Hi Serhan, my Dad is not doing as well as I had hoped. His broken ankle is really impeding his ability to get stronger and COVID seems to have really destroyed the delicate balance of his blood pressure that took years to achieve (he has severe orthostatic hypotension that post-COVID has gone back to its most extreme form). He is in “skilled nursing” with a new care team that hasn’t impressed me as much as his regular doctor team who are out of the loop. I’m worried. Trying to remain hopeful.
That is interesing about the wave form, I hadn’t gone to that screen and will take a look at that soon. I don’t have the P15 connected to the internet but could just manually view the screen. Interesing how AutoTune takes me there to high positives often. . . when I don’t seem to have any real issues that would need such a tuning.
I’m happy with the P15. I had a P10 in this system beforehand and was very happy with it–the improvement from P10 to P15 was significant, if not as big as PPP to P5 or P5 to P10 in my previous changes. But with the P10 (in use in a headphone only system) and the P15 I can hear EVERYTHING, every little change its own settings, in gain structure between components, cabling, tube-rolling. . . it’s a fascinating fount of wonder. . . and sometimes a bit unsettling and maddening!
(Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I am struggling to remain hopeful and am glad that he is as sharp as he has been the last 20 years and I can talk to him every day–he’s my politics-talking buddy and boy do we have a lot to talk about).
I think that I can notice a very slight loss of image sharpness (Sony 995ES) when the incoming voltage is +/- ~4-5V off from 120. Has anyone else noticed this?
It’s very slight, almost like the focus is just a bit off. It goes away when the incoming voltage is closer to 120V.
My P20 Load % runs at 75-85% (using the standard circuit).
THD In = ~3-4%
THD Out = 0.1%
I have it set to Low Distortion (this shouldn’t make a difference, within 5V of 120?), MW 2
Phase 0
285 hrs of run-time
Would love to try to understand what’s happening and if there are any suggestions to improve. Thanks!
Thanks @vee for your comments. Yes, the Sony 995 is a projector. The image quality is much better through the P20, so I’m keeping it connected. What I’m seeing is very minor, and probably not noticeable to most. You also need a very revealing system to even notice. Jitter on my video circuit is more than 50% below acceptable requirements (45pS).
I think this is a sign not that I’m pushing the P20 too hard (75% is not 100%, after all), but that it’s not a “magic” component — it will inject some “artifacts” into the output if the incoming voltage or distortion is too high or low.
Also, a transient is not going to do much in terms of power draw in my system, my main amp is 7W max
What does the regenerator do to increase voltage output? It must be consuming more power if the incoming AC is 115V, say, rather than 120?
And when incoming AC is higher than 120V, it just lets the excess off as heat?
Is it still the case that High Regulation only makes a difference if incoming voltage is greater than +/- 5V from the desired output?
Nikolay, what is the P20 output voltage setting you have?
Excerpt from the P10 manual (probably should be the same for P20?):
As general guidelines, tube equipment and electrostatic speakers will benefit from the High Regulation setting, whereas solid state amplifiers and video equipment will benefit from the Low Distortion setting. In the incoming AC is within 5V of the base-line output, either mode will offer great performance. Outside of five volts, the user can maintain voltage regulation at the slight expense of THD control with High Regulation, or can maintain THD control at the slight expense of voltage regulation using Low Distortion.
In my setup I have set output voltage to be closest to the average input voltage i’m having during listening sessions. I was even thinking about having this automatically adjusted , but Powerplant API does not have possibility to set output voltages, it have to be done manually via powerplant touch display.
That’s a great idea - to offer dynamic adjustment. I definitely see fluctuations of ~7-10V during a session. So you match output voltage to avg incoming? Can I ask why, rather than just setting output to 120V or 240V?
To me, my setup sounds best at 231V which is kind of that average I mentioned. As I prefer sound of low distortion mode, I have chosen 231V - to be within 5V range with input voltage - to allow high regulation to work at it’s best per PS Audio (and to my ears too ).
My understanding is that the High Regulation setting is if incoming voltage is off by more than 5V, if the voltage difference is less than 5V, it doesn’t matter whether it’s on or High Regulation is on.
I would also love PS Audio to explain what the regenerator does if it has to add voltage vs if it has to subtract voltage… Does adding voltage add noise or distortion?
The powerplant is an amplifier at it’s core. It’s governing mechanics target the configured goal and it will do it’s best to produce the configuration.
The AC signal is just a DSD outputted sine wave into the amplifier.
Outputting a higher voltage challenges the capacitor banks holding the DC current to draw more than what might be coming in. That threshold gets worst as you draw more from the cap banks. Which is why I suggested what I did.
Like all amps, they have their limitations. Drive an amp too hard and you get clipping. Give it too little power and you’ll get decreased sound quality, less dynamics.
I see, thanks, makes sense. If I could add a 20A circuit, I would; but it’s not feasible.
I do have a PS Audio AC-3? cord going into the P20, plus one of their outlets, and a Furutech carbon outlet cover (got suckered into buying that one!).
The regenerator generates new voltage from DC. First, we receive the incoming AC from the wall socket. Here it doesn’t matter much what condition it’s in because the problems are all AC related (distortion, noise, uneven levels). The reason it doesn’t much matter is because then we strip away the frequency component of the AC to get a DC voltage (like a big battery). Then, using a precision DSD sine wave generator, we regenerate new and perfect AC from the DC.
There is no “added” or “subtracted” voltage used to regulate it as your envisioning. In other words, we’re not stacking on or deducting from the AC.The output of the sine wave generator is held perfectly still because its output is based on a precision voltage reference. This perfect AC signal is then fed to a big and powerful audio amplifier which serves as the output feeding AC to your equipment. If the equipment demands more or less from the amp, there’s enough power supply to give the Power Plant what it needs to provide a perfectly regulated output.
As far as input fluctuations, as long as they aren’t too extreme we really don’t care. The incoming voltage needs only to be enough to keep the Power Plant power supply topped off enough to supply its output power amplifier.
Hope that helps. Happy to answer any more questions you might have.
Paul, before you go, I hate to put you on a spot, but can you give your insight on why having a better power cord before the regenerator can have a effect on the sound? Even putting in a better fuse change the sound a bit. I was playing around comparing a SR Orange and Beeswax Ultimate Premier back and forth and do hear a little more transparent sound with the beeswax. Or is it that I have a overactive imagination? I even bought another Beeswax to put into the DS and thought I heard it there also.
).