Power Regenerators

I am curious how many of you live in apartment buildings in large cities and have tried power regenerators to improve/stabilize the sound in your system and what your experiences have been. Particularly your experience with its ability to improve and stabilize the sound of your system and how much it has added to your monthly electric bill.

I live in New York City in a large condo complex. I notice that the sound quality of my system varies a lot and I am looking to fix this.

One unit I am considering is the Stellar Power Plant 3 by PS Audio: Stellar Power Plant 3 One concern I have is that it's 300 watts max and my amp is 270 watts and my SACD player is 24 watts. One reviewer said that as he got close to the limit he noticed a clear reduction in sound quality, so I'm concerned.

I've read reviews about it, which sound promising and they have a 30 return policy, but I wanted to ask here before trying it.

 

Bump

 

Are those the only 2 things you will be plugging into it? Even so, IMO the Stellar unit would be pushing the upper end of what it can handle.

I'm not sure what your budget is, but I would at least look at a bare minimum of a P5 or used P10.

There are some cheaper alternatives (though not made in the USA) available from Essence Audio that might be worth looking into.

 

Yeah, I'd only be plugging in those two.

Thanks, I'll look into that.

 

I lived in NYC and did notice a more smooth sound appear on my equipment after midnight when many went to bed and turned off electronics that seemed to clean up the power. It was just better sounding and a pleasure to hear. My equipment is much more sophisticated now. not sure what I would hear if in NYC. I live in the country now.

 

I live in downtown DC and have pretty bad power and voltage issues or did in the past. Lots of light bulbs burning out early etc. In order to extend tube life on my amp I started running it off a Variac at the suggestion of my dealer. I have the voltage set to 115v and it has worked great and also made the system quieter. I then got an ExactPower 2000 which is a line stabilizer holding the voltage at 120v for all my other equipment. Both pieces work well and keep things very quiet without sacrificing dynamics. Neither is a re-generator but both were less expensive and less limited in terms of output voltage both units have a 2k output. Perhaps widen your search and look at some voltage regulators.

 

I have both a PS Power Premier and a PS P300. I acquired them when I lived in Nassau County as the power there was terribly uneven.

I now live in a large co-op in Manhattan. The power in my building is pretty good in that I don't hear adverse effects of inconsistent power delivery. As such, I am somewhat indifferent as to whether I use the power regenerators or not. The Premier is used for frontend source only (preamp, phono pre, DAC) and not for either power amp (SS) or headphone amp (EL-34s). The P300 is for the Garrard 301 only. I tried running only a 100w/channel power amp from the Premier and it hurt the dynamics of the power amp.

These regerators draw from the wall at full rated output so it will run up your electric bill. I couldn't tell you how much it cost me to run them as my electric is included in my monthly maintenance.

I ran both regerators when I felt I wanted to cover all aspects of ensuring the best sound possible. I am not now running either regenerator as it seems wasteful of power given the current (oops) state of my electricity delivery.

 

Yup. Now, in a NYC apartment, are you ever totally cranking that amp up? (Your profile is blocked so could you list all your equipment for us? And your blood type and social security number and phone passcode? And which mastering of Kind Of Blue you think is best? ) If you never crank the amp up all the way, it should be fine assuming it is not Class A. If you do like to let loose sometimes, then you need a bigger regenerator.
P.S. in your circumstance I would do either regenerator or nothing, I wouldn't bother with filters wich can't fix all the electrical crap that can go on in the big city.

 

I have not used one of those but have a (newly added) Torus RM20, which is based on a noise-filtering toroidal transformer and surge-protection circuitry. Everyone has an opinion about what power unit might be best, but objectively, something like a Torus has far less in the way of electronics than an active regenerator, so will be less prone to needing maintenance in the future.

I have never seen a negative comment about the Torus units; I was gratified by the improvement from mine -- better imaging/soundstaging, smoother treble, more liquid sound, and more consistency from one listening session to the next. I think the Torus RM15 is in the same price range as the Stellar, and you might consider it or another unit in the Torus Power RM line. Torus sells direct to the US and sometimes has demo units available for sale at a discount. Or maybe a dealer in NYC could let you try before you buy.

I do think a power unit of some kind should help with the issues you mention. I'm not the first to say, try before you buy, especially with power units.

Whatever you wind up with, good luck! I hope you find the right product for your system.

 

In my case I was in the market about a year ago for either a regenerator or a passive. The idea of paying to have my power cleaned by using a regenerator just didn't appeal to me. Judging by the amount of regenerators available on the used market it seemed that a lot of people felt the same way after owning one for a short period of time. I finally settled on a 84lb balanced Furman reference 20i which does a nice job of cleaning things up and it's not pay for play.

 

Amplifiers should be plugged into the wall not the regenerator. This advise comes from Paul the owner of PS Audio.

 

Which power regenerator would I need for my Krell power amp and system?

 

It all depends on your power requirements. How many amps will your system draw in total? Add 20-30% so you have enough reserve power. Again, your power amp should be plugged directly into the wall. Call 1800PSAUDIO and they will help you size the proper solution.

 

You could try the iFi AC iPurifier. It works on a different principle with noise cancellation, identifying noise and generating inverse noise to smooth the sine wave. Advantage is that is not power restricted and inexpensive ca. 120€, stand alone or with power strip (550€ ).
It also has a separate grounding option, which lowers the signal noise floor.

 

From Paul himself:

Plugging the Krell [an amplifier] directly into the wall will never be as good as going through the regenerator. - Paul, PS Audio