PS Audio P500 opinions/experiences

Improved detail, quieter background.......at the expense of lost dynamics. Try AUDIO MAGIC.

HI,
I'M USING 3 P500'S. ONE TO EACH OF MY ACTIVE ATC SPEAKERS. THE THIRD TO MY DODSON DAC & THETA JADE TRANSPORT. MY ORIGINAL EXACTPOWER IS CONNECTED TO MY ATC SUB.
EACH ATC IS PULLING 60 WATTS ACCORDING TO THE POWER METERS & THE ATC SUB IS PULLING ABOUT THAT ON MY EXACTPOWER DISPLAY.
"WALL" POWER HAS SO MUCH GRUNGE & GLARE THAT CLEAN POWER DOES SEEM RESERVED @ FIRST LISTEN
MY DAC & TRANSPORT ARE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE REGENERATOR & THE SPEAKERS ARE CONNECTED TO THE REGENERATORS FOR SERIOUS LISTENING.
MY NOISE FLOOR IS SO LOW THAT "HIDDEN FLAWS" IN THE RECORDINGS ARE LAID BARE. THE SOUNDSTAGE HAS WIDENED & DEEPENED. IT IS A VERY OPEN SYSTEM WITH A MINIMUM OF HI-FI SOUND.

I have used a P500 for about a year. I have a solid state amp and a tube pre amp. I have used it with the amp plugged into the regen section but after a while I ended up plugging the amp into the UO. I haven't decided what is best with my preamp and I change my mind often, sometimes use my pre amp in the UO and sometimes the regen section. If you use a Juice Bar($200) you will need another power cord like the Plus cable, so add another $200 for that. If you buy a P500, the most important thing to do is use a very good power cord from the P500 to the wall. Use a Plus or a Statement or some other very good power cable. If you don't want to spend the extra $200 to $500 on a very good power cord, it isn't worth using the P500. That is something PS Audio doesn't tell you right up front. They send it to you with a cheap cord that does not help the P500 at all. At least Shunyata Hydra makes you use a decent power cord.

Pro: makes the background so BLACK it's amazing ! It can make your system sound very mellow and similar to tube sound,in the Tube wave mode. It's small vs P300 and has Auto Wave. I use it to turn on the equipment plugged into it. It has the ultimate outlet built in.

Con: It does take away some of the dynamics if you plug your amp into it. Smaller sound stage. Maybe too mellow in Tube wave. Has a fan but it is a very quiet fan.

Conclusion: Like all audio equipment, everything sounds different in different systems.

I hope I helped confuse you more.
Cheeers!

I have owned a P500 for about 3 months, and it has the factory mod for the fan/transistor heatsink. Regardless of light or heavy load, the unit runs EXTREMELY HOT-top of case on left side is uncomfortable to touch. Having designed server boxes, my opinion, after taking top cover off, is that the P500 has a serious thermal design issue. The fan is not mounted for good air flow and the air flow chamber is poorly designed.

I had a 82 inch LCOS RPTV plugged into the regen side and was very close to 360 watts and load factor of 97%. Even with top cover off, the unit shuts down periodically. Before I bought it, I was concerned about the unit's power specs and called PS Audio who said the unit should be okay with my 360 watt load.

While the video quality improvement is large(better blacks,better saturated colors, cleaner and sharper picture), I am getting rid of this unit and looking elsewhere because of the very poor thermal design

It made a phenomenal difference to my system, raising the performance up to what it should be for an expensive CJ tube-based system. I just plug the factory-supplied cords, two from the pre-amp and one from the cd player, into the regenerator section. The amp I just plug into the wall (with a PS Audio outlet).

The quality of the electricity supplied to my geographic area by the power company is terrible. It was the best sonic return for $2,000 I ever spent!
--Steve