My home has dirty AC power. The P12 Power Plant is a necessary piece of equipment for my stereo system. I usually have an AC line distortion input of 7 to 8%. The P12 typically outputs a wonderful .3%.
There are times when the input THD climbs above 8% and the P12 outputs a distortion level above 1%. I can hear the inferior sound.
I am considering running PS Power Plants in series to always achieve a low THD.
Has anyone considered, heard of or done this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thatâs freaky awful. What if you spent that money on upgrading your power? New mains feed to the house/new panel, etc.?
Welcome, LT2917!
You certainly have dreadful power. This would be frustrating.
I recall someone either doing this or asking about it in the past but do not recall the specifics. 
Have you done a phase tune when the incoming distortion is at its highest?
From the manual:
Phase tuning is the next adjustment. Increasing or decreasing this will move the point at which the P12 detects the incoming waveform as the wave crosses the 0 voltage point. In places where the AC power is especially poor making small adjustments to this setting can potentially lower the THD output. The best recommendation would be to keep this at zero unless you are seeing THD output higher than 1-2%.
Pressing the âauto-tuneâ button will calibrate the phase setting to the optimum setting for your input power. This only needs to be performed whenever the unit is moved to a new area to maintain optimal performance.
I get high THD even though I have optimized the phase tuning.
I live on a private road with underground wiring thatâs almost a mile long.
There is a large marijuana growing operation nearby which I suspect is the problem.
The power company has come out but they only guarantee that the voltage falls within a certain range. They donât care about THD.
I have purchased a dedicated piece of test equipment that measures the power quality up to the 40th harmonic. I plan on documenting my problem and perhaps measuring all my neighborâs power quality as well.
Fighting the power company will take time and may be futile. Using more than one Power Plant might be my only reasonable (though expensive) option.
The neighbors might be sympathetic if you explain that their lighting is screwing up your tunes. Barter for product. High THC vs. THD ; )
(Kidding, JSYK)
It does not sound like a good idea to daisy chain power plants.
I agree, and I feel like Iâve heard similar from PS folks. Though this is a fairly squirrelly situation. So if it sounds better - do it, would be my thought. Not sure it would work though.
Since it is a mile of cable vs. most folksâ 100 feet or meters or whathaveyou, Iâm wondering if there are affordable transformers to put close to the house, and if you can tap the service ahead of the locally shared transformer, which may be polluted by the neighbors, and attach the mile of cable to your own box. Prolly not, since the utility owns the mile. Spitballing here.
Small, quiet gene.
Solar panels.
No! Invest in dedicated wire run, better power outlet, and maybe try a new power cord to see it if improves anything.
Not sure what a mile of 8 gauge or better goes for these days, (or even what gauge one uses for a mile) and if the utility will let you hook your personal mile of wire up to their service. Not to mention trenching, if necessary.
Before you make this kind of investment, you might want to try a Shunyata NR type power cable from the wall to the P12.
Ron, as much as I dig Shunyata cables (more arriving Saturday), I have my doubts about them being this Level of Magical. Though it sure would be an interesting measurement.
I sure hope if he has a mile of cable that the transformer is located right outside of his residence. If not that is the issue! I have a 10kw solar system on my roof and the THD into my power plant is the same day and night about 3%. My drop is about 100 feet from the transformer. No one should have to deal with 8% THD!
Exactly. Way too much cable from the transformer, especially if shared by a âdirtyâ industrial-power sort of neighbor.
Hey. This maybe a GREAT opportunity to test various power cables. Why donât we gather some and have OP test them with his P12 to see if ANY makes a diff in THD. I doubt it but could be an interesting experiment.
If a Regenerator is not doing the trick, I have difficulty imagining that a cable connected between that Regen and the last/first Mile of Crap is going to do the trick. But yeah - would be interesting.
Have posted this before, but in IL, my transformer was (fortunately for me) on a pole in my backyard/garden and was maybe 100â from my junction box inside the house.
Lightning took it out TWICE within a day or so, and there was so much replacement going on by the utility that they ended up putting in a roughly 50% over spec transformer on the second day, as it was the only one left on the truck.
My power got more consistent and quieter, despite it being âcompletely silly overkillâ. There were about a half dozen other houses sharing this transformer, with 100 to 200 amp services.
No idea if and how this relates to the Thread Problem, but I sorta think it is related to the transformer-close-to-the-house thing.
On a much, much smaller scale, I recently bought a Neumann U67 Reissue microphone. I mentioned it to Dan Schwartz, PS-locally of Copper fame, a great guy and bass guitar God - and he asked if this U67 reissue had a transformer. I repliedâŚuh, yeah? - they put all the same stuff into the reissue as the originalâŚwhy?
He said in so many words that the transformer, and the quality of the transformer, makes the mic.
TL mics (transformerless), though that is often touted as a âthingâ, (accompanied by way lower prices), have always sounded likeâŚyouâre listening to them through a mile of cable ; )
Sorta kidding, as they obviously donât have 8% distortion, but sorta not - as they never sound anywhere near as good as a mic with a good transformer.
Do not run these in series. Might be worth trying to figure out why the power is so bad. Is it the electric company, or do you have dimmers, motors, etc, dirtying up the audio system power. A dedicated line might help.
Are you set to high regulation? The low distortion setting might tighten things up a bit.
Maybe the THD is due to the noise entering the equipment, so maybe a better insulation on the power cable hurts? I HAVE NO IDEA! I am still very skeptical of all the noise claims on power cables, AC power coming in, etcâŚ