Newsletter: March 2008
My experiences with 3 PS Audio Power products
“Breathtaking. It made some previously poor recordings that were boring become proudly moving. I found this both intriguing and deeply affecting. I just had to order one there and then.”
Overview:
This article focuses on the:
- PS Audio Quintet Power Centre
- The Quintessence Power Centre and
- The Power Plant Premier.
My objective is to relate to you as plainly as possible the process by which I evaluated these 3 items, to clarify as simply as possible the conclusions that can be drawn and to explain what those conclusions might mean for you.
Important preliminary note:
The PS Audio Power Products are not just a new category of audiophile product. They are unique in that their application simultaneously influences the performance of every aspect of the system, unlike other aftersales products which might influence one item at a time (such as a power cord into a DAC) or the relationship between 2 items in the chain, such as the nature of the speaker cables between power amplifier and speakers, and so on.
The point is this. A PPP (Power Plant Premier) at £1,799 might seem a ridiculous extravagance if it were used say only in conjunction with an FM Tuner, or a Digital transport or whatever. Extravagant because under those circumstance, the cost of the PPP might well exceed the cost of the tuner or transport.
However in the context of an entire system, of say £6,000 the £1,700 could and should be seen as ‘quite reasonable’ (depending on your interpretation of both ‘quite’ and ‘reasonable’) as a percentage of the entire system cost.
Going against the grain:
I'm going to give you the summary first. This way, you can decide to find out how I came by my conclusions by reading on, or you exit now with no more of your time being wasted – having read this far.
1. In every individual instance, with each of the 3 items, with all types of music, in any room, at my home or customers homes, both I and the other listeners always heard an immediate difference.
2. In every instance, that difference was perceived by everyone as an improvement. However it should be noted that …
3. The nature and extent and relevance of that improvement varied in accordance with what each listener as looking for during the listening session. Or put differently, some improvements for some listeners were stated by them as being ‘significant’, while the self-same improvements were perceived by other listeners in the same listening session as being ‘noticeable, nice to have but not necessarily significant’. Such are the vagaries of human nature.
What’s important (and I will clarify this later) to me as a listener turned out to be almost irrelevant to other listeners who were listening alongside me – and vice versa. By which I mean that some listeners pointed out improvements to me that I’d not noticed simply because they were unimportant to me at that point.
As might be expected, the degree to which listeners immediate expectations and aspirations are met is a function of their mood, and both their positive and negative perceptions. No surprises there then. However it is interesting to note that after being exposed to the effects of a piece of PS Audio Power equipment, my own aspirations and expectations shifted somewhat. By this I mean that aspects that I had preciously thought not to be of particular interest then progressively became of interest. Other listeners observed this in themselves and others.
4. At no time was any difference identified as making the sound worse.
5. There was a clear and unambiguous progression paths when moving up through the range of 3 items. Or put differently and perhaps more relevantly, no model was able to produce results that were better than the model above it.
The evaluation procedure – my room
My demo room is roughly 6m x 6, x 3m height. It benefits from a dedicated i.e. direct from the consumer unit, 30 amp spur. As far as I can tell, there are no ring main effects that impact on my system.
The evaluation procedure – the system.
No details, simply because I don’t want you to be distracted by brand names of equipment which in itself is not being auditioned. The focus here is on the varying effects and their degrees of significance, rather than the system as a whole. This the system is a diagnostic tool in this instance. Nothing more.
What I will say though is that the system was expensive and deliberately not very well matched. I deliberately engineered in by design, a few unpleasant acoustic anomalies. These include an over-rich soft bass, harsh midrange, a wide sound stage that had no real depth or height, and so on.
This system, for evaluation purposes rather than amusement / entertainment was listened to for a few hours (it wasn’t that bad, not really) and power from the wall socket was distributed by the excellent LFD distribution strip.
Signal source was always CD and the music was varying types.
The evaluation system – let’s get to work.
What I am about to relate to you took only a few minutes per section. Not hours and not days. The point being that much (but not all) of the impact of PS Audio Power equipment is immediately noticeable – straight out of the box.
I picked one track from 3 different CDs and played them in rotation throughout the process.
Stage #1.
I started with the lowest priced item, the QPC (Quintet Power Centre). In this context, I was comparing it directly to the LFD distribution strip with AC2 Mk2 cable upgrade.
Please bear in mind that extraordinarily, the LAT can and does make noticeable positive improvements (generally subtle rather than dramatic) in every installation I’ve used them in. Thus the LAT strip is more that just a convenience tool. It creates it’s own influence.
Head to head, the QPC didn’t introduce anything dramatically positive to the sound over and above that of the LAT. The bass was marginally tighter, the mid range slightly less harsh and the treble a little less fatiguing. It did nothing that I could hear for imaging in any way at all. Thus one could realistically conclude that if you have an LFD distribution strip, there is only negligible sonic benefit to be had in moving to the QPC. However, that does not mean that the QPC is valueless. Far from it.
The point is this. If you don’t have any distribution strip at all, then you will get a significant benefit from the QPC i.e. the benefits of an LAT plus the incremental benefits of the QPC The QPC is £395. The LAT strip is £261. The price differential of just £134 really is worth it.
At this point ...
Just to put things into perspective, these are the sort of characteristics I'm looking for when I change something in my own system. Do please remember that these are my personal preferences. Like yours, these are neither right nor wrong. For both of us, these are our choices.
So, my own reference system is already of a high quality. It’s not easy to improve. I can change aspects and in so doing, make the sound different. But as I said earlier, different doesn’t always mean better.
Depth of image, by which I mean front to back, is not that Important to me. But height of image most certainly is. The finest systems I have ever heard (Beveridge 2SW-2, Infinity IRS and the Apogee Diva (none of these are still in production) had a full height presentation – just like real life music in the concert hall. That’s something I want more of.
I'm always looking for a deeper bass while simultaneously being as taut and fast as possible. Increased treble detail without harshness is always a goal for me and finally (in this context at least) I don’t want any of the improvement suggested above to in any way damage the already very open and natural mid-range.
All in all then, I’m being a tough if not unreasonable judge. Read on to see how, if at all, the various items of PS Audio addressed these issues. And I’ve left the toughest criterion for last. I want my system to come to life at a volume control setting lower than I use now BUT without becoming harsh when the volume control is advanced to beyond where it is now. Okay, moving on …
Stage #2. The Quintessence versus the OPC
So, what is the Quintessence. PS Audio describe it like this:
“The Quintessence Power Center is the world's first component level AC power center to offer true surge protection, front panel harmonic power analyzer, AC volt meter, remote control and outstanding AC filtering in an affordable shelf or rack mount chassis product. The Quintessence offers both double common mode and differential mode noise filtering of the AC line, improves performance of connected equipment and provides a safe and noise reduced power source for both audio and video equipment."
Or put differently, it cleans up the mains into your audio equipment without regenerating the mains. Mains regeneration is the province of the PPS (Premier Power Supply). More on that later.
The Quintessence is a substantial piece of kit. Not as heavy as the PPS but very well build and as slim as could be made possible given the rather advance technology inside.
You just plug it in and listen to the changes it makes to the system – always remembering that an improvement must be a change, but a change need not be an improvement. These changes are immediately noticeable and in every instance so fat, those changes are improvements. As mentioned previously here, “The nature and extent and relevance of that improvement varied in accordance with what each listener as looking for during the listening session. Or put differently, some improvements for some listeners were stated by them as being ‘significant’, while the self-same improvements were perceived by other listeners in the same listening session as being ‘noticeable, nice to have but not necessarily significant’. Such are the vagaries of human nature”
This is what happened in my test system, which if you recall “… was expensive and deliberately not very well matched. I deliberately engineered in by design, a few unpleasant acoustic anomalies. These include an over-rich soft bass, harsh midrange, a wide sound stage that had no real depth or height, and so on”
My primary goal of being able to achieve the dynamics and drive I get at my usual volume, but at a lower volume level was achieved. Full marks there. I’ve heard this in every other home demo – so it’s not just me. And yes, it also enable the system to be driven hardened – without listener fatigue. This treble detail was not sacrificed even though harshness was reduced. Pretty much full marks there too.
In terms of achieving the full height sound stage, well frankly it didn’t do much. Fair enough. The makers don’t claim they can achieve this. However, and I know it sounds like a cliché, but the speakers, from a sonic standpoint, did seem to disappear. Image width was greatly enhanced. Stereo depth increased, but as I mentioned earlier, that’s not of too much interest to me.
Bass depth was not increased. ‘Slam’ was though. The bass was, with the Quintessence, tauter, faster and most pleasing of all, better integrated into the whole sound spectrum. I was I must admit to being a bit taken aback by this. I had previously though the bass was particularly well integrated. After taking the Quintessence out of the chain, it turned out I was wrong. Well, it happens. So an unexpected benefit there.
I was and remain very impressed by the Quintessence. It does everything that was promised, and a whole lot more.
Now, a small confession. I was prejudiced against the Quintessence, merely because I thought it was going to be a re-run of something else. More on this in a moment. I should point out that I was prejudiced towards the Power Plant premier simply because the entire logic of mains regeneration seems entirely rational. Previous issues of PS Audio mains regeneration had put me off because of the sheer weight, the size, the inefficiency, the heat and the dimness of the previous UK importer. nevertheless I really believed, even without direct experience, that mans regeneration was if not the answer, then certainly an answer.
So anyway, re the quintessence, you should be aware that I had purchased and then rapidly sold a Nordost Thor. The makers described it thus: “Thor is an elegant, full rack width, 6-way AC mains power distribution unit featuring sophisticated circuitry for dealing with mains noise and voltage spikes without limiting dynamic headroom”
Hmm. Really? Well in my system, and the system of the man who sold it to me, other than a very slight softening of the sound, it didn’t make any difference whatsoever, let alone an improvement! To me, it looked and sounded like a standard mains distribution system in a smart box with a lot of hype. Thinking (in ignorance) that the PS Audio Quintessence was more of the same, it wasn’t going to get an easy ride.
So the fact it passed with flying colours is a terrific achievement.
Stage #3. The PPS versus the Quintessence:
No beating around the bush here. This really is ground breaking technology, or rather the PS Audio implementation of it is ground-breaking.
In my system, you know – the poorly put together one, – it wove a magic all of its own. Imagine all the benefits of the Quintessence, and then some. Quintessence on steroid is a reasonable description.
The ability to lower the volume without damaging the dynamics, already impressive with the Quintessence, was superior. The ability to play a very high sound pressure levels without harshness or strain was mightily impressive. This alone, in some circumstances, might be worth the price of admission alone. But there’s more.
At last, I got closer to the full height image I craved. Not to everyone’s taste I'm sure – but it certainly impressed me. Bearing in mind I'm using stand- mounted speakers not know for their imaging capabilities, this was quite a surprise.
As for the bass, well it became even tighter and faster. I concluded that to expect more out of my system was at that point unrealistic. As it turned out (for reasons beyond the scope of this story) I was taking the speakers to the limit of the design in terms of bass extension. Expecting anything superior was unrealistic simply because the speakers were the limiting factor. Taking the PPS out of the system confirmed this. The bass returned to its lush, overblown and flabby sound. To my ears, it reverted to being more of a Linn bass than a Funk/Pink Triangle bass.
The midrange, if anything, became more detailed and natural. I hadn’t expected this. Not even a little bit. A nice bonus. In other systems, it might be deeply significant.
Previously I hadn’t particularly noticed background (system) noise in my system. However with the PPS I had the curious feeling that the system noise was entirely absent. This was confirmed when taking the PPS out of the system. Anything else?
Yes. What I had previously thought was a very well integrated bass, mid and treble really wasn’t, prior to the PPS. Consciously or unconsciously I’d been kidding myself. Again, taking it out of the system proved this.
The PPS is one of the sonically significant items of audiophile equipment I have ever experienced. Given what it can do to the entire system, it is good value at the least, and extraordinary value at best. This unit is unhesitatingly recommended.
Why a home demonstration is crucial.
As you can read here, the PPP and to a lesser extent the Quintessence provide a suite of audio enhancements. Some of these are predictable, while others are less so.
The extent of some of the enhancements, by which I mean how apparent they are to you is also unpredictable. Some of them, to your ears, in your system, with your musical tastes while being noticeable, might be quite slight for you while another partner listening along side you might find them quite powerful.
The importance of the enhancements is a variable too. for example, the increase in full eight image is very important to me while increasing the front to back depth is less so. For you, it might be entirely the reverse. And that might be the difference between buying the Quintessence, in favour of the PayPal – or vice-versa.
All in al then, it would be foolish to try and predict precisely what is likely to take place – other than (a) the changes will be immediately apparent, (b) those changes will invariably be an improvement and (c) based on my extensive hands-on experience I find it inconceivable that adding in a PS Audio Power product would diminish the sound quality.
In conclusion then, given the clear upgrade path and very clever pricing which means that the improvement in performance is clearly justifying the prices, then trying one of these is a no-brainer. You’ll be very reluctant to hand it back. Very!
©2008 Howard Popeck