P5 Zone and Multiwave advice please

Hi there,

I’ve had my P5 for 24 hours now and am astounded with the results so far. A jaw droppingly better sound stage! Plugging my plasma TV in was an unexpected benefit too, so much more vibrancy, colour and sharpness. I just had a few newbie questions that I hoped you could help with. I’ve read all of the Power posts in the forum and haven’t found answers to these specific questions, but apologies if they have been answered before. I know that the answer to some of these is “go and try it to see if it sounds better” but there may be more scientifically electrical explanations too!

  • I have a turntable, valve phone stage and valve pre-amp, but solid state mono block power amps. Would it make sense to have the valve gear on zone 1, the turntable (a motor) on another and then the power amps together on the high current output (saving the other zone for my AV gear)? i.e. Would it be sensible to separate valve gear, a Turntable motor and solid state powers amps. Or would the turntable with the valve gear be better, or perhaps the valve gear should be split across zones. Is valve gear a bit noisy? Perhaps it would affect the turntable motor.
  • Are all the zones completely electrically separate. i.e. if I have my plasma TV on a zone will it “contaminate” the other zones?
  • Are there any downsides to Multiwave? Can it ever hurt equipment? I’ve saved up all my pennies to buy an SME 30 deck and the last thing I want to do is harm the motor with multiwave 6.
  • Does it make sense to reduce voltage as you increase multiwave? i.e. increasing charge time but reducing amplitude. Can you ever get into headroom issues and distortion by using too much multiwave? I notice as I increase multiwave the transformers on my amps buzz more with each step up, hopefully this isn’t harming the equipment.
  • Is it advisable to leave the screen off sometimes? Would the screen “burn-in” if left on for years at a time?
Apologies if I sound a bit paranoid, but I’ve saved up for years to afford all this high end gear and I really don’t want to put it at any risk. I do realise that it’s actually safer from lightning strikes etc now which gives peace of mind.

A huge thanks in advance for any ideas and advice. The P5 is a serious good bit of kit and having heard it, I really don’t think there’s anything you can buy out there that gives a better improvement to the sound for the money. A very happy customer here!

Thanks again,

Chris

  • I have a turntable, valve phone stage and valve pre-amp, but solid state mono block power amps. Would it make sense to have the valve gear on zone 1, the turntable (a motor) on another and then the power amps together on the high current output (saving the other zone for my AV gear)? i.e. Would it be sensible to separate valve gear, a Turntable motor and solid state powers amps. Or would the turntable with the valve gear be better, or perhaps the valve gear should be split across zones. Is valve gear a bit noisy? Perhaps it would affect the turntable motor.

A lot depends on how your turntable works. If by a DC motor, like most are, then by all means keep it plugged into the Power Plant and donm’t worry about sine wave or MultiWave. If by an AC motor (which is rare) then stick with sine wave but keep it plugged in.

Tube gear is not noisy, generally, and I’d keep everything plugged in.

  • Are all the zones completely electrically separate. i.e. if I have my plasma TV on a zone will it “contaminate” the other zones?

The zones are not separate but they are isolated to a great extent by the way they are star wired. I would not run a plasma TV if audio were my primary interest.

  • Are there any downsides to Multiwave? Can it ever hurt equipment? I’ve saved up all my pennies to buy an SME 30 deck and the last thing I want to do is harm the motor with multiwave 6.

As I mentioned before, as long as the motor is DC (with a power supply) then no problem on MultiWave. If AC, then stick with sine wave.

  • Does it make sense to reduce voltage as you increase multiwave? i.e. increasing charge time but reducing amplitude. Can you ever get into headroom issues and distortion by using too much multiwave? I notice as I increase multiwave the transformers on my amps buzz more with each step up, hopefully this isn’t harming the equipment.

Honestly, I’d keep the voltage identical. The extra charging time is a good thing, like getting bigger power supply caps.

  • Is it advisable to leave the screen off sometimes? Would the screen “burn-in” if left on for years at a time?

The screen, like everything else, has a lifespan to it. Though that’s quite long as it’s an LCD. Easy to get 20 or 30 years out of it.

Apologies if I sound a bit paranoid, but I’ve saved up for years to afford all this high end gear and I really don’t want to put it at any risk. I do realise that it’s actually safer from lightning strikes etc now which gives peace of mind.

A huge thanks in advance for any ideas and advice. The P5 is a serious good bit of kit and having heard it, I really don’t think there’s anything you can buy out there that gives a better improvement to the sound for the money. A very happy customer here!

Thanks!

Thanks again,

Chris

Thanks very much for your reply Paul. Very useful info. Perhaps I’ll have to pick up another P5 now for my TV and AV gear laugh