PS Audio Noise Harvester AC Cleaner Review

[Vini darko]

Well no surprises here. Thanks for the test of this thing.

 

[solderdude]

Yes. It blinks like mad. Did so during my AP sweeps as well.

So it does kindof double as an irritatingly flashing nightlight ...
Given that mains never is a nice looking sinewave one can kind of expect it to show 'garbage'.
The sad part is that probably none of the 'converted to light' present deviations from a pure sinewave have no influence on the SQ.

 

[RayDunzl]

What's the SINAD on those mains?

 

[solderdude]

What's the SINAD on those mains?

Around 30 but not at 1kHz but 60Hz acc. to Amirs measurements.
Doesn't improve with it either as most harmonics are below 1kHz.

 

[maty]

Other AC cleaner to review:

iFi AC iPurifier
https://ifi-audio.com/products/ac-ipurifier/

-> [PDF] https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/TECH-NOTE-iFi-PowerStation.pdf

The problem is the passive filtration graph... misleading advertising the least. At 10 kHz there are RF/EMI passive filters with much better numbers than this active filtration. With measurements. And... cheaper!!!

 

[solderdude]

At least on the ifi website they do have these words written in big fonts about this product:

Plug. Play. Believe.

 

[pavuol]

At least on the ifi website they do have these words written in big fonts about this product:

Plug. Play. Believe.

View attachment 69171

 

[wwenze]

Just as I suspected. Piggy bank panther indeed. Thanks for testing it!

Here's the PS Audio quote about the product:


View attachment 69156

Wow, this pic made their product even worse. Coz it shows half-wave rectification so the product only removes half of the noise. But not only that, because as most EE would know half-wave rectification adds nasty stuff like harmonic distortion and DC offset back into the grid.

 

[solderdude]

It's only the principle shown in that picture. It stands to reason the LED/circuit is either fed via a not shown bridge rectifier.

 

[wwenze]

Don't see a bridge.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/323272-primalunas-ac-offset-killer-3.html

 

[KxDx]

So... a christmas light. Got it.

 

[solderdude]

Don't see a bridge.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/323272-primalunas-ac-offset-killer-3.html

I see at least 2 diodes so the drawn schematic clearly does not show the actual circuit.

 

[ssips]

Hello everyone, my first post here.

Firstly, I really appreciate all the hard work put into naming and shaming companies like this.
It really makes me mad that a company would make such blatantly snake oil products.
Watching Paul's videos make me really mad too after seeing how badly the directstream functions.

Regarding the photo, the amount of glue put on the device is pretty indicative that they dont want people to know what is actually under there.
Wouldn't surprise me if it is just a 555 timer blinkie, powered off mains power.

 

[SKBubba]

Imagine what it takes to power an LED for a fraction of a second. It is probably in microamps which would mean nothing in grand scheme of things.

The LED provides an essential function -- it confirms to the buyer that the device does something so it must be working as advertised, delivering a more articulated sound stage and space between the notes. .

 

[solderdude]

Wouldn't surprise me if it is just a 555 timer blinkie, powered off mains power.

There is no secret in there. It is a high pass filter through a toroid with just a few windings, where the current on the secondary side is 'clamped' and a LED indicating it is doing 'something' with a nice story around it.

It is doing something but how much and how useful it is depends on many factors.
Mostly it's a moneymaker with a blinking LED giving the owner a pleasant feel 'garbage' has been removed effectively.
Surely this will be beneficial to perception, just not in reality. Those buying these products do not care about the latter. They want to believe the offered dream.

 

[martijn86]

I would love for anyone that can measure audio equipment to see if you can get a device to measure worst by plugging in household equipment in the same socket as the audio device. For example, plug a DAC and a microwave into a power strip. Can a microwave mess up performance? Maybe a fridge, a powerline ethernet adapter? Is it even remotely possible in a worst case scenario that power gets so bad you can see the effects in a measurement?

 

[peng]

The electrical power generation/distribution industry is heavily regulated and by nature you are not going to get any significant harmonics to begin with. This product is for no purpose, worse than exotic audio interconnect cables, thought at least it costs only $99. Still, anyone who can think logically would spend that $99 on a decent DAC, that's if one can't stand to have an extra $99.

 

[Koeitje]

What a stupid review, everybody knows you cannot measure this specific type of noise...

 

[JohnYang1997]

What a stupid review, everybody knows you cannot measure this specific type of noise...

a good one!

 

[SpaceMonkey]

PS Audio keeps sinking lower and lower with every single review