PS Audio PowerPlant 12 Review (AC Regenerator)

[DonH56]

Batteries also vary their voltage over time, temperature, and with load, and tend to have fairly high self-resistance and limited charge storage so you need a lot of them (or a lot of cells, or very big cells) for high-current components.

Most UPS units purchased are off-line so the battery is not doing anything (except being trickle charged) until you lose power, then the UPS switches to using the battery (and DC to AC converter). As @Prana Ferox said, the usual types do not provide very clean output, often 10% distortion or more (sometimes much more). True-sinewave converters are available but cost much more money and are usually bigger and heavier as well. There are some new versions that offer 1%~5% or so distortion that are not terribly expensive so I have a couple of those.

On-line UPS units run off the DC source all the time so never switch (no switch-over lag). An AC to DC converter supplies power and charges the batteries for the DC to AC converter as long as AC input power is supplied. These tend to be much more expensive than off-line units.

Toroidal transformers are usually built without an air gap in the core and that makes them much more sensitive to DC input. Conventional transformers are also sensitive to DC but much less so to the point of being an almost nonexistent problem for consumers.

FWIWFM - Don

 

[MaxBuck]

How does one tell if they are in a dirty city

Ask Stevie Winwood.

 

[Chrispy]

My sides were hurting after the first bunch of posts.......just more BS audio as usual. LOL

 

[Zog]

I get that washing my dishes multiple times won’t make my food taste better, but if I first plug my oven into a PS Audio Power Plant 12, will it make my food taste better?

Yes it will, especially Hungarian Goulash. Paprika needs very even heating didn't you know.

 

[conman]

Looking at the Eaton devices, I see they introduce a phase shift on their output. Could this introduce ground loops when separate devices are mixed between using the UPS and not using it, and also for this PS device?

Does anyone have an answer to this serious question?

 

[pinpoint_oxford]

Does anyone have an answer to this serious question?

Have you considered asking Eaton directly? If you're seriously considering one of their products I'm sure they know more about them than anyone here might.

 

[conman]

Have you considered asking Eaton directly? If you're seriously considering one of their products I'm sure they know more about them than anyone here might.

Thanks, it seemed easy to ask here with a forum half filled with engineers though since it's also on topic and the PoS in question showed a ground loop in Amir's testing too.

 

[pinpoint_oxford]

Thanks, it seemed easy to ask here with a forum half filled with engineers though since it's also on topic and the PoS in question showed a ground loop in Amir's testing too.

I didn't mean to come across as condescending. I just worry that some of people here will claim to be an "engineer" where we are all anonymous with no proof of qualifications. Eaton is a huge corporation and likely has a good team of smart people who know what they're talking about.

 

[DonH56]

Does anyone have an answer to this serious question?

Output phase shift alone will not impact a ground loop either way.

Some devices provide "balanced" power with 0 deg - gnd - 180 deg outputs purportedly offering lower noise. Whether that is true or not (I have read test results showing the devices may actually increase noise but cannot find them right now and am disinclined to hunt further) some local codes forbid home-based balanced supplies for safety reasons.

 

[grandsons]

AP is maybe not the best tool to evaluate power stuff on mains. Better use N4L power analyser in conjonction with other tool for conductive issue like a line impedance stabilisation networks and spectrum analyzer.

With my experience all audio production meet pollutions standards easily and power supplies are not an issue. Developing something just a bit superior will require toolling usually not found by audio manufacturers and will raise costs significantly. All PSU efforts can be ruined by a bad interconnection strategy or compulsive audiophile mods.

 

[Deleted member 23424]

UPS certainly have use in some cases.

 

[jam]

Anyway, I can't recommend the PS Audio PowerPlant P12. I can't detect it making any improvement to your audio devices and costs a fortune to boot. Save your money and put it toward a better cause.

Thanks for an awesome review on a PS Audio PowerPlant unit Amir! This is the kind of review I was hoping to see someday. Years ago, I was contemplating acquiring a power regenerator at some point in the future until I saw some of your other reviews on power conditioners over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, I was hoping to see a thorough empirical review on a PS Audio PowerPlant with some graphs and numbers to see how they perform since those were some of the top contenders on my list.

In the end, I bought a PS Audio Dectet which cost me $400 USD in 2013. It's kind of like a glorified power bar with some filtering and MOVs for spike protection but since it doesn't regenerate the current, it's not as current limited as their regenerators. I never did notice an improvement in sound with it but I just hope that it can adequately protect the audio gear plugged into it without injecting noise or other nasties.

 

[milosz]

Oh, PS audio. I thought I heard BS audio.....

 

[DACs_Lover]

I stopped watching Paul's videos for a while. I felt betrayed.

 

[Elephen]

For a long time, I have wanted to ask Paul McGowan why he recommends using an after-market power cable to connect his power regenerators to the AC mains. If these devices actually remove all the witches in the power coming from the AC mains, the power cable connected to the AC mains should not have any effect on the output of the regenerators.

 

[noel_fs]

classic ps audio scamming the shit out of people

 

[pinpoint_oxford]

For a long time, I have wanted to ask Paul McGowan why he recommends using an after-market power cable to connect his power regenerators to the AC mains. If these devices actually remove all the witches in the power coming from the AC mains, the power cable connected to the AC mains should not have any effect on the output of the regenerators.

This may have made (business) sense back when ps audio made their own cables, but today they just re-sell audioquest. Maybe there's just a gentleman's agreement from these manufacturers to push cables to keep the market afloat. I don't know.

Even back in my earlier days where I thought cables made a difference, it was speaker cables and interconnects I'd think of. Power cables seemed like there was no way they could do much of anything.

 

[Kegemusha]

Holly cow!?!?, for US $5,499 I do a proper dedicated electrical instalation only for the HifI stuff and money left to buy 2 subs.

 

[Hayabusa]

@amirm How do you load the output when measuring?
I wonder how load dependant the output/noise/harmonics is/are.

 

[Mart68]

Even back in my earlier days where I thought cables made a difference, it was speaker cables and interconnects I'd think of. Power cables seemed like there was no way they could do much of anything.

They always felt like a scam to me too, even back when I knew nothing.