I use the P12. It shows 3.5% THD in and of course 0.1% out. I demo’d it alongside the AudioQuest Niagara 5000 and Shunyata Denali V2. It was close, but I liked P12 the most. The other two were great, just a different flavor. Surely it’d ultimately vary from system to system so it’s something that must be tried first hand.
I posted this in another thread but thought it was worth re-posting, because their trade in system looks phenomenal.
I was looking at PS Audio’s site and according to their trade in rules, they will give you quite a substantial discount if you send them your old equipment. For instance, I have a 20 year old B&K home theater receiver which, according to their own automated quote on their website, is worth a $660 discount on a new Power Plant 3, no matter what condition the receiver is in. That brings me down to $1539 for a brand new device, plus however much it costs me to ship the receiver to them. Quite a deal.
“” no matter what condition the receiver is in " . Not quiet right. From the PS audio site.
" We require that all trade-in gear is functioning. Additionally, all trade-in gear must have respectable cosmetic condition.
What we do not accept in trade: We do not accept broken or non-functioning product.""
But not a bad deal on older equipment in working order.
That sounds like a convenience disposal service rather than any discount at all. Automated quote value = what they can flip it for through a broker or online sales site.
Oh they are not losing money put it that way. .
I meant that it didn’t matter whether I selected “Poor”, “Good” or “Great” in their trade in pop up, they still quoted $660 for each choice.
Oh yes, that makes a little more sense to me now. The Poor, The Good, The Great, sounds like a old Clint Eastwood movie
I just called PS Audio and they explained that they partner with another company that sells used equipment, and they get a cut of that sale.
$660 for a 20 year old receiver that was just sitting unused in a box is a good deal, and several hundred dollars more than I could get for it on eBay, so I went ahead and bought a Stellar Power Plant 3.
I’ll miss that B&K receiver. It was built like a tank and had great sound.
Enjoy The Power Plant
Nice! Looking forward to your impressions.
You can even look for expensive used MSRP equipment for trade in purposes. I traded one of these in on my Power Plant P12. Paid $200 for the APC S15 battery backup conditioner when it was discontinued. Used it for a couple of years prior to trade in. Cost close to $100 to ship it in to PS Audio. Trade in value was $1499.
What is the consensus on the AudioQuest PowerQuest 2? I’m looking to add surge protector something or another for my small setup that will include the following items. I’d like to spend under $300 and the PowerQuest 2 seems to be a good option. The Furman PST-8 looks like a good option too. This will be sitting on a bottom shelf out of sight.
Schiit Lyr 3
Bottlehead Crack w/Speedball
Schiit Modius (wall wart or USB)
Pro-Ject VT-E BT turntable (wall wart)
Pro-Ject Bluetooth Box E (wall wart)
iPhone Charger (wall wart or USB)
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I don’t have any experience with the AudioQuest, but until I bought my PS Audio PowerPlant 3, I was using a Zero Surge 8R15W-I, which is on sale right now.
It’s really solid, has isolated receptacles to prevent cross talk and more importantly, their surge protection doesn’t wear down like most other company’s offerings. Zero Surge holds the patent for this technology, which is also used by Brickwall and SurgeX, so when I was shopping, I compared all three
companies and picked the cheapest one.
Just ordered one, thank you!
Question for @andris and other owners of the PSAudio Power Plant.
A comment just now from @BondDaBoom reminded me that I’ve never actually used any of the functions of my Power Plant, I basically plug everything in and leave it.
Does anyone use these functions on a regular basis? What do they do?
How often do you run them? Every week? Month?
I had absolutely no idea about those functions before I bought the Power Plant. That said, I did dig through the manual when it arrived, and tried both MultiWave and the CleanWave functions. I hadn’t touched either feature for months, so just now, I tried them again to remind myself why I didn’t use them.
CleanWave - I couldn’t notice any difference from running the CleanWave function, so that’s that.
MultiWave - Definitely changes the sound. I found it to be smoother, but dynamically flatter, and perhaps slightly poorer instrument separation, and maybe even some smearing (?), so I guess that’s why I’ve been leaving it off.
For me, the benefit of the Power Plant is all in its normal functionality of cleaning up the incoming AC and giving me what the outlet is supposed to give, in a “perfect” world.
Reference:
Thanks for being the guinea pig. I just tried the CleanWave too and couldn’t tell the difference either.
What if all one wants is a surge protector, no filters, no extra stuff to interfere, only something to protect from electrical spikes or sorcery?
It seems like there are compromises in any power related accessory.
There’s a good Wirecutter review of surge protectors here.
Before I bought the PS Audio, I had a Zero Surge , which I think was recommended by an older Wirecutter review, mainly because the Zero Surge’s protection is guaranteed not to wear out. But the Tripp Lite they recommend in the latest review turns itself off when its protection runs out, and it’s a fraction of the price of the Zero Surge, so it looks like a great deal.
I pushed the clean wav button a couple times when I first got it, makes the transformer on my WA33 buzz, no real change of note when it completes.
I have multi wave turned off, what it does is basically make it easier for the PSU in the device to smooth the rectified signal, the incoming power is more like a squashed sin wave, it’s different, but not obviously better, so I leave it off.