I feel like you hear a difference pretty much immediately. It’s a sense of dynamics that is just crazy. I liken it to what you get when you go from a small possibly underpowered amp to one that goes above what your speakers call for. At least for low sensitivity speakers any way. Mine are 85dB.
The bass, the kick drums, the mids. It’s amazing. Having both at the same time let’s you switch back and forth (a bit, it’s a pain to move all the plugs and stuff).
But I still think the P10 is amazing too, it’s truly weird what power can do. And power cords.
This is helpful. I have a P10 currently and have been sitting on the fence about upgrading to the P20. I’m far more interested in sound quality improvement for the extra money spent on the upgrade and not the extra capacity. It sounds like you replaced your P10 with the P20 and haven’t looked back.
I think if you are happy with what the P10 offers and the changes it makes in your system you will be even happier with the p20. I think it is one of those things that when the upgrade bug hits and you want a sure win, this is one of those. I have bought stereo stuff before that I have to try to convince myself I am hearing a difference, and a better difference at that. This you don’t need to be convinced. It just is.
Can I get advice on where to plug various equipment?
Should the two monoblocks be on one high output zone? And preamp on another? Should PS Sr. DAC be on a separate zone or together with CD transport is OK?
I now have a P20 as well. I just finished hooking all my gear to it using all my stupidly expensive power cables. With everything powered up and me listening at my normal volume level the front panel of the P20 says I am almost using 250 watts. Almost. LOL.
Good thing I went for the big one. I only have two outlets free with one waiting for yet another stupidly expensive power cable.
Nicely done! The P20 is one of my all time favorite products for just how immediate the improvements are and what benefits are brought to the table almost immediately.
Basically the guidelines are keep things separate by category. Amps would go on the HC zone, preamp (and if you have it a phono pre) would go together, and digital gear like your DAC and transport can go together.
If you have something like a server or computer in the mix, I tend to keep that all to itself. Or if you want you can put something like your router with it.
There’s not a guide I can think of. The outlets are all the same except for the high powered ones and they are different only in the start up if you use the P20 as a switch to turn on/off big amplifiers.
For the most part I simply plug everything in and turn it on and leave it on.
It should be immediately obvious how much better things sound.
Glad you like the P20. I had the P15 and was impressed but the P20 was a measure better and now has permanent residence. Count me soon to be in the stupidly expensive power cable club. Evaluating several now and they do make a difference, especially on the DACSr for me. I am curious which ones tripped your trigger.
The output stage, energy storage, power supply, buss bars, etc. are all improved in the P20 vs the P15 (and the same can be said for the P15 vs the P12).
A good way to think of it is like watts out of an amplifier. You might know for sure that based on your speakers, room, and listening levels that you’ll need an amplifier that can output, say, 100 watts per channel. However watts per channel only tells a portion of the story. It sets your minimums to filter down the available choices.
You might find that there is a great 200 watt per channel amp that’s higher quality and sounds better to your ears. If your budget permits, it might make sense to go with the amp that’s ‘overkill.’
It’s the same sort of thing, just replace watts with VA.
@Schroedster and @straightwire, do you think the sonic benefits of a P20 over a P15 would be demonstrably obvious if either were feeding just source gear?
The P20’s more reliable voltage regulation and dramatically lower output impedance is certainly appreciated by source gear. I’d stick with a P15 for just source gear if you don’t have the budget or space for a P20. This is what we’re currently doing in the IRS5 room.
If I had the budget for multiple P20s, you bet I would have one for my source gear though.
I’d agree with James in that if I had the budget or the real estate for a P20 on source gear I’d go for it over the P15. The only reason I don’t have a P20 on the source gear in Music Room Two is real estate. When we’re at the shows we go all P20 because it just sounds so dramatically better even on source equipment.
