Thought I’d initiate a thread to provide an opportunity for discussions regarding the current generation of Power Plants, e.g. P12/P15/P20, what your settings are and why you chose them. To a degree I feel I may be opening Pandora’s Box as there are many variables that contribute to the effectiveness of a Power Plant, not least of which is the incoming voltage, distortion, and potential for voltage sag when under load. The other Joker in the deck is the equipment the Power Plant is servicing. Clearly some components are better served with a Power Plant, as some speakers and systems in general are more capable of revealing the impact a Power Plant provides for. Then there are the Wild Cards, variables may include associated power cords, fuses, tuning rings, speaker cables, interconnects, Rhino Horn Dust, and Unicorn Dung.
My Power Plant P15 is used seasonally at my summer home. It is powered from a 20 amp home run, three are available, with a Hubble 8300R receptacle. The power cord feeding it is a PSA AC-12.
Electronics are as follows
Pass Labs XA-25
Pass Labs XP-22
Sim Audio LP 310
Jay’s CDT2-mk3
PS Audio DSD Mk I
Innuos ZENith Mk III
Innuos USB re-clocker
Speakers Pure Audio Project Trio 15 Classic with PiFe Full range driver, upgraded with Mundorf X-over caps
Power cords are various Shuntyatas that I have gathered over the years
Interconnects and speaker cables are Iconoclast
Settings, when I am actually paying attention are the PS Audio house default settings.
Voltage out is set to 120VAC
No Multiwave
Full Regulation is selected vice Low Distortion.
Phase setting is set to 0 (Zero)
These settings provide the most natural sound for my system.
I have found at times the Pass XA-25 sounds best plugged directly in a separate 20 amp home run feed.
System sounds best for late night, post 10 PM listening.
Music varies with a bias for acoustic avant-garde.
I have found the results associated with the addition of a Power Plant, of any other component addressing power quality, to be situational at best.
I played with SW and MW on P15 a bit when watching TV, and I don’t see much difference with different settings. Okay, I was watching news so that may not count.
Yesterday I looked at the settings on my P20 and was surprised to see “sine” and “low distortion”.
I played around a bit and realized that either my ears or my system are not sensitive enough to hear any differences, so i left it set as is. I like it.
John, as I replied in the Market Place thread the setting, all of them actually, was not purposefully set, the image was taken in support of listing the item for sale.
I am a firm believer of sine wave low distortion for my P20. Using 20 amp input with a AQ Dragon high current equipped with Sorbothane 3M tuning ring and vibration isolation at wall and as power cord is coming into P20 with AM M-2 Fuse. Sorbothane vibration isolation under the P20 and 3M absorber above front half of toroidal toroidal and chips on video board are covered with 3M absorber. I have tried to like multi-wave but it always brings an edge and changes smooth natural sound I get with recorded acoustic instruments.
I have never used mono amps that lack huge capacitance on hand. The multi-wave from what I gather is good way to keep capacitor banks charged in amps. The times the P20 couldn’t keep up with amp capacitors draining seems reserved to explosive ridden HT movies and just isn’t present in music withh 114 dB peaks of dynamic range using sine wave. I keep amps set to normally peak at 12W the P20 doesn’t trip until sustained 2KW peaks happen. The toughest symphony music wont ge you there.
