Why would it matter if it has a fan if it cannot be heard?
@Elk That’s a big “if” 
I don’t want to derail this thread, specially being a new user, but I would like to provide more context to the situation, which is far from starting a discussion about the audibility of the fan.
At the moment, I have a headphone system, so my power requirements are low. A P10 (fanless) is too much overkill for what I need.
I need 4 schuko outlets, so Accuphase is out of the equation. I use a PC as a source, it’s accurate to say that is a space limited “desktop system”. The other components are a DAC, an AES/EBU to ethernet Roon endpoint and a headphone amp.
I made my PC completely fanless and with SSD drives, it even has a separated HDPLEX 200W PSU, it’s for general purposes apart from music listening. I went all the way up and paid near 2000€ to build the PC, including monitor, keyboard, etc.
The concern is…if I went the extra mile and invested that amount of time and money in “silence”…a 6000€ (remember the 21% VAT and the extra costs of something imported from another continent) power regenerator which must bring “silence” to my music but has a fan inside is out of the equation for me. I expected better thermal managment for the price increase.
Of course, I could buy a second hand P10, but it’s not the optimal solution, because apart from taking too much space, it will perform worse than the new P5 DSD, so my requirements would take me to buy something of lower performance compared to what will be available in a couple of months…that’s not what I’m looking for.
Note to self: move to the US or to Japan, schuko sockets suck 
Got it. In summary, it does not independently matter if it has a fan, you simply do not trust that the fan is inaudible.
As a practical matter, the load on the PowerPlant would be so low the fan would never turn on. Thus, it would not matter if the unit contains a fan or not.
I also have a virtually silent PC, though for much less $$ tax aside, and like the same in my main audio system, at least from the listening position. If you can stand the possibility that a fan might come on occasionally, at least sometimes if you repower the unit, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. However, electricity is more expensive in Europe than I think anywhere in the States, so leaving the P5 on full time may not be to your liking. One other thing to note is that the comparison wondered about in this thread, betweeen the old P10 and the coming DS P5, hasn’t been made, even by Paul.
Fans are mechanical, moving parts, which do wear out or more likely get noisy over the years. Personally I’d prefer a fan-less design but I wouldn’t let the appearance of a fan stop me from purchasing. I’m guessing though if the P5 fan runs as infrequent as everyone is saying, I’ll probably wear out before the fan does. 
There may have been PowerPlant fans which have worn out, but I do not recall any. The fans on my PowerPlants never run so I estimate they have an infinite life span.
But yes, every component in the PowerPlant can fail.
The only noise related thing I recall was when a few had issues with much older PowerPlants humming after the transformer mount loosened a little. It was easy to solve by opening the unit and torqueing down the big retaining bolt a tad.
The fan in my P300 eventually got a bit loud, but it took a long time to get there (it was in my second system by then). I’m sure the fans they use are much better these days.
Most of us with P300s were using most of their capability as their output was so small. The fans on these original units would be on in many applications.
I have had a P5 coming up on four years. My system never pushes the limits of VAs used. I have a pair of very low speed DC 80mm fans atop of the P5 vents. Fans are Inaudible, and to my knowledge, the P5 fan has never activated itself.
I think the P300 fans may have been on all the time. I kind of think I might remember that the fans were optional (user installable). Been awhile.
Yeah, the fans in the old P300 were a feeble attempt to fix a chassis that could not handle the heat. We tried. In the P5 there’s far less heat to begin with because it is 85% efficient, while the old P300 was only 50% efficient, the rest going into heat. The fans on the P5 are silent and rarely on.
2 Likes
I think I ended up disconnecting the fan in my P300. At that point it wasn’t driving a very heavy load. I’ve thought about looking for a replacement fan and bringing my P300 out of storage but haven’t been that motivated as I have a P10 in the main system and a PPP in my second system.
That made me chuckle because I am in the same boat. I have a 300 that I bought when it came out (pre-ordered!) and served me well for a while but I believe it needs the power switch replaced. But I have a P10 in my main system (just moved it from one shelf position to another yesterday and figured out how to remove the footers, yay!) and a PPP in my little used second system. So no hurry to figure out what to do witht he P300.
I had a PS Audio P5 for several years and thought intellectually I knew it had a fan I don’t think I ever heard it in use!
Pretty funny. I hang onto my P300 in part because I’m lazy and in part because its ability to change the output frequency of the power is just so cool that it seems someday it might come in handy for something.
To show I wouldn’t let the existence of fans stop a purchase, I picked up a P5 today (brand new) at a great discount thanks to PS Audio’s upgrade of the product line, nearly 40% off the original P5 selling price. Unless you need the latest and greatest, it’s a real good time to pickup a P5 or P10.
Thanks PS Audio!
PS: Still think a fan-less design is preferred but the existence of one is no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.
3 Likes
Congrats. One (in the States) could have done even better on a 7 month old one (mine) last Friday with eyes on HiFiShark. In fact, there have been two P10’s up for $2500 in the past two weeks, one of which, the one I grabbed, with an SR Blue fuse, The guy was selling in anticipation of either keeping an SR Power Cell (on audition) or getting the new P10.
Highstream - Congrats. One (in the States) could have done even better on a 7 month old one (mine) last Friday with eyes on HiFiShark. In fact, there have been two P10’s up for $2500 in the past two weeks, one of which, the one I grabbed,
Highstream don’t think I didn’t kicked myself for missing out on your P5? I saw it, was busy with a silly thing called ‘work’, then only to come back and find someone already gobbled yours up. You snooze you lose. Well I didn’t want to lose on any more opportunities. So saw that Upscale Audio was dumping their inventory of P5s and P10s, so I jumped on one of theirs before those disappeared too. $2195 isn’t as good as your giveaway, but it is still a pretty good deal for a brand new unit that only a week earlier was selling for $3495. But yes your offer was even better.
Sorry, I could have put that more delicately. You got a good deal on a new one. enjoy.
1 Like
I’ve dealt with Kevin (Upscale Audio) before, and been up to his place to pickup equipment (he only lives around 50 miles from me). If you need a vacuum tube, he’s a great source.
I like it Ray. Never let ideology get in the way of a good bargain.
Best,
Chris
1 Like