My first step into the world of grounding and lowering noise floors started with Furutech’s NCF products, which I’ve been using in my system for several years. Furutech has discovered something very special in its NCF material, and is now introducing it into into all types of products. In fact, I’ve been reviewing their new NCF power cords and interconnects for several months–and we wound up replacing some of my reference cabling that I’ve used for close to a dozen years. (Review is coming soon.)
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
If you don’t know what Furutech’s NCF material is, it’s a proprietary material that, as I’ve mentioned a few times over the years, is very effective in lowering the noise in your system. As I wrote the last time I tackled Furutech’s NCF:
“Furutech NCF combines nano-sized ceramic particles and carbon powder, cryogenically treated so that it crystallizes. This material was developed through extensive testing in the Furutech labs in Japan, with the results confirmed through both measurements and listening. NCF is remarkable because it has two active properties—it generates negative ions that eliminate static, and it converts thermal energy into far infrared. This results in ‘piezoelectric effect’ damping properties.”
As you can see from these photos, Furutech’s NCF is landing in all types of products–cables, power distribution blocks, wall sockets and more. Now that I’m finally getting out of that apartment in Portland and moving into a big house, I’m probably going to give those NCF outlets a try. I’ve heard they’re really amazing.
Still, seeing Furutech’s NCF Boosters in the Progressive Audio room gave me a few new ideas on how to install them. The photo below shows the right way to apply NCF Boosters to the power cords–I’ll try this if I have the molding in my new home to allow it. But I also noted the care in which I use Furutech’s NCF, including cables and power management, in my own reference system. In fact, the last photo below is from my installation for the power cord and interconnect review, which I think is pretty nifty.
I’m discovering there is more than one approach to lowering the noise floor–grounding devices, materials that control inductance, and Furutech’s NCF. You can never use too many of these devices since the effect seems to be cumulative and there’s no way to really have one solution cancel out another. Since I’ve been a fan of Furutech’s NCF material for a long time–it’s really proven itself to me several times over–I don’t plan on replacing it any time soon.
If you would like to hear even more coverage from Munich 2023, check out our recap report and highlights from our audiophile-oriented show The Occasional Podcast. You can stream the episode direct from the embed below, or from your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more.
Also don’t forget to check out our latest collaboration – a solid bronze record weight available only for a limited run. This 800g of solid bronze features the PTA roundel on the top which also acts as a 45 adapter. You can purchase direct from the PTA Approved Store here on the site.
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