P600 Feeding P300s!!!!!  

We all know that I'm totally whacked out and crazy, so pretty much nothing I do will surprise you, right??????

I previously reported a few interesting tidbits re the PS Audio P300. First, I tried it up in the air on my Dwin 7" CRT, and I really luved what I saw, the best picture I ever had. But this was short lived. Within 4-5 days, I noticed the picture being irregular, better some times, worse some times, and overall I didn't like what was happening to the picture anymore. So I took down the P300 from the projector, and I put my old projector tweaks back up.

Then I used the taken down P300 to feed another P300 into which was plugged a Theta Voyager DVD/LD/CD, DSS, JVC S-VHS VCR - picture and sound was better than ever
(I won't say picture was better than its best moments with the P300 on the CRT projector initially, however). But within about two weeks, I started noticing degradation of picture and sound quality. Conclusion that the P300 (which fed the other one) was running at 240 - 270 watts displayed on front panel, very, very hot, and over time this
degraded the generated AC quality. So I placed this elsewhere.

Today I got my P600!!!! (CHEERS!!!!)

This is my setup:

1. Over at the very left side of the equipment racks, I have one P300 which now has plugged into it two JVC S-VHS 9600 VCRs, an AM-FM tuner and Sony DSS (second receiver in room used for recording off DSS, while I am watching HD or any other programming with other RCA DTC-100 HD DirecTV receiver).

2. Over at very right of equipment racks, I have two P300s. Plugged into one of the P300s are RCA DTC-100, Theta Voyager, Dwin Transcanner & Camelot Dragon (DSS jitter reduction). Plugged into the other P300 is only the Theta Casablanca surround processor.

I have the two P300s on the right plugged into the P600. And tonight, I like what I hear and see. The audio is clearly better defined, more dynamic and "cleaner", and the video does seem a bit brighter and sharper.
Even with all components plugged into the two P300s on the right, the P600 shows use of 300 - 350 watts.

I am ordering a very long power cord so the P300 on the very left can also connect into the P600. This won't up the power usage of the P600 hardly at all, because the connected components barely use any power when not actively used.

I am going to try a 25' extension cord shortly with the Dwin CRT projector, because I've got plenty of power to spare with the P300. I'll let you know. I expect that the P600 won't have any current limit problem like I saw using the P300 with the projector.
Assuming this works, I'll order a long power cord for this purpose. (Woops - I'll take some time on this one, just in case I decide to move up to a 9" CRT that uses a lot more power than the Dwin CRT, but I really don't think I'll even be considering this for at least another two years or so - I just don't wan fan noise, and I already have a great picture, expected to be even better using the P600 with the projector, too).

I was concerned about what I'll call crosstalk (noise backing down power cords of connected components through P300/600 making its way to components connected through other P300/600). But even though this may be technically possible, already I can see a bit and hear a good amount of improvement using the P600 to feed the P300s.

Once again, my initial thoughts. I'll come back and let you know whether over time my observations hold water! But I think they will because, as Stacey Spears has pointed out, the P600 has so way much more heat sink and frame that its almost equivalent to three, not two, P300s.

ALso, I am demoing a PS Audio Lab Cable, currently connected from P600 to wall. Later on, I will substitute a Harmonic Tech cord in its place and I will let you know what I think. I think the Lab Cable retails nearly 180% the retail of the Harmonic Tech cord.

Alan, the P300 and P600 are the same technology and are supposed to offer the same sonic/video improvement provided you don't overdrive them too hot, as I've previously noted. I know its hard to believe, but I get tired of tweaking so much at times. I already know how wonderful the P300s are for my system. And I'm finding out that a P600 can handle feeding my multiple P300s and look and sound even better. Alan, the question for you is not whether a PS Audio Power Plant will improve your sound - it should. The question is how many components do you have, how much power they draw, and whether you need a P300 or P600. As Stacey Spears has noted, practically the P600 can handle about three times the load of the P600. Re amplifiers, whether you hookup the amps to the P600 depends on how powerful they are - if I recall correctly, I think Paul McGowan recommended no more than 120 watt per channel stereo amp for a P600. However, that Yamaha surround receiver with 100 watts X 5 with James Loudspeakers, the other night for the Az Audiophile meeting, with the Yamaha and Pioneer DVD plugged into a P600, seemed to do very nicely at least that evening. Probably because all five channels aren't fully utilized at once.

Alan, I agree with you fully. Few people will spend the extra hard earned cash to daisy chain a P600 with P300s. My initial impression here is that if you need the power handling of the P600, get it! Running cooler is in my opinion important to the Power Plants top performance and for the money, the P600 has about fifty percent more capacity than two P300s.

I got $10 25 foot 14 guage power cords at the hardware store. I hooked the P300 on the very left of the racks, the one with the two JVC S-VHS VCRs, with one of the 25' cords to the P600. I then took the other 25' cord and hooked up the Dwin CRT projector.

With all three P300s on and all components on and Theta Voyager running and both DirecTV receivers running, and Projector running, front meter of P600 shows 550 watts. YEA!!!!!

The verdict. Short term of course. Sound and picture is better than ever from each source.
And re picture this is using a cheap hardware store non-tweaky 25' cable. I am very pleased!!!!!

There's a three dimensionality, naturalness, black level improvement on all sources, including HDTV. YEA!

Nine days later, the long term verdict is --------
"VUNDERFUL!!!!!"

I can't go back to the prior setup. As the P600 and system connections have just started to break-in, I have luved both the sonic and video improvements! I ordered a 15' power cord to connect the P300 on the left of the racks to the P600; and a 30' power cord so that I can connect from the Dwin projector, up the install mount/pole to ceiling, across to left side wall, down to floor, and over to P600 - both from Harmonic Tech thru Audionut.

Note that Stacey Spears has a 25' PS Audio Lab Cable on order to connect his Dwin HD-700 7" CRT projector to his P600.

Yesterday, just prior to the CRT shootout, Bob Williams brought over the 15' and 30' Harmonic Tech power cords, to replace cheap hardware store ones, to connect the analog VCR P300 to the P600, and to connect the Dwin CRT projector to the P600.

I already like what I am seeing. I used the Dwin (not the 9" Electrohome I'm demoing) to watch the Phoenix Suns playoff game tonight, and it was easily the best I've ever seen the local cable tv picture. Despite all my tweaking, there was still a residual of cable noise evident in the picture, which is gone now completely, and any "ring" around the players is totally gone as well, and picture is brighter with better contrast and color. WOW!
The P600 with the cheap hardware cords helped, but with the new Harmonic Tech cords its even better.

The P600 feeding three P300s has improved the sound even more. Not just a bit in my opinion. Shaun Pressley was over for the web meet two months ago, and last night, and he noted that the sound seemed a good amount cleaner than before (and who knew that the sound wasn't clean before?).



[This message has been edited by Steve Bruzonsky (edited May 13, 2000).]

At the PS Audio Talk Forum, Paul McGowan gave the following explanation of how a Power Plant feeding a Power Plant can improve system performance:

The Power Plant is the only device in the world that can claim delivering perfectly generated balanced output power, a perfect waveform, regardless of what you put in.

So why would a Power Plant feeding a Power Plant make any difference for sonics?

The Power Plant produces a low impedance, regulated source, in addition to generating the clean sinewave. So while the Power Plant will produce no more than 0.1% total harmonics and noise regardless of what you feed into it, it's regulation and its output impedance are somewhat a function of what you feed into it.

E.G., the output impedance of the Power Plant is 100 times lower (approximately) than what you feed in. This is a huge advantage - being 100 times lower impedance than what the wall socket has to offer. But it is lower by a ratio. So, obviously, the lower the source impedance the Power Plant sees, the lower (by a factor of 100) the output will be. If you put two units in series, then you are assured of an incredibly low output impedance.

Same is true for regulation. The Power Plant will regulate voltage within 1/10th of a volt from about 95 volts to perhaps 140 volts. That's not only good, it's impossible for anything else to even come close. But - if you feed the output of a Power Plant into another Power Plant, then the regulation will be even tighter.

At least that is the owner/designer of the Power Plant's explanation. Not that I the attorney really understand it that well. But I do know what my ears tell me and I luv using a P600 to feed three P300s in my high resolution audio system. And another side benefit, of feeding the VCRs P300 from the P600, and the Dwin CRT projector from the P600, is that my cable picture has additionally incredibly cleaned up, especially after adding more Harmonic Tech power cords from P600 to the VCR P300 and from Dwin projector to P600. WOW! It is that good and better than before. I am pleased.