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Power Plant Premier has high distortion an fans not working

Power Components
#1

Hi to all.

My Power Plant Premier shows a strange behaviour since yesterday.

Usually when the Premier is plugged in the power socket the fans are working for some seconds. When switched on the output distortion shows values around 0.8 percent.

Now the fans of Premier don’t com up when plugged in the power socket. After switching on the device, the input distortion shows 3.0 percent and the output shows even higher values at around 3.5 percent.

Also sometimes the device doesn’t come up. A single “-” is shown in the display an nothing more happens…

Has anyone an idea if this can be fixed? Or is the device broken?

Regards, Dirk.

#2

Welcome, Dirk!

I suggest giving PS Audio service a call or contacting them via email.

#3

Welcome Dirk! This sounds like premier’s regen may have gone. One of the most telling details is that the distortion out is higher than distortion in.

We are still able to repair these guys but based on their age, I really try and recommend against that option. Upgrading to a new regenerator is going to be the best option. Get in touch with your local distributor and they should be able to give you good pricing on a new one if you trade that Premier in.

#4

Hi James.

Sounds not so good…

I’m not quite sure if the German distributor is able to repair such a device. I will try to get in touch with my local dealer.

Is the trade in for older devices still valid for foreign countries like Germany?

Thanks in advance,
Dirk.

#5

I can’t promise your dealer will accept it as trade, but I’m almost certain Jurgen with HiFi 2die4 will be able to offer some better pricing. You can get in touch with him directly via email with hifi2die4@gmx.de

#6

Thanks, I will try that :+1:

#7

Hi James.

I got in touch with the German dealer. They suggested to replace the unit with a new model. They also made an offer to replace the electronic boards. But the price was high. So for me both options are not the way to go in these times.

From what I can say, the regenerator part does not look like to be broken. The green LED on one of the driver boards is continuously on in times when the Power Plant is working properly. There are times when the device is running several days. Then (for no obvious reasons) the relays begin to click in short succession. For me the problem looks more like problem in the control circuit. Also the device is able to drive an electrical heater with 2000 Watts without any problems.

In most cases (when the device is not working properly) the relays and the control logic simply does not connect the regenerator output to the device output and the relays are switching between regenerator and the the plain voltage. When switched on, several tries are needed to get into a stable function. This also makes me think that the control board might be the problem, and not the regenerators power stage.

It would be very helpful to track down the problem if you are able to provide an electrical drawing or at least a service manual with voltage values and waveforms to be expected at given measuring points. I have a master of electronics, so I think that will have a chance to trace down the problem with this kind of information. Any other ideas are appreciated…

Thanks in advance,
Dirk.

#8

Thanks for letting me know Dirk. I just emailed you some documents that will be very helpful.

2 Likes
#9

Many thanks for your quick response, James!
I will have a look into the documents and I hopefully will find the reason for the strange behavior of the device.

1 Like
#10

Please let us know what you are able to determine.

Good luck!

#11

For some reason the device worked without any dropouts in the last week(s). Good for me, but bad to track down the reason for the dropouts.

Usually electronics do not heal itself :wink:
So I think there must be a reason in the power distribution network that lasted for some days. During this period of time I saw the very high distortion on the input voltage from 3.5 to 4.6 percent and the Power Plant was not working properly. Maybe this caused the strange behavior of the device.

I will see if any problems will happen again and then I will start to investigate the (real) reason with the help of the document I got from James. I will keep you informed…

So stay healthy!
Dirk.

1 Like