Passive RCA/XLR termination plugs
Made by: Furutech Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan
Supplied by: Sound Fowndations, Berks
Telephone: 0118 981 4238
Web: www.furutech.com; www.soundfowndations.co.uk
Prices: £205 (RCA) / £260 (XLR)

PASSIVE PLUGS

Furutech NCF Clear LineA cryogenic/demagnetisation process and proprietary piezoelectric crystals lie at theheart of Furutech’s ‘Clear Line’ plugs. We cut through the noise. Review & Lab: Paul MillerC

ryogenic treatment is key
to almost every Furutech
cable and connector, as is
the promise of exceptionalbuild and finish quality [HFN Mar ’18].
With cables, of course, the material
engineering can easily be quantified,
but with the Japanese brand’s ‘noise
busting’ NCF Clear Line plugs – suppliedwith RCA and XLR terminations for
insertion into unused audio inputs – thescience can easily lose some clarity.
Prices are £205 for each RCA-equippedplug and £260 for the bigger male andfemale XLR derivatives.

BELOW: Built with exquisite
precision, Furutech’s NCF plugs
include cryogenically-treated/demagnetised/rhodium-plated
conductors with a ‘liquid
crystal polymer resin’ core. The
multi-layer carbon fibre sleevesqueezes the connector tightonto the recipient RCA socket

to-noise ratio’. No objective measurements
or graphs are offered by Furutech.
Keen to land a repeatable test ‘for therecord’, I measured the A-wtd S/N ratio ofseveral recent MC phono stages (MusicalFidelity, Canor and Mola Mola) and DAC/
preamplifiers (iFi Audio and Mytek) andcould detect no meaningful differencein signal-to-noise with the NCF plugterminating a vacant RCA input (versus
unterminated). I even plugged several‘noisy’ wall-wart PSUs into adjacent
AC mains sockets in an attempt toinduce some local ‘domestic’ UHFnoise, but to no avail.

KEEPING ITS COOLNCF stands for Nano Crystal2 Formula,an antistatic damping material that is
injected into the signal pin and also
used in the multi-layer carbon/nonmagnetic stainless steel body of theplugs. Furutech’s website states thatNCF ‘features a special crystalline material
that has two “active” properties. First, it
generates negative ions that eliminate
static. Second, it converts thermal energy
into far infrared’. Furutech mixes thismaterial with ceramic and carbon powder
for their ‘additional piezoelectric effectdamping properties’.
Furutech would not be drawn into
providing additional details for this review
but it would not be alone in leveraging
the interesting piezo- and ferroelectric
properties of, for example, a calcium
zirconate-based material in an audio
product offering noise suppression.
Cryo cooling, by contrast, can deliverclear-cut benefits. All
metal parts in theseconnectors benefit
from Furutech’s

ABOVE:
Inside theNCF plug it’s
possible to see two‘specially coated’ ceramic
capacitors that are lodged
up against a nylon/NCF end cover

Plug, play and ponder

two-stage ‘Alpha Process’. This begins
with cryogenic cooling to temperaturesat or below –195oC before a gradualwarming to room temperature that relieves
microscopic stresses in the OCC copper’s
crystal structure, influencing both its
mechanical and electrical properties. The
final step in its conditioning involves aprecisely-controlled (ring) demagnetisation.
Also tucked away inside the Clear Line’spressure-sealed cylindrical barrel are two‘hybrid ceramic capacitors’ [see pic, below].
In practice then, NCF Clear Line are not
shorting plugs but represent a 20Mohm
termination (measured at 1kHz) with aparallel capacitance of 5.7nF. It’s the latter
that, potentially, provides a low impedanceroute for any high frequency noise,shunting RF to ground. However, I would
not recommend plugging these devices
into active line outputs.

TESTING TIMESIn Furutech’s own literature the brand isvery careful not to make any specific claims
for its Clear Line plugs – gains in systemperformance are largely inferred by thirdparty quotes which, for example, include
an ‘overwhelming improvement in signal-

However this one test does notdiscount the possibility of RF IMD[HFN Jun ’89] or some other spawn ofinterference occurring within any of these,or other, products and over which the NCF
Clear Line plugs may exert some small
impact. But in my listening could I detect a
deepening of dark backgrounds, a minutereduction of hash at the very edges ofperception? Was there also a very slightsoftening of the sharpest transient detail, aminor suppression of musical panache?
Frankly, I would not commit myself
one way or the other, but neither would I
dismiss the opinion of trusted colleagues
who swear by these devices. Hence our ‘SQ
rating’ is entirely arbitrary in this instance!

HI-FI NEWS VERDICT
Compared with typical HFN fare –including Furutech’s own very finecables – the NCF Clear Line terminationplugs might not unreasonably bedescribed as fringe devices. No
repeatable evidence for their efficacy
is offered but that, perhaps, is besides
the point. If, in practice, you can discerna difference with the NCF plugs in situ
then whether this uplift is a product ofscience or suggestion should really haveno bearing on your satisfaction.

Sound Quality: 80%
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