You can do that, but there is a good chance that’s what’s in the box he has.
It’s harder to do ac-ac with a switching mode converter that it is just to stick a small transformer in there, it’s not like it’s putting out a ton of power.
I personally wouldn’t use that box for anything hifi, my guess is it has at least a Unity gain buffer, probably implemented with an op amp in it.
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Thank you @dB_Cooper amd @Polygonhell , it’s been working great with the original power brick, enjoying the HDPLEX so much so trying to find anything I can power it with. Currently have my Pi2AES, Roon ROCK Nuc, and Ethernet switch all hooked up, and have one output free. Less cable mess, and only need to use one output from the PowerPlant makes me happy about changing my mindset on power stuff!
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I took a look at the HDPlex, very flexible. Did you notice improvement? At leas on the Pi2AES you should have.
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Not yet, it’s one less thing to worry about and as I mentioned earlier the convenience of powering 4 devices out of one outlet on the PowerPlant is enough to justify it. I have 10 outlets and that is still not enough, so this helps and frees up a few.
To be fair, as long as it lowers the noise floor that is the minimum expectation I have. Also have not listened much today, until about an hour ago. Rivalry weekend in College Football had my eyes on tv, instead of ears to music. Let me get back on this after I spend some proper time with it.
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Well…
instead of spamming the what have you purchased recently thread, I figured I’d just post here since I need to ask the experts anyway.
I took the plunge after getting a good deal on a PS Audio Powerplant 3. The plan is to connect my DAC, all of my digital gear and my preamp to it. I’ll be keeping the Richard Gray 1200S isolation transformer to plug my amp and subs into.
Along with this I’ve gotten a pair of Shunyata Alpha HC power cables and will try them both as the mains cable from the wall into the respective Powerplant and Richar Gray and I’ll try them on components directly.
Curious as to personal experience in the community with PC performance being most noticeable in their impact? This could potentially become a nice deep money pit if I see results good enough to justify dumping money into all of my AC cables.
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For me, the most reliable has been hp amp >= regen, then DAC and streamer. If I go out of order, then I usually can’t hear a difference on the digital side.
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generally, most power hungry is most significant, so in may case the HF Amp and Pacific were about the same, but I did notice a change all the way down to the PSU on the Optical Rendu.
Having said that, I often bought more expensive cables as I added them and cycled them down, so I don’t think I’ve ever just checked a power cable change on the Rendu.
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I will concur with the others, noticed an impact only when swapping the power cord with the amplifier over the smaller less watt items such as DAC, streamer, ROCK, etc.
Also use a good quality pc on the PowerPlant, lower gauge than the other stuff since it’s essentially your main power for the items connected to it.
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My Subwoofers SEEM to have benefited from the AC power cable upgrades more than anything else as far as I can tell. You know how this goes, we think something sounds/feels/impacts better as we upgrade parts.
Congratulations on the new additions 
I use my best AC cables on my DAC’s and streamers when i can, personally i think that is where I am maximizing my sound quality. The better the front end gets the better it all sounds way back at the transducer 
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So far I’m hearing a lot of comments that are not surprising and reflect a good bit of my personal experience. I’m very curious about the cable that will connect to the Powerplant 3 as you’d think that would be important. I’ll try different combinations for it and see. Also curious as to how having the Powerplan will or won’t allow me to hear the differences in the power cables themselves.
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This is important, they state so in the user manual!!
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@dB_Cooper i know Ben is not the biggest fan of power regens when i asked him. I think this is mostly a “Ben” thing but i would like to hear your impressions of that on your Evo.
I’m going to experiment over the holidays as it’s clear that these things can have a tremendous impact. Mixed results thus far but I’m just using the PP3 for now, won’t have my Shunyata cables (4 total) until the end of this week. I’ve picked up a couple of Alpha HC and a couple or the snake variants that were top shelf back in their day.
I do want to take as controlled a test as possible and I’ve stayed away from the NR and Digital variants for now cause, just too many variables. The whole Shunyata line seems to have a following so I figured I’d try them as it should be straight forward selling them again if they don’t mesh well.
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Another day of testing the Powerplant 3 and again coming up with mixed results. My LTA pre does not like being plugged into it, or better said, I don’t like how the pre sounds connected to it. It’s a weird thing to say but it becomes less euphonic, less enjoyable to listen to, I’d almost say thinner and I can’t quite explain it. Micro details but less “slam” and doesn’t feel as dynamic.
I’m really checking to see if I’m doing anything wrong but I check, double check and triple check and all things are fine. I haven’t yet tried the Multiwave, but figured I’d ask, do you guys use it? High or long on the strength and any feedback on what you’ve found it does to the sound? I hesitate to use it because it feels like clean power should be clean power, why is that function there?
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What is the combined power consumption wattage of the gear you have plugged into the P3?
There should only be an on/off for Multiwave as the P3 doesn’t have the varying strengths as the larger models do. Are your first two outlets set to HC or Regeneration on the back, should be on regeneration.
Also, are you plugging the P3 directly to the wall, or via the Richard Gray box?
I’ve run with it on and off, it’s a subtle difference at best, what it does is make the wave shape flatter and wider than a sinewave. Might change how much residual ripple the PSU has, or its characteristics.
Your complaint is interesting a lot of people claim almost any power conditioning can rob an amp of dynamics, though it’s usually discussed for power amps rather than pre amps.
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I checked, the only things I’ve got connected to it are the LTA pre, the Mojo Illuminati LPS which then powers my DDC and my opticalRendu. The power consumption of the MicroZOTL is supposed to be 50 watts and I can’t imagine the other things suck up another 50 combined.
Thanks for clearing that up. I guess the - and + are just there because it’s the same remote for all of their models.
Directly to the wall, with good cable, 10 gauge well constructed and well shielded. I’ll try throwing a Shunyata cable on it as well.
Do you think the nature of the ZOTL design has anything to do with it perhaps?
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That’s definitely plenty of headroom for the 300 watts! Any reason you are not connecting your DAC?
Yup, could give it a clean cycle? Worth trying if you haven’t already. I usually use MW, to me it seemed to sound better with it in vs. off.
That is ideal, might try a regular old stock cable to hear if that makes it worse or better. Also, don’t you have a 20A outlet directly in your room? This may be a factor, as in you likely are not receiving the benefit due to having a dedicated line already.
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Wouldn’t be my first guess.
Power supply design is where I’d think most likely.
If you’re comparing it against the isolation transformer, it could just be the added impedance in the transformer making the difference. But I’m guessing.
I mean 50W should be nothing, so none of that should matter.
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I remember when I had the PSAudio, some things liked being plugged into it, some didn’t. Some amps sounded better directly to the wall, some preamps as well. I realized the higher I moved up, the more likely it would sound better directly to the wall.
It would seem there was some slight fuzz, less dynamics, and clarity.
The whole selling point of regenerators made me shy away from conditioning, especially since I had a bad experience with my first conditioner, but when I went Ansuz, I didn’t look back.
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