu

You couldn't have described it better! When set against the music-line block, it truly sounds metallic, thin and having less body in the sound.

Posted on: 27 February 2016 by Patu

Decided to try Wireworld Matrix v2 since it's been mentioned here few times and mostly in a positive light. It arrived yesterday and it's been plugged in since. I think this works much better than e-TP60. It doesn't kill the Naim sound but has slightly better grip of things than the music-line block. I notice improvement on how the bass hits you, slightly deeper and with better control. I continue auditioning it but I think this might be a keeper.