Hi Brian,
Not so much on the AMR CD-77 but as requested here are my impressions of the PS Audio Power Plant Premier.
I've gone through several sessions of comparison now. The power set-up of the system was as follows:
1) without PS PPP: AMR CD-77 with AMR PC-77 power cord that comes with the player; Tidal Preos and Tidal Intra amps with Audioplan PowerCord-S; cords went into Audioplan PowerStar-S itself directly connected to the wall socket; no filter in between, no dedicated line (rented apartment, sadly)
2) with PS PPP: source's and amps' power cords as mentioned above, each one connected to its own IsoZone (European version has only one outlet per Zone, anyway); PPP connected to socket with PS Audio xStream Plus power cord.
As a preliminary, I would not like to suggest that my system didn't have musical flow, detail, blackness, good soundscape, etc. before the PPP was integrated. It is not as if this machine delivered new characteristics (it may do even that in other systems). I just mention this because sometimes I am puzzled over reviews where yesterday's megabuck Best System appears as if it had been an old crutch until the advent of another new something).
With that out of the way, then, the PPP definitely does deliver more of the good things you may already have!
I went CD per CD (listed below) from w/o PPP to with PPP. In an attempt to summarize, I'd say with PPP the music sounded more "self-evident", indeed cleaner, although certainly not in the sense of sterile but unbothered by those fidgety, freckly little bits (pun not intended) not emanating from any person or instrument in the recording room or even from the room itself, but noises, grain, haze one notices all the more when the PPP is taken back out of the chain. Case in point: "Heartbeat" from Antonio Forcione's Live CD had the combined crystal clearness and multi-faceted fullness of the Uhlen riesling from the Heymann-Loewenstein estate (now, try to beat that!).
That translated in (Achtung! buzz-words ahead) better soundscape, better discernability of detail (a tough one to illustrate this: dEUS's "Bad Timing" builds up broodingly, menacingly to a dense, apocalyptic wall of sound with not a hint of smearing and Tom Barman's voice remaining comprehensible at all times, great). However, that multitude of fine detail is always perceived as part of the musical flow, therefore never tiresome. I also thought bass benefited audibly from the additional cleanliness, there is more variation, a feeling of better understanding what the musician is trying to express (nasty slaps vs. warmly feathering gobs of bass). And of course there is deeper blackness of silence (e.g. on Wulfin Lieske's "What about this, Mr. Tarrega?", just one man playing 7 different historical guitars built between 1856 and 1958).
Perhaps one's mind is just not so busy weeding out the "dirt" that is otherwise there.
Knowing the issue many of us have with customary filters, I had set my mind especially on comparing dynamics and speed. Funnily, the first time I compared Forcione's "Acoustic Revenge", I thought it had lost bite. Until I took the PPP back out: the only thing it had lost was metallic edginess, as was confirmed by listening to sax, trumpet, hi-hat, voices. In fact, the attack actually seemed faster with the PPP (e.g. Prokofiev, "Ivan the Terrible" Overture or BS&T "Hi-De-Ho").
For the comparison, I used the PPP's normal sine wave setting; people may prefer the MultiWave function depending on the gear in the system.
Back to why I mentioned the PPP in this particular thread in the first place: I kept the AMR playing an entire day with the PPP, the next without. The AMR definitely heated up considerably more without PPP.
An odd thing with the European schuko-version of the PPP: the in- and out- antenna connectors are both male, so I had to order customized cable for that, oh well, perhaps someone can give them a hint in Boulder!
I think the PPP is a great machine, that can make listening to music in an already good system more relaxed and more engaging at the same time. I believe with the AMR it is a real winning team. I also believe there is even more to get in combination with top-of-the-range power cords; my next quest, likely.
Cheers
Karel
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CDs used (in no particular order)
Blood, Sweat & Tears, "3" (MFSL)
dEUS, "Pocket Revolution" (Universal)
Antonio Forcione, "Live!" (Naim Records)
Yes, "Fragile" (MFSL)
ON3, "Guess What?" (Challenge)
Roessler, Vogt, Vitous, "Between the Times" (ACT)
Michael Brecker, "Pilgrimage" (Emarcy)
The New Tony Williams Lifetime, "Believe It" (Columbia)
Rosa Passos & Ron Carter, "Entre Amigos" (Chesky)
Wulfin Lieske, "What about this, Mr. Tarrega?" (Tacet)
Leonard Slatkin w. St. Louis Symphony, Prokofiev - "Ivan The Terrible" (MFSL)
