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Review and Measurements of Klipsch PowerGate DAC & Amp

nuxv

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That's warm, but not too hot.

Doesn't bode well for long term reliability in an enclosed case with little ventilation however. Are there open grilles on the sides and a fan?
No fan, but does have grills on the sides. FWIW, just measured the temps again -- off but plugged in for several hours...around 107 top and bottom, same 75 ambient. Warmer than i'd like. I'll try standing it on it's side while elevated a bit off the desk...or I could hook it up to my smart power strip.
 

daftcombo

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Since the amplifier measurements are worse than the DAC measurements, the fact that the DAC measurements are not very good should be of no effect, right?
 

nuxv

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No fan, but does have grills on the sides. FWIW, just measured the temps again -- off but plugged in for several hours...around 107 top and bottom, same 75 ambient. Warmer than i'd like. I'll try standing it on it's side while elevated a bit off the desk...or I could hook it up to my smart power strip.
and i've stuck the unit on a kill-a-watt meter, and it's drawing about 11-12 watts while off. so not a lot. the heat is obviously more of an issue versus electrical usage.
 

GGroch

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That's a lot considering it is 'off'. Are you sure?

It is not off, but rather in soft sleep mode. The WiFi & Logic stays active so that you can start it up from the App (or through an associated Alexa's voice command). It goes to sleep by itself if it does not sense an active input in 15 minutes or so.

I am quite happy with the functions & ergonomics of mine. Since I stream almost exclusively through Spotify the features of the Play-Fi app does not matter to me, you just use the Spotify app.
 

BillG

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and i've stuck the unit on a kill-a-watt meter, and it's drawing about 11-12 watts while off. so not a lot. the heat is obviously more of an issue versus electrical usage.

That's actually network standby mode, and it should be in the ~4.5 watt range according to the manual.


From the manual: "PowerGate is classified as a Networked Equipment with High Network Availability Functionality (HINA) product. PowerGate will automatically switch to network standby mode after 15 minutes of no activity. The power consumption of PowerGate in network standby mode is 4.60W. After 168 hours with no activity, the PowerGate will go to full standby mode. The power consumption of PowerGate in full standby mode is 0.45W"
 

GGroch

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I have not tested the power consumption of mine, but I see that one of the changes in the Powergate Firmware Update was to "remove hard sleep mode so that WiFi remains active in sleep mode". So perhaps that is the difference, or perhaps the measurement was off.

BTW, to avoid confusion in the firmware update procedure, view the video on the above firmware update page, it is correct. The manual describes watching the status light, which it turns out is the light on the back of the amp.
 

BillG

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I have not tested the power consumption of mine, but I see that one of the changes in the Powergate Firmware Update was to "remove hard sleep mode so that WiFi remains active in sleep mode". So perhaps that is the difference, or perhaps the measurement was off.

I can understand the need to remove hard sleep for WiFi: the remote control unit seems to be RF, and not infrared as typical of such a device.

I was confessed by this at first, as when viewed through a digital camera there's every indication of an IR led being active and located on the transmitting end. However, when the remote is not in line of sight of the amp, such as being held under my desk with no possibility of reflected IR light reaching the amp, it's still functional.

Perhaps it's dual function, IR and RF?
 

restorer-john

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because my Fire TV Cube was able to learn the remote's IR codes and it controls the Powergate just fine.

'Fire TV Cubes' and 'Powergates', sounds like a science fiction movie. Everything has to have a 'name'. Bah! Back then it was Watergate- you know, Nixon? Bah!

I miss the good old days with simple alphanumeric and cryptic-ass model numbers... eg: STS-333ESX II, A-757mk2, POA-1500bk or even LP12- at least they kinda meant something... or not.
 

GGroch

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'Fire TV Cubes' and 'Powergates', sounds like a science fiction movie.....

Powergate reminds me of an extremely popular and effective laserdisc & home theater surround demo we used in the mid 90s "Stargate".

A funny (but surprisingly authentic) version of which was documented in this "Just the Ticket" movie clip. Klipsch has (or had) a lot of old audio guys in the organization. So it could be on purpose.
 

restorer-john

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Powergate reminds me of an extremely popular and effective laserdisc & home theater surround demo we used in the mid 90s "Stargate".

Ah. A fellow laserdisc demonstrator and true HiFi salesman :)

Aziz, light!

Same era:
The Abyss- submarine crash/explosion (launch the buoy)
Die Hard 2- Old man in the church knock on the door and shooting
Aliens- plasma cutting the ship's docking door and it falling down in front of you
Cliffhanger- opening scene, helicopter and death plunge.
And the favourite:
Top Gun- the launch off the carrier

Ah, the good old days. Thank goodness they are gone. :)
 

Jimster480

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0 surprise from klipsch here. After the headphones they made a couple years ago with just off-the-shelf parts.... this is likely the same deal.
Too bad they didn't invest in a decent DAC.
 

nuxv

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I have not tested the power consumption of mine, but I see that one of the changes in the Powergate Firmware Update was to "remove hard sleep mode so that WiFi remains active in sleep mode". So perhaps that is the difference, or perhaps the measurement was off.

BTW, to avoid confusion in the firmware update procedure, view the video on the above firmware update page, it is correct. The manual describes watching the status light, which it turns out is the light on the back of the amp.
per the meter, it did rack up .40 kwh over 34 hours and 12 minutes while "off", which puts it between 11 and 12 watts.
 

Nate T

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I was getting tempted to buy one of these as just a power amp given the price—don't need any fancy features, so would just use the analog inputs most likely. That 12W idle power rather sucks though. I don't suppose there's some way to disable the wifi completely, and have it go directly to full standby when it doesn't have an input?
 

nuxv

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I was getting tempted to buy one of these as just a power amp given the price—don't need any fancy features, so would just use the analog inputs most likely. That 12W idle power rather sucks though. I don't suppose there's some way to disable the wifi completely, and have it go directly to full standby when it doesn't have an input?
don't know if there's a way to disable wifi (fyi, i did load the latest 1.45 firmware). i also got this specifically as a power amp...been buying way too many dacs recently. i do like the multiple inputs/BT/echo functionality.

as far as power goes, i'm not happy at 12 watts on standby, but at 24/7/365, it should cost me less than $10 a year, and as far as heat, i can always stick the device on a power strip...if you need outlet level control, they do make powerstrips with switches per outlet. they also make smart adapters with individual outlet controls by app.
 

estuardo4

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don't know if there's a way to disable wifi (fyi, i did load the latest 1.45 firmware). i also got this specifically as a power amp...been buying way too many dacs recently. i do like the multiple inputs/BT/echo functionality.

as far as power goes, i'm not happy at 12 watts on standby, but at 24/7/365, it should cost me less than $10 a year, and as far as heat, i can always stick the device on a power strip...if you need outlet level control, they do make powerstrips with switches per outlet. they also make smart adapters with individual outlet controls by app.

With all the money you are saving on a capable power amp, I think these options are doable. A smart powerstrip, a fan for when it's on, are less than $50 combined.
 
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