Used P5 Power Plant from 2011?

I agree, 1900USD seems to much. Lowest discount price I have seen i Norway on P12 so far is 49000NOK =5640USD.

According to the “Blue Book” on Audiogon, the average used sale price in the U.S. for a P5 is $1,738.44.

This includes sales on the site going back 5+ years.

So $1,900 is not too far off.

FYI.

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I’ve seen a couple sell in the $1500 - 1600 USD range.

As you have noted, electrolytic capacitors are a limited life device. Depending on model and manufacturer of the capacitors, this can vary greatly. I do know that in my regenerators, the use of Chinese caps have required a more aggressive replacement schedule. But the performance after replacements, from high quality manufacturers, has always been really good. 10 years is a long time for caps rated for 1000~3000 hours.

I was able to get the price lowered to 1650USD so I’m willing to take the chance buying it. Seller says it has few running hours, but caps also dries out due to age. I used to do service on electronics so I just have to do some soldering and replace the caps if this is needed. I do not know how many they are inside though😄

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At that price, I would certainly be a buyer.

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I don’t think you need a P12 - it would not be worth the additional ~$5K for you. I have had a P5 since it was introduced, it’s been running 24/7 for years, with zero issues.

Hi Nikolay, thanks for sharing information about your P5. I will receive my used P5 from the seller after Christmas. Looking forward to install it in my rack.

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Finally got my second hand P5 and have been running it for a week now. It’s doing a great job in my system so far keeping the 230V voltage level correct and distortion level at 0,1%. The 4 outlets of my P5 is now giving power to my Auralic Altair G1 streamer/DAC, tube preamp and the M1200’s. I’m surprised that the whole system only uses 15-20% ( 200W) of the P5 capacity even when I play load. The M1200’s must be super efficient and suppose my Piega speakers also are easy to drive. Anyway this seems to be a great match and I have the P5 powered on 24/7. Did it make any improvement in the sound? Yes, I noticed a bigger soundstage with black background, more details and the base from my Piega speakers is stunning. From now on there always gonna be a PS Audio power plant in my system :smiley:

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That’s good to hear…congratulations !!!

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What setup parameters do you use in order to keep the voltage regulation steady? My P5 is keeping the distortion low but voltage is not steady at 230V.

I’m not really doing anything special. I have it set to 120v, MW 6, Phase Tune 0, and High Regulation.

I suggest setting the mode to “high regulation” and see what happens.

You incoming power is remarkably clean.

What do you have the output voltage set to? Even if set to low distortion, the voltage should be more consistent than this. Give high regulation a shot though.

We have 230V IT net in Norway so the output voltage on my P5 was set to 230V, but voltage from the wall socket is drifting between 205-220 due to the cold weather outside and heating of all hoses in the neighborhood. The P5 has to work hard to regulate from low voltages up to 230V so I put the P5 to 225V and high regulation. Now the voltage out is kept stable on 225V but the THD is a bit higher, going from 0,1% to 0,4-0,7%. So question is what is best, consistant voltage output or minimum THD?

Try both and listen, but I expect high voltage regulation will be best.

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Wow, 205-220V swings seems like a lot. In my opinion, I prefer high regulation. In my experience it’s more important to have a consistent voltage output. You can certainly try both ways, but I’m guessing you stick with the regulated voltage.

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Tnx jamesh , high regulation seems to work much better :smile:

That graph strikes me as an illustration of pretty impressive performance.

Congrats.

Nice! That’s lookin’ rock solid.