How good is the Shunyata Venom Silver A/C outlet?

Now down to $99 on the Music Direct website, probably reflecting a lack of sales at $195. Essentially a cryoed Hubbell 5362 with rhodium/silver plated contacts. Whether the plating performs miracles, I don't know and I'm too cheap to find out. You could look at a non-plated cryoed 5362 from World Power/audioexcellence for half the price, or a cryoed 8300 HI (also unplated) from Takefive Audio for about $20 Cnd. or $17 U.S. (don't know how Gene does that price but he does!). Unless you have 20 amp equipment and/or lines, you're better off with the Hubbell 15 amp versions of the above receptacles (HBL 5262 and HBL 8200HI) in my opinion, but I don't think you'll find anyone selling cryoed versions of the 15 amp receptacles.

Grant: Neither the Shunyata website or the Music Direct website feature a view of the "enlarged back of the outlet". Perhaps you could direct us to such a view. In light of the fact that the Hubbell 5362 is already housed in an oversized "chassis" and contains little or no ferrous metal to start with, and that the front and side views of the receptacle appear identical to the 5362, perhaps you can understand my skepticism. It also seems a bit odd to me that a "custom manufactured outlet" would need to be "disassembled" to be plated; if it is indeed custom manufactured, surely it would be more cost effective to simply plate those plated parts before assembly and pass those cost savings on to the consumer, rather than build it, rip it apart, plate it and reassemble it?

Just an "ill informed opinion".

My request for more information on the receptacle from Hubbell has remained unanswered; perhaps it just went to the wrong person (the Hubbell "contact us" e-mail on the website). Here's an interesting site selling cryoed red Hubbell 5262's for $10.95 (that is a great price on that receptacle even un-cryoed if you can tolerate the red):

http://www.cryo-parts.com/products1.html

Might make for an interesting comparison. My educated guess is that the the unplated 5262 would sound a little more organic than the Shunyata, which should be a little more up front and have a perceived sense of more air and a bit more "exciting" presentation with the rhodium and silver plating.

Don't forget to switch the freezer plug over to the other half of your receptacle about halfway through the 45 days as both halves break in separately! Have fun!