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In Reply to: Message for Mark Gilmore, Paul Speltz and all the electronic wizzards of ASOG----- posted by Royce Little on January 27, 2001 at 13:58:55:
Last May I spent an evening with Paul McGowan of PS audio. Paul was our guest at our small monthly Audio Society of Minnesota meeting. Paul explained the benefits of re-generating power ("lower distortion 117VAC signal, regulated voltage, the ability to select AC frequency"), and then showed us with an Oscilloscope what the AC power wave form looked like going in and coming out of the P300 Power Plant. I don't remember what, if anything, was plugged into the Power Plant when we looked at its output. I think that it was unloaded.
The AC wave form coming in looked like a 60 Hz sine wave with a slight flat spot on the top and bottom peaks. The AC coming out did not have the slight flat spots. I told Paul that I have a similar looking AC wave form on my power at home, but that I didn't mind the rising flat spot on the peaks because that wave shape would provide a more constant current push into the power supply caps of my equipment. And that it seems to me that if a sine wave is forced that there would be a huge inrush of current at the point in which the power supply diodes became forward biased (turn on) and the forced sine wave hits the wall of power supply capacitance. Paul McGowan's answer left ,my engineering friend Chuck, and I with the notion that he didn't understand the question. He just said that it is a distorted wave that is not good, yet now he offers a special wave form option that intentionally creates this rising flat edge. $"New and Improved"$Paul didn't give us a listening opportunity, so I can't speak for the "change" in sound of a particular system within that particular building.
But do keep in mind that the Power Plants are amplifiers, and amplifiers produce a lot of distortion when over loaded, and I sure bet that our power hungry OTL amps will overload these Power Plants. And who knows what its radiated emissions look like, maybe that is what is causing noise in high gain preamp circuits as seen by Mark.
I think that the success of a Power Plant is quite dependant on the situation. I can easily imagine how under the wrong application, the Power Plant can make things worse. I like how the Power Plant allows users to select different wave shapes, voltages, frequency, etc. There are so many variables that it easy to make things worse or better. A Power Plant setting (shape, V, Hz) that improves one system may degrade another. I suppose that a Power Plant setting that improver one piece of equipment may degrade another within the same system.
Without even talking to Mark about the subject, I did the exact same thing that Mark is recommending just two weeks ago. I am wiring two new rooms in my house and I used the opportunity to pull 3 separate 20A circuits directly from my service box to my audio equipment. One for each mono block and one for the rest of the equipment. I didn't rush to do a listening test because I have been busy and didn't really expect much difference. But now thinking back, I have seemed to enjoy my system a lot this past week. I do think it sounds better now.
I think that the Power Plant is an attempt to fix something that has gone wrong. If you have "good" power coming into your house, and it goes "bad" because of the wiring topology within your house, I think it is much better to simply get that "good" power to your equipment rather than try to re-generate or condition it.
Paul Speltz
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- Re: Message for Mark Gilmore, Paul Speltz and all the electronic wizzards of ASOG----- - Paul Speltz 10:50:19 01/29/01 (0)
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