a note on Wattgate. These are decent bargain plugs, but they are made from brass which imparts a harsher tone. I found that Wattgate brass tends to "push too hard" on the voltage and the sound becomes too forward and bright and harsh (in a way). The Furutech gold/rhodium or Neotech do not have this problem (they are pure copper with plating).
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It’s hard to say if the Neotech/Furutech offerings are going to be better than the Sonarquest. I haven’t use Sonarquest, but in all my testing
it really comes down to the metal material used and the plating. Both Neotech and Furutech have excellent offerings. The build quality on the Furutech is a step above (in my opinion). I have used both.
The Furutech gold-plated connectors really give a warm full sound (they really warm up the sound and soften the highs). The Neotech gold-plated do not warm the sound as much - there is more attach on the Neotech gold-plated.
The Furutech rhodium plated are probably the best because they do a heavy/thick plating of the rhodium. These are about the best plugs you can get, in my opinion. Very clean tight bass and excellent high frequency resolution and attack. You can expect a very long 250-300 hour burn-in on this rhodium.
One thing that Furutech does differently than other manufactures is that the screws that hold the body and strain relief clamp are connected to the GROUND conductor (to help with eddy and static). Most of their plugs have this feature except the lower models (such as FI-11 or FI-15 basic)
The FI-28 and FI-46 are similar, but the more expensive 46 and 50 NCF models use different bodies that are design to reduce electrical resonance and physical vibration.
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Furutech hardly makes any silver plated models, but i do see the FI-48 Male comes in silver.
For "neutral" I would probably say Rhodium. The Furutech gold-plated is colored in the sense that it softens the highs and also slows the bass. Silver is also not neutral because it tends to push the upper mids and highs and sound bright with lack of bass.
I have found that Rhodium actually has better ultra-high frequency response and extension than silver. I read once that silver does not do a good job at dampening electrical resonance and that's why it sounds so bright. Because it's resonating, it cannot stabilize enough to provide clean very high frequencies.
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sorry, I do not have direct experience with Neotech rhodium plugs.
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I think the Neotech gold plugs would be ever so slightly on the warm side of neutral. It really depends what "neutral" is to you. They have more attack and resolution than Furutech gold, but not as much as Furutech rhodium.
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which
Sonarquest plugs do you have? They come in all four of the following configurations:
- Unplated copper
- Gold plated
- Rhodium plated
- Silver plated
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ah ok. I have found that unplated copper plugs do not have as much resolution as even the gold-palted. Unplated copper is very punchy in the midrange, but it lacks high frequency detail and I feel that it smears the sound just a tiny bit.
The gold-plated Neotech will likely be an improvement in resolution and tonal balance. The Furutech rhodium will have the most detail, tight deep bass and extended high frequency range. If your cable is not extremely thick, the lower price Furutech FI-15 Plus (R) rhodium connectors are an excellent value at about $55. You just have to be careful not to tear off the casing when you tighten down on the clamp screws. The casing folds open and it attached at 2 points with flexible plastic.
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I don't know anything about the
IeGo
plugs. sorry. I've looked at pictures of the IeGo and the wire clamp mechanism sort of reminds me of Wattgate. I think you're better off getting Furutech or Neotech. I love the build quality and design of the Furutech wire clamping. The Neotech is excellent as well.
I've used Furutech and Neotech. Oyaide is another good brand, but I've never used them. They have a palladium plated product, which is interesting, but I don't know how it sound.
I do not recommend using the Cardas plugs because the fold-out casing just rips away with hardly any pressure and you have a plug case that just fallen apart.
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Phosphor Bronze and Beryllium Copper are copper alloys (probably 92 to 98% copper). They are actually not that bad - I have used them. They are significantly better than the low end brass plugs (like Wattgate). Pure copper is better though. However, the low conductivity of Rhodium plating doesn't necessarily mean that it performs worse. Low conductivity is almost like self-damping resistance. The plating actually helps with two metals mating/touching that aren't actually soldered together (like you find in plugs and interconnects).
The Furutech FI-15 Plus (R) rhodium plugs are probably the "best for the money" at $55 each. They are actually cheaper than the Neotech gold-plated plugs.
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The Cardas clamshell is very fragile and not well manufactured. It's almost like "you touch it and it breaks".
The Furutech FI-15 clamshell is actually very durable. I have actually switched one of these FI-15 between about 5 or 6 different cables before one of the edges actually broke. A good way to handle it is to have the bottom clamshell completely down while you tighten the clamp screws on the top with the top clamshell open. The bottom clamshell actually helps hold the unit while you tighten the screws (and then vice versa with the top clamshell).
I don't like the Wattgate clamps as much. Once you use the Furutech clamps, you will find that it's actually a very good design. It operates in a similar way to the Wattgate clamps, but it is definitely superior. You unscrew the clamp and it opens up a space in the hole. The Furutech clamp actually forces the wire into a curve so that you have more contact surface to the plug conductors.
The IeGo connectors are definitely low cost, but just remember, you get what you pay for.
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Furutech/Neotech design is similar in the sense that turning the screw will lower a clamp and close the hole. However, the actual design and parts are much different. You can get a much tighter and stronger clamp on the wire with the Furutech/Neotech.
Furutech FI-15 plus (R) rhodium plugs are $55 USD each (I usually order them from Hi-Fi Heavan, but you can get them multiple places).
The Neotech Gold-plated plugs are normally $80 each retail, but Sonic Craft currently sells them for $64.
Neotech Rhodium are $100 retail, but Sonic Craft sells for $80 each.
I don't know that I would say rhodium is the most "neutral" because "neutral" is so subjective to someone's opinion of what "neutral" really is. I will say that Rhodium give you the most resolution and it is very revealing ( it can be revealing of bad electronics). Gold plated is more forgiving and will give a warmer and possibly more engaging sound, but will hide flaws in electronics and hide detail in the sound.
On the other hand, only rhodium will allow you to get the most out of a very high end piece. For example, I have compared two DAC, one low cost and the a very expensive discrete high end DAC. With basic power cords / interconnects, you really could not tell any difference between the two. However, once you get in some Furutech rhodium XLR with OCC copper solid-core wire and it becomes apparent that the low cost DAC just cannot compete with the sound quality of the expensive one.
For the XLR connectors, the Xhadow XLR connectors are the only ones I know of that use screw-type clamps on the wire instead of soldered. They are well made and the screws work good. However, they are silver-plated and I don't like anything silver-plated, lol. (with the exception of Nordost HDMI and digital cables).
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A long time ago I compared the Xhadow silver plated XLR to Furutech gold-plated XLR. The Xhadow was okay, but it had sort of a phasing effect to the sound. The Furutech gold on the other hand sounded so natural and organic. It is warmer sounding, of course, and softens the highs. If you are using Xhadow in your interconnects, it's possible that the Neotech gold may be the best pairing. It's up to you.
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Nice! Be aware that the sound could possibly get very painful to listen to during the break in. Just be patient. 250-300 hours.
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