My speakers (94dB/watt at a meter) are at the opposite end of my audio/theater room, 27 feet from my turntable and low-level (0.5 mv) MC cartridge. I am in the process of buying an “All PS- Stellar” system for my speakers.
I could put the Stellar M700 amps at the preamp end of my room if I buy about 90+ feet of decent (not exotic) speaker cable (Blue Jeans 10 gauge in wall cable) and put the new amp pair with the Stellar phono and Gain cell preamps at the phono end of the room.
I did order two 50 foot Balanced Belden 1800 cables as I had planned to use a “shielded” extension cord of steel conduit I made for my prior PS Power Plant 600 and was going to upgrade to Balanced cables with the new Stellar equipment and keep the amps at the speaker end of the room. I made a “shielded extension cord” using 12-gauge cable in electrical metal conduit to connect the two ends of the room for Power Plant 3 power for both the two amps and the two preamps. It does have Wattgate plug and a PS Audio grade receptacle and metal boxes I can have either end as the input and connect amplifiers or Stellar phono and Gain cell preamps at the other end of the cable.
Any ideal setup for this system other than buying a new house or a second Power Plant 3r? Basically, is normal speaker wire or semi normal shielded power cable less detrimental to this setup? Feed the amps with short good wires from the Plant 3(I have some PS and some home-built AC DH Labs Silversonic Power cables) or better to do that with the preamps and use the extension to feed the amps?
Conventional wisdom/rule of thumb: If you have a choice, go with long interconnects (preferably balanced) and shorter speaker cables.
It is my understanding that this general rule stems from the fact that noise and other interference is more likely to be introduced via long runs of speaker wire (and capacitance and other key performance factors of speaker cables can be impacted by cable length). In actuality, the optimum will depend on your kit, the lengths being contemplated and the makeup of your cables.
Some “food for thought”:
Galen Carol Audio - Cable Lengths and the Effects on Sound Quality
Scroll down to this post (good stuff): Paul McGowan November 29, 2017 at 7:19 am #
Hi Scott, Shenefelt again;
I have two 50 ft lengths of balanced Belden 1800 cable on order. Sounds like it is best to put the Stellar M600 amps with the speakers. I can use 12 gage DH Labs “Silversonic” cables or 14x4 in wall (that is twelve gauge also) Kimber Kable. Amps can be right beside the speakers that way. I can connect the phono and gain cell preamps to the turntable and run balanced line from Phono preamps to the amps at the other end of the room.
Now the question that got me started is:
At which end do I put the PS Power Plant 3? It can either directly power the amps or directly power the Stellar Phono and Gain cell preamps?
I do have a 45 ft run of steel conduit containing three 12 gage wires to connect the AC from the PS Power Plant 3 to whatever is at the opposite end of the room that I assembled to use as a Power Plant extension cable.
Should the Power plant be at the Amp end or the Preamp end? Currently the conduit wiring can be plugged into the Power Plant at the M600 amp end of the room and the cable extends that Power Plant source to a PS dual receptacle at the Preamp end. Not impossible to just swap the plug and receptacle to allow power plant to be located at either end.
It cannot occupy both ends nor am I going to buy a 45 foot esoteric power cable or second Power Plant.
Also using the PS Power Classic receptacle, does it really do something using the isolated ground system if it does not run that 3 wire type system isolated ground system completely back to the Main breaker panel? Swapping it with a home in wall receptacle seems kind of meaningless unless your wall receptacles are wired to the Breaker box with the isolated second ground system. Am I missing something?
Bill Shenefelt
m: scotte1 via PS Audio psaudio@discoursemail.com
I am afraid I am going to have to defer to others here with regard to your follow up questions.
I do not own any PSA regenerators and I can’t answer your question about grounding and PSA wall receptacles. [I will say that all electronics are supposed to benefit from “regeneration” – especially with regard to a lower impedance benefiting amplifiers. If I were you, I would simply try the PP-3 in both situations and leave it where you perceive the most benefit.]
Best of luck to you with the new set up (and have fun!).
I would vote for sources first, then amps. Clean signal first, then amps. I have two P10s, added the first one on sources, then amps. Biggest improvement on source side
Most people recommend using the Power Plant at the preamp and other line level audio sources spot, and run balanced cable to the amps. Balanced cable is coming Friday. Today I went out and bought a 50 ft run of armored cable. Three insulated 12 gauge wires inside the BX style aluminum conduit feed the isolated ground receptacles at the Regenerator/low level sources location. That 12 gauge will run straight from the house main circuit box to the location of the sources and power the Regenerator.
I have in a metal conduit, three 12 gauge lines from there to the selectable regenerated/non regenerated but conditioned power outlets on the Regenerator. I will power that conduit from the Regenerator. The second conduit will be plugged into the Power Plant switching outlets and feed the Stellar M700 Monoblock pair. If high volume use proves close to power limits, (I doubt it will be) I can just switch over to the non-regenerated but conditioned set of sockets (selectable). The only thing now is to hope that the PS Stellar Phono preamp will not be noisy like the prior PS Phono/digital preamp was when I tried it. Supposed to be better shielded. Hope it is. For some reason the prior PS unit was super touchy with RF. If I knew Morse code, I could see what the short wave guy was saying!