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  Power Questions and Answers AC power is a growing field of interest for both manufacturers and customers alike. As time goes on, AC power in our homes gets worse and the need for clean, safe and regulated AC power grows daily.Protecting your investment in your AV system and getting the most out of it from a performance standpoint means you need the best power delivery system you can provide. From dedicated AC lines, the AC receptacle to surges and spikes and noise on the AC line, power is the basis of our AV system. Without it, we haven’t an AV system. Along with the growth in AC power equipment there are the inevitable questions about such a complicated and sometimes hard to understand field. At PS Audio we speak and communicate with hundreds of audio and video customers every week via our three on-line forums as well as on the phone and in person. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and answers we receive about AC power. Q. What’s wrong with getting a $10 Wal Mart surge suppressor and why is PS Audio’s better?  A. Cheap surge suppressors use a single volatile MOV for protection. These MOV’s get weak after repeated attacks and breakdown over time. Most companies use multiples of the same cheap MOV protection as the inexpensive strips, regardless of the cost of the product. High end power companies, with few exceptions, use MOV’s to protect your equipment. If you are unsure, ask your dealer or the manufacturer what they use. PS Audio uses MOV’s only as backup for their exclusive Tranzorber protection. Tranzorbers are non-volatile AC clamps that will never degrade their performance over time, thus offering superior protection for any connected equipment. Q. Some power amplifier manufacturers write in their owner’s manuals not to use a power conditioner for their amplifiers. Does this apply to PS power products as well? A. No. It is true that the vast majority of power conditioning products should not be used on power amplifiers because they restrict the sound. PS Audio power products use wire gauges 10 times heavier than their competitors and the sound is not restricted. On Power Plants, the sound is actually made more dynamic than going straight into the wall. This is because the AC voltage from a Power Plant is regulated and does not drop when a big demand is placed on it. Q. How can a power cable help if attached to the house wiring?  A. Many customers want to understand why a short length of a well shielded power cord makes any difference when that very power cord is attached to your home’s internal wiring that is perhaps 100 feet in length and acting like a superb antenna for noise! First off, unless you have a PS xStream power cable connected, there's nothing a power cable can do to help the noise already on the house wiring. Using a PS cable will help reduce this noise somewhat because of the ferrite material in the jacket. However, this can only reduce small amounts of the noise. The real answer lies in the location of the power cable. Next to your AV equipment. Every piece of equipment in your system radiates RF in the air as well as places switching noise from your equipment’s power supplies onto the line. The walls in your home pickup noise, but the strength of that noise is quite low relative to one of the single biggest sources of radiated noise in your home; your AV system. Protecting your power from radiation with high quality, well shielded aftermarket power cables, helps reduce noise at the source of the most noise; the AV equipment itself. Q. PS and some other power companies publish measurable noise reduction figures for their products. There are other companies that make products without measurable results. They claim it isn’t important. What do you think? A. All PS power products are engineered to reduce noise and harmonics on the AC line in measurable amounts. Several of our competitors pass the AC power through “magic dust” and have “electronic flywheels” and other such methods of conditioning that do not appear to produce measurable results. We would suggest that while these products seem to have some perceived benefit to the users, noise reduction and measured results don't appear to be among them. AC power conditioning is a science and a well known one at that. Before making a purchasing decision, consult with the manufacturer to better understand their thinking and why they feel it is “unimportant” that their products do not produce measurable results and what, precisely, they are hoping to achieve. Their answers may certainly be valid but you, the consumer, should be the judge. Q. There are companies that make power conditioners that measure well yet don’t sound good when used on a high end audio or video system. How can it measure well and not sound good? A. Measurements are meaningful, especially when the goal is to reduce noise or harmonics or to regulate power, but rarely do they tell the whole story. How you achieve a measured result can be as important as the result itself. In an audio amplifier, for instance, lowering the THD distortion is typically a good thing if it’s done properly. Using too much feedback to lower distortion, as an example, has other deleterious consequences that should be avoided. In AC power, reducing noise is a good thing. Using components that restrict the current floor to produce measurable results is a bad thing, sonically and visually. Q. What is the difference between an Ultimate Outlet, a Power Director and a Power Plant? A. PS Audio power product lineup is easiest to understand if we break it into the two main categories: • Passive • Active  Passive power cleaning Passive power cleaning is the most affordable power cleaning technology the company offers. Products using this technology are: • Ultimate Outlets • Ultimate Power Cells (UPC’s) • Power Directors The basis for PS passive power cleaning is centered around the common mode choke, or balun. Active power PS Active power purifying technology is found on our Power Plant line of AC Regenerators. AC power regenerators are the “Cadillac” or the “Rolls Royce” of power purifying technologies. Power Plant AC Regenerators do not simply clean or correct problems on the AC line, in fact, they rebuild the AC po  wer into an absolutely pure and perfect AC power source for connected equipment.Q. Some parallel power conditioners, like Richard Grey, the MIT Z Stabilizer and the Quiet Line AC filters, claim to clean the AC with no power restrictions. Is this true? A. Yes, It is true that parallel power conditioners do not restrict the power. However, while they don’t restrict power there is little evidence that parallel cleaning is effective and many published studies demonstrating the far superior results of proper series cleaning or regeneration. PS Audio power products have both measurable and published test results showing their performance and demonstrate over 40dB of AC cleaning for passive devices and 80dB for our active regenerators (Power Plants). Q. Do PS Audio Power Plant AC Regenerators restrict the power? A. No. In fact, up to their rated power, they have excess energy storage on board that increases the instantaneous power available to your equipment and maintains a steady regulated voltage. What is true: Power Plants are long term power restricted according to their rated power, from 300 watts to 1000 watts by model, while instantaneous burst power can exceed what’s available from the AC socket in the wall. The maximum wattage available from a US 15 amp receptacle is 1750 watts. The largest Power Plant can provide a little over half of that power on a continual basis and provide short term power in excess of the wall voltage. Q. Please explain about the different frequencies available on a Power Plant  A. Power Plants provide the user full control over their power. Users can control the voltage and the frequency of the Power Plant feeding their equipment. Customers can change their frequency to suit the needs of their equipment. Not all equipment is best operated at 50 or 60Hz. Rather, there is a frequency or a waveform that is best to power connected equipment and the Power Plant is the only product in the world that can change the AC power output to suit the needs of the equipment. Q. What is a dedicated line? A. An AC power line dedicated to one piece of equipment. Most AC power lines in our home have multiple outlets connected to them. Each piece of equipment we connect to the AC power can add back contaminating noise into the power line. Using a dedicated line to feed your equipment can reduce the noise contribution of the equipment. The dedicated line can be installed by the homeowner or an electrician and is really nothing more than a single 12 gauge wire running from the AC outlet back to the home’s power panel. Dedicated lines can make a tremendous improvement in system noise levels and performance. Q. Monster Cable has the HTS 2000 AC regulator. Isn’t this just like the Power Plant?  A. No, not at all. The Monster unit is a large variable transformer hooked up to a motor. It can regulate long term slow changes in the AC voltage level, and if this is a problem in a customer’s home, the device may well be a benefit. However, it will not improve or clean the AC power and it does not dynamically regulate the power. In fact, placing this type of series variable transformer in line with the AC power can make the AC power, under heavy load, worse. It is also very slow acting so quick transient demands for power such as those presented by a projector or power amplifier are made worse, not better. A Power Plant reacts instantly to demands by equipment and regulates dynamically. Power Plants also clean and reduce AC distortion by a factor of 10, where the Monster unit does nothing to clean or lower distortion. Q. Don’t PS Power products generate a lot of heat? A. PS Passive power products such as the Ultimate Outlet, UPC-200 and Power Director series do not generate heat. PS Power Plants do. PS Power Plants can generate a lot of heat, as any big power amplifier will, under heavy load conditions. Using Power Plants properly and under normal operating conditions in a stereo or video environment, most users find the heat from Power Plants to be minimal and quite manageable. Q. I see PS Power Plants produce balanced power and I understand this is better for my equipment. Is this true and is there any danger? A. It is true and there is no danger. Power in our homes, regardless of what country we live in, is unbalanced. This means there is a hot and a neutral power connection. In North America, the hot has 120 volt AC on it, and the neutral has zero AC (230 in Europe and much of Asia). A balanced power system has two hot connections and no neutral. Each of the hot terminals has 60 volts AC, out of phase with the other and between them there is the same 120 volt AC. The two hot terminals in a balanced system add together. Balanced power is superior for several reasons, chief amongst them is improved noise rejection by the power supplies of the AV equipment using the balanced power. Noise on the line can be improved by as much as 10dB using a balanced configuration. Q. A number of companies, including Fuhrman, Equi-tech and some Panamax and Monster Cable  AC products produce balanced power, is this true and is PS Audio’s balanced power better or the same?A. It is true that these companies produce some balanced AC power products. The difference between their products and PS products is how the balanced power is produced and what the results are. In the competitor’s products, the balanced AC is produced by a transformer, which is a completely passive device. Its output can be more distorted under load than its input from the wall. While these products all make improvements to the connected equipment and have advantages, low distortion and regulation of the AC power are not among them. Only an active generator, such as a Power Plant, can produce distortion free, regulated and balanced AC power both under load and at idle. Q. We have recently seen a product claiming to be an ACRegenarator® by Panamax. Is this like the Power Plant AC regenerator? A. No, not at all. Panamax trademarked the ACRegenerator® name as a clever spelling of the actual term AC Regenerator which is what a PS Audio Power Plant is. The Panamax device is a line isolation/balanced transformer and its output is neither regulated nor low distortion as in an actual AC regenerator like a Power Plant. PS Audio makes the only true AC regenerator in the world of audio video. Q. I see some new Power Plant looking devices on the market, are they the same?  A. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but so far we're not handing out any cigars. Recently there have been a few UPS based products, Audiophile APS is one of them, claiming to regenerate the AC as a Power Plant does. This is certainly not the case, although the APS device does resemble the Power Plant in its conversion of DC to AC. DC to AC conversion is a common practice in the world of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and the computer you are using to view this page is most likely connected to a UPS. A Power Plant it ain’t. These devices are essentially the same as off-the-shelf sinewave UPS devices that produce higher distortion multi-step sinewaves, fixed at the same frequency as the incoming AC line. These products do not produce pure balanced sinewaves like a Power Plant does nor can they produce MultiWaves. Q. What should a customer expect to see and hear after adding PS power products? A. It’s important that you approach the addition of power products with the proper expectations. Too high an expectation and you might be disappointed. No expectations and chances are you may not know what to listen or look for. Video expectations  When the AC power is cleaner and unrestricted, video performance will improve. No, it won’t look like a new three dimensional picture in place of the original two dimensional picture, but the color will be more vibrant, the black levels will be deeper and the overall appearance of the video will be improved. PS Passive cleaning products produce results that are close to those attained by Power Plants. Since most televisions sets have regulated internal power supplies, cleaning the AC power effectively with a passive PS power product is usually sufficient to achieving 90% of the possible benefits. Audio expectations Power Plant AC regenerators make a clear and remarkable improvement to any audio product connected. You should hear immediate improvements in a lowered noise floor, removal of any glare and harshness riding on the music and improved depth and spatial qualities to the musical soundstage. Instruments to listen to, in particular, are stringed instruments such as pianos, guitars and violins. Power Plants, in particular, make improvements to the upper harmonics and body of these particular instruments. Passive power products from PS Audio have much the same attributes as Power Plants do, just not quite as pronounced. Q. Why do power cables make a difference? A. There are numerous reasons power cables make a difference. Included are: 
 A. Power amplifiers and projectors, TV’s, LCD’s and plasmas tend to benefit the most from an aftermarket power cable of high quality because these devices draw far more power from the AC wall socket. As most stock power cables have limited amounts of copper, AC current is not optimized. Use of a 12 gauge shielded power cable or larger is recommended. Q. What differentiates PS Power cables? A. The xStream series of power cables is not a step-up from other aftermarket power cables, but an entirely new class of power delivery devices. From the connectors, to the conductors, to the outer jacket to the geometry of the cable itself: every single facet of these power cables represents new thinking, new technology and improvements in the art of delivering power. • Custom machined connectors • Contacts machined from a solid block of material • Polished nickel conductors • Hot and cold welding of the connections • Hermetically sealed connectors • Multiple shields • Outer jacket impregnated with ferrite to clean as it powers • Pure OFC copper conductors • Removable Ground pin No other power cable on the market today has the features found in a PS power cable. Delivery of power is an essential element in getting the AC from the wall to your equipment. In conclusion AC power is a growing category and one that is rapidly becoming an indispensable component in any high end audio or video system. Regardless of whether you simply want to protect the investment you have in equipment from surges and spikes coming down the AC line, or if you’re looking for an improvement or both, AC power and its clean and safe delivery to your equipment can make a big difference to your system’s performance. |
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