My interest in a power regenerator stemmed primarily from day to day inconsistency of the way the system sounded overall, rather than consistent clicks, grunge, hash and all the rest of it. At weekends, the system would sound (mostly) great, but on weekday evenings it would sound awful, despite my having had a dedicated ring main installed (30 amp Belden cable, the same as Krell supply as the power cords for their power amp's) just for the hi-fi system.
I use a TacT RCS 2.2X, which has a (some would say cheap and nasty) switch mode power supply, as opposed to a good toroidal transformer-based one (as supplied by Aberdeen Components in Las Vegas). Being an all digital device (with A:DC's for analogue inputs) it can easily sound unpleasantly digital in the upper registers and seems to be pretty sensitive to mains quality. I also use Bryston 7B-SST power amplifiers (900w each into 4 Ohms) and, when working hard, they demand lots of power from the wall. I used to have a Pink Triangle DaCapo D:AC and the outboard battery PSU for the analogue part of its circuitry stages was, I'd say, essential to it's highly musical, analogue sound ~ without it, the unit definitely sounded steely and digital.
So I was already sold on the need for a purified mains supply and the benefits of batteries. I needed a unit with sufficient heft to feed my Bryston power amplifiers driving a pair of PMC IB2's (augmented by a Lyngdorf SDA-2175 driving a pair of TacT/Lyngdorf subwoofers) and one that would isolate the system from all mains-borne nasties.
My path to the PurePower 2000i was therefore fairly straightforward, not least because PurePower are neighbours of Bryston (in Ontario) and the 2000i was designed with the 7B's very much in mind.
On paper, the PS Audio PowerPlant can deliver the same amount of current and has a few nice features as well, such as the facility to adjust the frequency of the output, which reportedly can improve performance noticeably. But the PS Audio unit seems also to have a chequered reliability record, at least in the UK, and a dealer told me that it had caused one of his customer's Krell power amplifier to fail.
So the PurePower was the obvious choice. From when I ordered it to when it finally arrived took six months, punctuated by a succession of empty promises that the unit was going to be despatched the following week. Apparently PurePower were ironing out some compatibility issues with Krell amplifiers, which evidently took them longer than they'd originally anticipated.
Once the unit arrived, the first thing that was apparent was the completely unacceptable noise from the cooling fans and initially I demanded my money back. But my dealer investigated the issue with PurePower and they supplied him with a mod to reduce the voltage on the power supply to the fans from 12v to 10v. Basically, the fans now run a crucial tad slower but thankfully much more quietly and the unit runs at a steady 32 degrees centigrade. The fans aren't totally silent, but from about 10 feet away, they're virtually inaudible.
I noticed no night to day transformation in the performance of my system, but the PurePower has cured the problem of day to day inconsistency. The system now sounds the same at any time of the day or night and on any day of the week. Whether or not it's improved the bass, I don't know. With room correction (properly calibrated and fine-tuned), you can achieve bass performance which, in most rooms (certainly mine), would be otherwise unattainable and bass performance wasn't for me a problem anyway. Physical room treatments, such as those which PMC use at their show dem's, may achieve similar improvements, but experimenting with various combinations of all the unsightly bass traps and echo busters out there is a jungle into which I don't want to venture. Tweaking selected rogue frequencies via a remote control handset, in addition to the TacT's own room correction calibration, is a good deal easier.
The PurePower does what it claims and apparently even Bryston, who generally don't have much time for things like mains conditioners/filters/regenerators, have been impressed.
The only problem I've had is that my TacT RCS isn't at all happy being powered directly from the 2000i. It completely screwed up the sound of that unit and ultimately killed the CPU, which meant I had to return the unit to TacT in New Mexico for a new one to be installed. Buffering the power feed from the 2000i via an old IsoTek SubStation (which, on its own, made no difference at all to the way my system sounds) has thankfully eliminated the problem entirely and I've had no problems since. The 2000i offers seven 13 amp output sockets which can be further augmented by way of something like the IsoTek SubStation, which as six outlets of its own.
The 2000i is big, heavy, awkward to lift (especially when packed in its very large shipping box) and it isn't cheap. Replacing the batteries in six or seven years time is going to be a pain and not cheap either. Even switched off at the wall, lethal voltages linger within the 2000i, so replacing the batteries isn't a DIY job. But it's built like a tank, beautifully finished (mine's black) and it does what PurePower claim and that's what counts. Apart from that unfortunate problem with my TacT RCS, my 2000i has also been totally reliable, and it's man enough to deliver every ounce of juice that the Bryston 7B's demand when working flat out. The highest load reading that my 2000i has registered is 85% (peak), which is 12.75 amps.
Recommended, then, provided you insist on the mod reducing the voltage on the power supply to the cooling fans to 10 instead of 12v and, for reasons unknown, provided you don't plug a TacT RCS directly into it. Whether or not PurePower really have managed to iron out all compatibility issues with Krell power amp's is something to which I cannot attest, though if these are what you use, it'll be wise to check first with a Krell dealer.
I use a TacT RCS 2.2X, which has a (some would say cheap and nasty) switch mode power supply, as opposed to a good toroidal transformer-based one (as supplied by Aberdeen Components in Las Vegas). Being an all digital device (with A:DC's for analogue inputs) it can easily sound unpleasantly digital in the upper registers and seems to be pretty sensitive to mains quality. I also use Bryston 7B-SST power amplifiers (900w each into 4 Ohms) and, when working hard, they demand lots of power from the wall. I used to have a Pink Triangle DaCapo D:AC and the outboard battery PSU for the analogue part of its circuitry stages was, I'd say, essential to it's highly musical, analogue sound ~ without it, the unit definitely sounded steely and digital.
So I was already sold on the need for a purified mains supply and the benefits of batteries. I needed a unit with sufficient heft to feed my Bryston power amplifiers driving a pair of PMC IB2's (augmented by a Lyngdorf SDA-2175 driving a pair of TacT/Lyngdorf subwoofers) and one that would isolate the system from all mains-borne nasties.
My path to the PurePower 2000i was therefore fairly straightforward, not least because PurePower are neighbours of Bryston (in Ontario) and the 2000i was designed with the 7B's very much in mind.
On paper, the PS Audio PowerPlant can deliver the same amount of current and has a few nice features as well, such as the facility to adjust the frequency of the output, which reportedly can improve performance noticeably. But the PS Audio unit seems also to have a chequered reliability record, at least in the UK, and a dealer told me that it had caused one of his customer's Krell power amplifier to fail.
So the PurePower was the obvious choice. From when I ordered it to when it finally arrived took six months, punctuated by a succession of empty promises that the unit was going to be despatched the following week. Apparently PurePower were ironing out some compatibility issues with Krell amplifiers, which evidently took them longer than they'd originally anticipated.
Once the unit arrived, the first thing that was apparent was the completely unacceptable noise from the cooling fans and initially I demanded my money back. But my dealer investigated the issue with PurePower and they supplied him with a mod to reduce the voltage on the power supply to the fans from 12v to 10v. Basically, the fans now run a crucial tad slower but thankfully much more quietly and the unit runs at a steady 32 degrees centigrade. The fans aren't totally silent, but from about 10 feet away, they're virtually inaudible.
I noticed no night to day transformation in the performance of my system, but the PurePower has cured the problem of day to day inconsistency. The system now sounds the same at any time of the day or night and on any day of the week. Whether or not it's improved the bass, I don't know. With room correction (properly calibrated and fine-tuned), you can achieve bass performance which, in most rooms (certainly mine), would be otherwise unattainable and bass performance wasn't for me a problem anyway. Physical room treatments, such as those which PMC use at their show dem's, may achieve similar improvements, but experimenting with various combinations of all the unsightly bass traps and echo busters out there is a jungle into which I don't want to venture. Tweaking selected rogue frequencies via a remote control handset, in addition to the TacT's own room correction calibration, is a good deal easier.
The PurePower does what it claims and apparently even Bryston, who generally don't have much time for things like mains conditioners/filters/regenerators, have been impressed.
The only problem I've had is that my TacT RCS isn't at all happy being powered directly from the 2000i. It completely screwed up the sound of that unit and ultimately killed the CPU, which meant I had to return the unit to TacT in New Mexico for a new one to be installed. Buffering the power feed from the 2000i via an old IsoTek SubStation (which, on its own, made no difference at all to the way my system sounds) has thankfully eliminated the problem entirely and I've had no problems since. The 2000i offers seven 13 amp output sockets which can be further augmented by way of something like the IsoTek SubStation, which as six outlets of its own.
The 2000i is big, heavy, awkward to lift (especially when packed in its very large shipping box) and it isn't cheap. Replacing the batteries in six or seven years time is going to be a pain and not cheap either. Even switched off at the wall, lethal voltages linger within the 2000i, so replacing the batteries isn't a DIY job. But it's built like a tank, beautifully finished (mine's black) and it does what PurePower claim and that's what counts. Apart from that unfortunate problem with my TacT RCS, my 2000i has also been totally reliable, and it's man enough to deliver every ounce of juice that the Bryston 7B's demand when working flat out. The highest load reading that my 2000i has registered is 85% (peak), which is 12.75 amps.
Recommended, then, provided you insist on the mod reducing the voltage on the power supply to the cooling fans to 10 instead of 12v and, for reasons unknown, provided you don't plug a TacT RCS directly into it. Whether or not PurePower really have managed to iron out all compatibility issues with Krell power amp's is something to which I cannot attest, though if these are what you use, it'll be wise to check first with a Krell dealer.