Powerplant interfering with pre-amp performance?

Power Components
1

I have a PS Audio Powerplant 15 which was placed on the floor next to a cabinet that housed all of my stereo components. The amp and pre-amp sit on top of the cabinet while the remaining components are inside the cabinet. It was with this component placement that I setup speaker placement and tuned the subs. Everything was sounding very nice and I was reasonably satisfied.

I wanted to get the Powerplant 15 off the floor so I placed it inside the cabinet directly under the ARC Ref6SE pre-amp that was sitting on top of the cabinet. After I did this, I immediately noticed a change in the sound. The lower end sounded thinner and the high end seemed to be harsher / less smooth. Initially, I thought all this must be in my head until a friend came over and made a comment about how different my system sounded.

So, I moved the Powerplant to the next compartment over so it was sitting directly under the amp vs the pre-amp. The high end harshness seems to have smoothed considerably.

    1. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
    1. Is it possible that the electrical field from the Powerplant is interfering with the pre-amp?
    1. Does anyone use shielding over their components that are placed in a cabinet or rack?

My System
Amp: ARC Ref75SE
Pre-amp: ARC Ref6SE
Turntable: VPI Prime
Cartridge: Ortofon Cadenza Black
Phono Stage: Sutherland Little Loco
Subs: Sumiko S-10
Cabling: Transparent Audio
Speakers: Sonus Faber Amati Traditions
Power Regenerator: PS Audio Powerplant 15

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Nice system.
The situation as described doesn’t make any obvious sense (to me). Could one of your power cables be acting like an antenna?

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Thanks Ron. I’m using Clarus Crimson power cables and they are placed such that they are several inches from interconnects.

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The 60hz hum in the subs may be totally unrelated but since it occurred, I included it in the post in case anyone else experienced this issue

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Nice cables

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This may or may not be helpful, but when I installed my equipment into a new rack, I put my P12 bottom, then integrated, then phono, then streamer, with TT at the top. When I had the phono (Valve Audio Whisper) just above the integrated (Valve Audio Predator), I also had an annoying hum. It was only after I moved the phono to the top (so the streamer was between the amp and phono) that the noise disappeared and all was well again. At the time, my theory was that it was the big transformer in the integrated causing the issue.

So two potential observations: 1) It may well be that the transformer in the P15 is interfering with the preamp, but 2) don’t rule out that it might be interfering with the phono rather than the preamp.

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Had not considered that it may be affecting the phono. Thanks.

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I run 3M RF absorber under the lid of my P-20. Those big toroidal transformers have a field running up through them. Check out my thread in my profile about playing around with RF absorption. You can get too much but when sized right and positioned correctly you can cure lots of ills affecting the sound but if you get too much things sound too thin and hollow. It’s like positioning speakers. There is a sweetspot that blossoms with the correct amount. It’s best to use a recording of someone’s voice you heard live or an instrument you know well played live.

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That reminds me that my P15 (sold) has 3M sheet under hood too. The buyer sent me an email that said, “The transformation is immediately noticeable; I am beyond pleased”. The 3M P15 was an upgrade over his Puritan PSM 156. Yes, he was using Puritan PSM conditioner, and he likes P15 more. He will next get a SDFB to use for P15, and I told him that is the best place to use it.

Luca may think otherwise.

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