PS Audio got thrown under the bus in Fremer's latest article

If you read Fremer’s article a while back when he received the 2 PS Audio regenerators, he loved them indicating that his power issue was solved. Now, he got somebody to do work for him (some of it for free) to redo his house wiring and now the PS Audio regenerators sound like crap. IMO, Fremer changed his tune because he wants to promote the 2 guys that did the analysis work for him for free and is promoting them in the article.
If the main power source got fixed and if the incoming power quality makes a difference to how the regenerators work, wouldn’t the regenerators get better sounding too?

So I read Fremer’s story on the power switch ruining his audio
But in putting the P20 brought him back almost fully to what he had prior
to the power switch, and then adding a P15 to the front ends…Voila
his audio sq =fully restored…he tried the Niagra which only widened
the soundstage but everything else with the Niagra fell flat…

He later goes on in the article to recommend either of them…

Fremer’s article does not at all appear to throw PS Audio
under the bus…but rather reinforce the benefits of the P20
and P15 regenerators…

That’s how I read it…

Best wishes

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Maybe, maybe not. In this case, sounds like not, if you say so. Kind of a serious allegation to level against someone who’s been a darling in reviewing PSA products, right?

Do you have link go the latest article? I would think better input equal better output, or at the very least the same output and the Power Plant just doesn’t need to work as hard.

Here is the link

https://www.stereophile.com/content/analog-corner-308-ps-audio-directstream-power-plant-20-thixar-amplifier-stands-page-2

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I followed the link and read the article. Seemed very positive about the P15 and P20’s effects. No sign of any buses :slight_smile:

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Spot on Chris1948…my take as well…no bus of any kind anywhere insight…

Best wishes

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Fremer did a video of the three day power upgrade of incoming power to his house.
In it, he and his experts said clearly that for those who are not able to do what they were doing, for example, those who live in apartment buildings, the solution would be a PS Audio regenerator.
No bus.

EDIT: I should have read the article first. I followed the link just now and read what is a glowing endorsement of the regenerators doing exactly what PS Audio says they will do.

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I was referring to the latest article in stereophile. I agree with the Fremer original review, but now, the new article states: “finally, I tried plugging the amps into both the big PS Audio P20 regenerator and into a second AQ Niagara 7000. In both cases, there was a clear loss of the spectacular newfound transparency and silliness.”
Does this coincide with his 1st review?

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It is not out of the world that highly resolving, fast and dynamic setups with very good basic power supply don’t benefit or are even degraded by the use of a regenerator, I heard such an example myself.

Fremer‘s new finding doesn’t contradict his different experience with a different power supply situation imo and I also understood his other remarks as an appreciation of the regenerator quality under other circumstances. This man just tells what he hears. I love that.

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I guess this does mean there’s a limit to the power plants and if one have a good dedicated power setup it better to just forgo the regeneration. Which begs the question, which one is the better investment? paying for the work or the power plants? $10k (for P20) is alot of money and you can get your entire house rewire for less, with dedicated setup for your listening room. Since some of us have more than one PP, we’re looking at $15-$20k investment. Is that money better off just go into dedicated wiring/setup? Also note some of us have bad power at the source (me and my 5% thd), so no amount of rewiring will help unless you can arrange with the utility company to have your own setup (transformer?) - Maybe that can be done for $20k or less? I would do it instead of power plant if that is possible.

Hmm… thoughts?

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I don’t think the answer is as simple as rewiring your house to get no benefits from a regenerator. I ran 4 dedicated circuits with #10 wires straight from the main electrical panel and the sound was much better. But when I first put in a P12 regenerator, the sound got even better with lower noise and less harshness and better dynamics. Now with the P20, it took another jump up in sound quality. Definitely there are benefits to both rewiring and regeneration.

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I don’t read the Fremer article as panning the P20 or P15 per se. But there is another point to be made here. Since when did it become the function of the high end audio press to fawn on every piece of gear it has been provided for review? Suppose Fremer did change his view of the P20 and/or P15 for reasons he states in writing he thinks are valid? Stereophile should never be a conduit for anyone’s confirmation bias. Should Fremer or anyone else in the audio press change his assessment of a piece, under no circumstances should that be construed as throwing either the manufacturer or the owners of that piece under the bus. Folks, part of the problem with the audio press over the years has been the perception a bad, or even lukewarm, review isn’t possible. And we as readers are complicit in that problem because we want our biases confirmed. In short: after reading a Fremer review, however it turns out, why should that change your assessment of a P20 or P15 in your system at all? I still own a Furman SPR-20i line stabilizer for my system. It has done a great job. Nothing Fremer writes will have me digging into my bank account for a P20 or writing it off my list of possible future upgrades, but I have zero to say about the effectiveness of the P20 (or P15) in somebody else’s system.

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I don’t agree, but Jay pretty much throws all line conditioners under the bus.

I have a hard time taking Jay seriously. But I did watch this video and I agree with him on his point about “tweaks”.
One can get to a point with equipment with seriously designed power supplies, where power conditioning and tweaks, while perhaps delivering greater resolution, may well be replacing 'musicality", discussed elsewhere in this forum, with sterile detail. Just a thought.

I, too, thought that was an interesting watch. If for no other reason, I do find his way of saying or doing nuanced.

Perhaps I can’t read…but it seems here in this part of the review Fremer is extolling the P20

Here is an excerpt:

I bought this album after the transfer switch disaster and after I’d installed the PS Audio Regenerators, so I only knew the sound in that context. To me, the sax and trumpet sounded nicely present and well-focused, but also pinched and thin. After the electricity upgrade, they became full-bodied: solid yet transparent. The louder I played this album, the better and fuller it sounded. “This is insane!” I repeatedly exclaimed out loud with no one in the room—until my wife appeared, saying, “That sounds amazing from upstairs!” I know I’ve overused her as a foil in my reviews, but hey, it did happen.

Drilling one of two 10’ copper-clad ground rods into the soil.

This was a remarkable, global improvement in every listening parameter. The system’s performance now is clearly superior to what it was before the transfer switch installation. The upgrade healed the camel’s broken back—and then some.

But then Fremer plugs the P20 into the Aq Niagara 7000 and everything then falls apart hmmm…

Finally, I tried plugging the amps into both the big PS Audio P20 Regenerator and into a second AudioQuest Niagara 7000. In both cases, there was a clear loss of the spectacular newfound transparency and silkiness.

In his 1st review the Niagara gives a wide soundstage but not much else

If I’m reading this correctly…plugging the P20 into the AQ Niagara made things worse
not better.

Somehow in my .02 Fremer’s some of his genius must have eluded him…there seems
to be in contradiction…

Something got confounded somewhere in his review.

While some folks here have succesfully run conditioners ahead of their regenerators thus
improving their sq…In general I think Paul discourages this practice…

So just for the sake of bringing up the text of what was written…
hopefully to clarify…

Best wishes everyone…

I would’ve spared a few dimes to fix that wooden fence…but hey he is an audiophile.

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I personally have never understood putting a phone in a back pocket :thinking:

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I’m wondering if he’ll become a big proponent of spending money on wiring before spending money on regeneration or conditioning?