Acouplex Plug Schus – the accessory you never knew you needed!
By Roy Gregory
I’m already a big fan of Acouplex, the Acrylic/PEEK composite material that The Music Works (in Manchester, UK) makes into shelves or cones to support hi-fi components. But those ever-questioning enthusiasts have been looking at other applications, with some encouraging results. Given the company’s history (it all started with power strips and power cords) complete AC distribution blocks are an obvious development. Washers to replace steel or Teflon items, normally between spikes and speakers or their outriggers, is another place that’s proved beneficial. A whole range of bits and pieces for the LP12 is under audition. But plates that fit between your AC plugs and their sockets is a rather more surprising success.
Before you get too excited there’s one significant caveat here: the plates only work on UK 13A or Schuko plugs. The combination of the flush mount sockets and short pins on US AC connectors rules them out, the thickness of the plate impairing already dubious mechanical security to too great a degree. The long, rectangular pins on UK plugs overcome that problem, but the plates really come into their own on Schuko connectors, with their combination of long pins and deeply recessed sockets ensuring a really secure fit. The Schuko version, dubbed perhaps not surprisingly, the Plug Schu, is nothing more than an Acouplex disc, 3mm thick, slightly oval, with a pair of holes drilled through it. Mounting it is as easy as slipping it over the pins on your Schuko plug, where is sits snugly against the plug body. Re-insert the plug into its socket (being careful to maintain correct polarity) and you are good to go.
The price of this outwardly simple device? £40 for the Schuko version, which might seem a lot until you consider that it’s made from Acouplex, an audio dedicated material that itself first needs manufacturing. The UK 13A version is currently being updated, moving away from rectangular pin slots to simple round holes to ease manufacturing and reduce the price. Even so, its larger size makes it slightly more expensive, probably around £55 (with both prices including 20% sales tax that you can deduct if you are buying from outside the UK).
When I first received the Schus, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. £40 pounds a pop seemed pretty pricey for what amounts to a plastic beer token with a couple of holes through it. But then, I wasn’t expecting the sonic and musical impact they had.
I started out by placing a single Schu between the wall socket and the power cord feeding the distribution block. Sitting down to listen was one of those, “Really?” moments… One of those changes where you feel an immediate need to reverse the ‘upgrade’ to check if it actually did what you just heard, or whether you are imagining it. But sure enough – repeated ABA comparisons simply underlined that this apparently simple, inert and nondescript bit of ‘plastic’ was having an impact that wasn’t just clearly audible, it cut straight to the core of the musical presentation.
