Neil McCauley
31-12-2008, 19:05
I predict that 2009 will herald a significant increase in the understanding of, and appreciation of the crucial importance of mains purity in relation to sonic credibility.
By this I mean that the false dawn of mains conditioning and filtering will be shown up for what it is when compared to mains regeneration. In short, my hope is that confusion, and those that so confusion - will at last be confounded.
Having now installed literally dozens of PS Audio Power Plant Premier mains regeneration devices and taken careful note of the readings, I am now utterly convinced that the mains cleaning approach adopted by mains conditioning and filtering is fundamentally flawed and was a dark and dynamics-sapping cul de sac which might fortunately be coming to an end. And why do I say this?
The PPP measure incoming THD on the mains. Typically this is around 3.1%. By and large it reduces this by around 90% i.e. typically .3%. Sometimes even lower.
I’ve fiddled around with changing input and output voltages. Interesting, but in no way as dramatic as reducing the THD. Mains conditioning and filtering does nothing to reduce THD in my experience.
In contrast, all of those other silly and expensive mains conditioning and filtering devices I have experienced have proved in general to be worthless in comparison to proper mains regeneration to the extent that not only do I not take them in trade in but I no longer offer to sell them on commission – simply because I am utterly unable to demonstrate any improvement whatsoever. And I don’t mean compared to the PS Audio device, but in isolation. Changes? Yes! Improvements? None!
Yes of course I can bend the demo to enable me to sell this unwanted tosh. It’s easy. Just put on a poorly recorded CD, something pretty harsh in the vocal should do and the mains conditioning and filtering can make the previously dreadful sound more tolerable. But put on (say) a piece of cleanly recorded full orchestral music, and the sound becomes undynamic – as if by magic.
Is this a paean to PS Audio? At first sight you might think so. But it’s not intended as such. No, rather an admiration for the careful application of technically assured engineering principles to the importance of mains. Currently – PS Audio have the market to themselves. My prediction for 2009 is that we are going to see home grown mains regeneration devices and the none-too-soon death of the expensive toys that claim to do as much through filtering and singularly fail to do so outside of the pages of the magazines who rave long and hard about them.
By this I mean that the false dawn of mains conditioning and filtering will be shown up for what it is when compared to mains regeneration. In short, my hope is that confusion, and those that so confusion - will at last be confounded.
Having now installed literally dozens of PS Audio Power Plant Premier mains regeneration devices and taken careful note of the readings, I am now utterly convinced that the mains cleaning approach adopted by mains conditioning and filtering is fundamentally flawed and was a dark and dynamics-sapping cul de sac which might fortunately be coming to an end. And why do I say this?
The PPP measure incoming THD on the mains. Typically this is around 3.1%. By and large it reduces this by around 90% i.e. typically .3%. Sometimes even lower.
I’ve fiddled around with changing input and output voltages. Interesting, but in no way as dramatic as reducing the THD. Mains conditioning and filtering does nothing to reduce THD in my experience.
In contrast, all of those other silly and expensive mains conditioning and filtering devices I have experienced have proved in general to be worthless in comparison to proper mains regeneration to the extent that not only do I not take them in trade in but I no longer offer to sell them on commission – simply because I am utterly unable to demonstrate any improvement whatsoever. And I don’t mean compared to the PS Audio device, but in isolation. Changes? Yes! Improvements? None!
Yes of course I can bend the demo to enable me to sell this unwanted tosh. It’s easy. Just put on a poorly recorded CD, something pretty harsh in the vocal should do and the mains conditioning and filtering can make the previously dreadful sound more tolerable. But put on (say) a piece of cleanly recorded full orchestral music, and the sound becomes undynamic – as if by magic.
Is this a paean to PS Audio? At first sight you might think so. But it’s not intended as such. No, rather an admiration for the careful application of technically assured engineering principles to the importance of mains. Currently – PS Audio have the market to themselves. My prediction for 2009 is that we are going to see home grown mains regeneration devices and the none-too-soon death of the expensive toys that claim to do as much through filtering and singularly fail to do so outside of the pages of the magazines who rave long and hard about them.