The NCF material is to lower the noise floor.
I also moved to Furutech and upgraded a few at a time over two months.. Getting carried away and finally replacing all possible in my system. Including inside both of my power conditioners. (August/Sept 2018). Until all 17 duplex were upgraded to the Furutech GTX.
I ended up with 10 GTX-D Gold and 7 GTX NCF Rhodium (with another spare Rhodium left over which may replace a Gold eventually.)
The comments on the difference between the Gold and Rhodium in this thread are correct in my experience also. However the Rhodium do take a long time to fully settle, and IMO anything less than a full six weeks of use is not a fair test. (and I would go so far to say the Rhodium are not fully settled for even longer) The 'brightness' (Which seemed to me as if the entire music spectrum was tilted up toward the treble) is a phenomenon of not fully broken in, and the strangest part, is the Rhodium goes back to being treble happy over, and over... for weeks. (However part of my experience may be the fact I added so many over a long period of time. So it may not be the same for others.)
Some of my duplex I deliberately arranged as twin pairs to allow the swap of the plug from GTX Gold to GTX NCF Rhodium! The pair for my amplifier, and for my main power conditioner. And over the first few months I would switch from one to the other. Going to the Gold when I wanted more bass and less treble, to the Rhodium when I wanted to get away from too much bass. I would not need to move more than ONE POWER CORD to accomplish this. Usually the amplifier, and/or my main power conditioner.
An aside: I live in an 'over 55' senior apartment complex. So not annoying the neighbors with too much bass, is important even though I own Magnepan 20,.7s.. As I used the new outlets, at times during break in, the bass would increase in general. or mysteriously vanish (particularly with the Rhodium) And since I was using so many, the complex break in of some older, and some newer.. Suffice to say I swapped between the Gold and Rhodium many times over the recent 4 months.
Currently I am feeling the break in is complete, and I am using the Rhodium more where there is an option. Though the Gold Furutech have seemed to be better sounding on sources.. The Rhodium for all other items, also for my Marantz SA-10 player.
The main improvement is an utter transformative breakthrough in terms of clarity. (which is a feature I greatly seek out. So the Furutech have been a huge success for me.) I would say the equivalent of listening to Rock lyrics via headphones.. but that clarity from my main speakers.
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