PS Audio Noise Harvester AC Cleaner Review

[Sonny1]

They should call this the Cash Harvester because that’s all it does.

 

[mansr]

Your sinewave is flattened a bit (a few V) given the amount of odd harmonics.

You think?

 

[RayDunzl]

You think?

Looks normal to me.

My AC wave - 170Vpk - a long time ago

And the waveform on the Neutral (return) - magnified, so, a couple of volts.

All relative to Earth,

Although, yours seems to have a remarkably linear trace (not much "sine" curve), top to bottom

No, I guess wrong:

 

[mhardy6647]

EL84? That's a little peanut pentode.

Yup -- altough not at the peanut level of, say, a 60FX5
ca. 1 watt per channel for a stereo pair from a crystal or ceramic phono cartridge input -- and a series string, "killer" transformerless circuit.
Whoo-freaking-hoo!

60FX5stereoampresized by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[Lambda]

To determine the filter range, I set my Audio Precision to produce 21 volts output and captured and plotted that using very wideband response (1 MHz). I then inserted the Harvester in the middle to see the effect:

What was the Output impedance for this Test?

result in a THD+N of nearly 3%.

How musch of this distortion comes from the transformer?

 

[Lambda]

AudioQuest again in the future. Audio companies that put out pure snake-oil products, even if they produce some other good equipment, are companies I want to avoid.

So before the test you thought. the company that sells 500$ gold plated TOSLINK opticlal cables is legit

From memory I think it is 40 ohm. I thought about that after I wrote the review.

this is quite important to note.
40Ohms is little bit more then the typical power grind (at least here in Europe)

With REW you can easily make impedance vs frequency measurements with the help of a known resistor

Pure copper is too soft to provide good contact pressure. It needs to be alloyed with something to make it springier.

Tasty Beryllium

I would be interested to hear opinions on this solution, both the tester and the filter.

Common sens can tell from fear mongering marketing this is snake oil

Every true audiofool knowes a Rotary converter is the propper way to clean up your AC!
1 ton of spinning mass per amplifier RMS Watt is sufficient.

I use this for my headphone amplifier :

 

[Mnyb]

So before the test you thought. the company that sells 500$ gold plated TOSLINK opticlal cables is legit


this is quite important to note.
40Ohms is little bit more then the typical power grind (at least here in Europe)

With REW you can easily make impedance vs frequency measurements with the help of a known resistor


Tasty Beryllium


Common sens can tell from fear mongering marketing this is snake oil

Every true audiofool knowes a Rotary converter is the propper way to clean up your AC!
1 ton of spinning mass per amplifier RMS Watt is sufficient.

I use this for my headphone amplifier :
View attachment 115000

We want a large flywheel on the rotatary converter would expensive ebony hardwood do or should it be cast in bronze or tungsten ?

 

[mansr]

We want a large flywheel on the rotatary converter would expensive ebony hardwood do or should it be cast in bronze or tungsten ?

Neutronium, preferably with the mass of a small planet.

 

[Count Arthur]

Apologies if this has been suggested before, but given that it the harvester has a blinky light to show it's "cleaning" the mains, has anyone tried one on perfectly clean mains, perhaps by plugging it into one of PS Audio's own regenerators, or an isolation transformer, something like that?

Does the light still blink?

 

[Mnyb]

Neutronium, preferably with the mass of a small planet.

You could use sevaral of them in series AC to DC to AC to DC ..... and ofcourse you rip out all of the internal DC/DC converters normal rectifiers and stuff in your DAC so now you need several rotary converters for 5v 3.3v +12,-12 etc . And of course left and right rotary converters . for each component pre amp power amp etc

 

[Lambda]

need several rotary converters for 5v 3.3v +12,-12 etc

Rotary converters are not good at producing low noise DC!
For this application you want a homopolar generator

For the best sound l use the one of the linear kind and gravity pump Liquid Mercury trug it.
As Magnet i use a 3T MRI machine form Philips

 

[mansr]

You could use sevaral of them in series AC to DC to AC to DC ..... and ofcourse you rip out all of the internal DC/DC converters normal rectifiers and stuff in your DAC so now you need several rotary converters for 5v 3.3v +12,-12 etc . And of course left and right rotary converters . for each component pre amp power amp etc

The converters for the left channel should obviously rotate anticlockwise. Except down under, where it's the other way around.

 

[Lambda]

@mansr you a thing going here!
Maybe we should start an "Original Audiophile Snake-oil inventions" thread... see how long it takes for manufacture to steal the ideas...
At least then they can't patent it

 

[Judas]

When do you guys learn... you have to listen and hear the improvements... not look at graphs !
.

never.

 

[Judas]

experimenter bias
any systematic errors in the research process or the interpretation of its results that are attributable to a researcher’s behavior, preconceived beliefs, expectancies, or desires about results. For example, a researcher may inadvertently cue participants to behave or respond in a particular way. See experimenter effect.

APA Dictionary of Psychology

 

[QuadDiffusor]

Apologies if this has been suggested before, but given that it the harvester has a blinky light to show it's "cleaning" the mains, has anyone tried one on perfectly clean mains, perhaps by plugging it into one of PS Audio's own regenerators, or an isolation transformer, something like that?

Does the light still blink?

My posts in the thread, 'Isolation Transformer and Balanced Power versus PS Audio Regenerator' in which PS Audio P20s, PLiXiR isolation transformers, and Noise Harvesters are discussed.
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...ps-audio-regenerator.27941/page-9#post-642484

In post #194, I observed the Noise Harvesters to NOT blink whatsoever when plugged into a PLiXiR BIT (balanced toroidal isolation transformer):
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...versus-ps-audio-regenerator.27941/post-660189

 

[Judas]

I suppose if you can hear something because you expect to then you can also not hear something when you expect not to.

 

[Doodski]

I suppose if you can hear something because you expect to then you can also not hear something when you expect not to.

I retailed home audio for 9 years and the customers heard what they where told to hear and what they where told not to hear. I sold on the merit of the product and quality but some salespeople did not.

 

[Lambda]

Looks like a transformer by itself is a good filter!
We have a capacitive coupled mains measurement and at the bottom a transformer coupled

 

[amirm]

I suppose if you can hear something because you expect to then you can also not hear something when you expect not to.

Greg, I am sure you have heard audiophiles many times say, "I heard a difference even though I did not expect to hear it!" The power of the force is strong with tweeky audiophiles!

Remember, people believing in such things assume their ears are absolute and no one is to question what they think they "hear." To that end I object to you questioning what I hear!!!