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PS Audio PowerPlant 3 Review

Rate this AC Regenerator

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 261 91.9%

  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 11 3.9%

  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 4 1.4%

  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 8 2.8%
  • Total voters
    284
The advantage the Accuphase PS500 and PS1200 had (no longer available) was that it was galvanically separated and could break ground loops.
It is just as snake-oily when it comes to the suggested improvements of sound quality.
The devices did what they claim to do (provide a 'clean' and stable mains supply).

In the days that these were sold the PS Audio powerplants were also galvanically separated and true re-generators.
The current line is more energy efficient (less heat produced) but not a re-generator but rather a 'mains waveform' correction (within limits)

The effectiveness of the PSA PP has been shown in the reviews of the products.
 
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orsib said:
instead of lecturing PS Audio’s marketing department
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I think you might mean pointing out the misleading information provided by PS Audio... or do you think misleading claims are ok?
orsib said:
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When entering the audio circuitry of an amplifier through the power supply, such harmonic components can interfere with the audio signal and cause intermodulation distortion which has a highly detrimental effect on sound quality.
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That is also misleading.


JSmith
 
orsib said:
Hello, Amir. I think there is clrearly some problem with PS Audio’s marketing department. I am not a native English speaker, but “eliminating noise” means zero noise for me, which is completely impossible in real life. Anyway. There are power regenerators exist where the manufacturer at least tries to justify its usefulness with some science. If you will have the chance, you should rather confirm these claims instead of lecturing PS Audio’s marketing department. Check this out:

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This is as useless as the BSaudio device for the same reasons. Audio devices use DC. Amplifier power supplies are only connected to the mains for short bursts ( small fractions of a 60hz cycle) so what do they care what goes on in the rest of the cycle, as in distortion. Noise is easily filtered at most amp mains inputs. Your utility guarantees a certain voyage range (+/- 5% ???) which drops your amp out power by .1db.
Switching supplies/class D amps care even less about the AC input.
 
amirm said:
This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the PS Audio Stellar Power Plant 3 AC regenerator. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $2,499.
View attachment 248496
There are no front panel controls other than standby/power switch on the left. To activate the MultiWave and ClearWave requires remote control which I did not have. Very bad form to not put a simple switch in the front to cycle that way. Not much to the back panel:
View attachment 248497
Shame there is no power sequencing/sense for power management.

A heavy AC cord is supplied with the unit but I got a kick out of this statement in the manual:
View attachment 248498

You buy an AC regenerator and it still is sensitive to what the power cord does *before* it? And significantly so? For nearly $2,500 they could not provide said improved power cord either?

Despite being rather thin, this is a hefty box clocking at nearly 40 pounds (18 Kg). Yet, max power output is only 300 watts. There is a very high price to be paid here for regeneration of high voltage AC.

PS Audio PowerPlant 3 Measurements
We start by measuring AC power as it comes out of my outlet, followed by what the PowerPlant 3 does to it:
View attachment 248499
We see that in addition to the 60 Hz mains, we have a lot of harmonics that come for the ride. You can see that the tops of the AC waveform are ever so slightly deformed as well. Measurement is performed using a 100:1 attenuator so actual output is 122 volts with distortion+noise of 1.9%. Here is the output of the PowerPlant 3:

View attachment 248500

We see a good bit of improvement in harmonic content of the AC waveform on top right. However, that is accompanied with higher noise level as we saw in PS Audio's PowerPlant 15. We can see that better if we zoom in the spectrum:

View attachment 248501

This goes counter to company claim of noise elimination:
View attachment 248502

But distortion is definitely improved. But let's see whether that matters to our audio gear which rectifies and filters AC anyway before use. To test that, I measured the output of my 15 volt linear power supply which comes from the company GRAS:
View attachment 248503

There is essentially no difference between two sources of power. Reason is simple: the artifacts as you see them is created by the power supply, not from AC mains. So it doesn't matter how "dirty" the AC mains is.

What about output of our audio gear? I thought I use a low cost device that one would think needs more "help" from an AC regenerator. The volunteer was the Schiit Heretic headphone amplifier/preamplifier. Here is its dashboard when powered by Raw AC:
View attachment 248504

Despite being fed "dirty" mains, its produces spectacularly low noise and distortion that is 5 dB better than our best case threshold of hearing. There is some power supply noise but they are incredibly low level of -140 dB (25 dB lower than threshold of hearing). Now let's power it through PS Audio PowerPlant 3:

View attachment 248505

What happened here? We took a hit in noise floor causing SINAD to drop by 2 dB. Who says we can't measure the impact of these products? We certainly can. In this case, I suspect a ground loop was created causing the increased 60 Hz mains spike. But I can't explain why the 180 Hz third harmonic has also gotten worse. Either way, we have gone backward.

PS Audio Stellar PowerPlant 3 Listening Tests
I created a chain from my RME ADI-2 Pro interface, driving Topping A90 headphone amplifier which in turn powered my Don Clark Expanse headphone. I then played some of my reference audio clips. The sound was wonderful in its detail, and dynamics with inaudible noise floor. I then switched to powering the A90 with PowerPlant 3. It took 3 to 4 seconds for the A90 to play again which is not ideal in AB tests. I thought I heard some difference but when I switched back to raw AC, I "heard" similar difference. I am confident in instant AB switching it would sound identical.

Conclusions
As with tests of other PS Audio PowerPlants (of which, I own one myself but never use), objective tests do not show any improvement in performance of audio products. Yes, the distortion is reduced but noise is increased contrary to company claims. Because first thing our audio gear does is convert AC to DC, those components are filtered anyway. Certainly you can't get a high performance audio device that is so poor as to allow input AC noise to get through it. That would be the definition of non-fidelity!

Sighted, non-blind, slow switching listening tests are bound to produce impression of audio changing but as I experienced, this is due to any change, not because the PowerPlant. Human hearing is bi-directional and dynamic so can't be relied upon outside of controlled testing.

Let's note that the company doesn't show performance of any audio device being improved with this unit. Nor any controlled listening tests. Just a bunch of marketing claims that sound plausible but as you see form the measurements, don't amount to any improved fidelity. If anything, things have been made worse in some regards due to the architecture of the newer generation PS Audio PowerPlants which are not true AC regenerators (they mix AC mains with compensation signal). As I have shown in previous reviews, my lab grade regenerator performs a lot better.

In my opinion, it is a waste of technical talent to be building such products. I see no reason to recommend PS Audio Stellar PowerPlant 3.

Edit: Video review also posted:

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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PS Audio, why this brand still exists, if there is not audiophool that will get baited by the product just because its expensive and still stuck on expensive means good mindset?
 
The guys at PS Audio seem like good dudes but wtf is this?
 
Keith_W said:
Here are the claims made for the PS Audio Powerplant 3 on their website:

"Problems on your power line such as low voltage, distorted waveforms, sagging power, and noise are eliminated and the power quality enhanced."

As far as I can tell, only noise and distorted waveforms were tested by Amir. What about low voltage, sagging power, and power spikes? What about hooking up the unit to a variable power supply and testing the response?
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I've done this with my P5, which is an old larger model (more like a P12) and it works as advertised.

With a VARIAC on the input, it did regulate low voltages (e.g. 100V in, 120V out). I did not have the courage to test spikes.

But most importantly the line harmonics are removed, which are bad in my neighborhood (4-5% THD). I have a much more distorted AC waveform than Amir, which causes mechanical vibrations that wreak havoc with my room's noise floor. Also being able to adjust the shape of the waveform and set the output to 115V helps further reduce transformer buzzing.

I am satisfied with the purchase. For the price of the used P5 I don't know of any better solution for my residential situation.
 
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Another measurement video relating to power plant ... it does show the power plant output side remains stable despite different amounts of injected noise & DC at the input side.

 
boxerfan88 said:
it does show the power plant output side remains stable despite different amounts of injected noise & DC at the input side.
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This is not a big surprise - it is what it is designed to do.

Unfortunately what it is sold to do is:
The results are both audibly and visually stunning when powering either audio or video products.
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And
With your system powered directly from the output of the P12, you can expect far better micro and macro dynamics, as well as cleaner, lower background noise.
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And
The results of feeding your equipment with low output impedance are dramatic: unrestrained dynamics even under the loudest passages, an open, wide soundstage that does not collapse with volume and a naturalness to the music that is remarkable.
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And so on.

Did the reviewer attempt to demonstrate any audible improvements on the output of a typical audio device? Or any changes at all?


No? thought not.

@boxerfan - just for clarity - any minor tone of derision you might detect in my post is not directed at you. It is directed at so called reviewers who consistently fail to test the actual claims made by the manufacturer of this (and similar) devices.
 
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antcollinet said:
Did the reviewer attempt to demonstrate any audible improvements on the output of a typical audio device? Or any changes at all?
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Of course not, it's Alpha Audio! They do some random measurements, then claim a sonic improvement, and consequently correlate the two without any evidence whatsoever :facepalm:
 
boxerfan88 said:
Another measurement video relating to power plant ... it does show the power plant output side remains stable despite different amounts of injected noise & DC at the input side.

Click to expand...
He shows just 0.2dB difference with the Byrston Amp and says that is better (79.8 to 80)??? That difference could just be due to grounding differential and nothing to do with the PS Audio.
 
voodooless said:
Of course not, it's Alpha Audio! They do some random measurements, then claim a sonic improvement, and consequently correlate the two without any evidence whatsoever :facepalm:
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I've left a comment for them.
 
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