2. misc-audio
  3. 1102966593

PS Audio P500 opinions/experiences

Hello

I am considering the purchase of a P500 AC regenerator and would encourage you input as to the impact and validity of what the unit is said to do. There are 4 outlets that do regenerating and 2 that are an Ultimate outlet. What would you plug into what? What kind of power cord would you use? What other companies offer this type of technology? Is it all about how they market it or does it actually work? I use a dual mono amp with 2 power cords, a 3 channel amp, tube preamp, processor, tube CD player and a DVD player. Thanks. Dave
canucks0
ddickhut
1 posts
 
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
bigpowerballs
34 posts
 
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
vongphat
6 posts
 

I own a PS 500 for more than 4 months now. The experience I have with it has been very positive so far on source components. I do not use the PS 500 for more than 25% of its capacity.

The medium and the bass are the areas that benefit the most from the PS audio 500. The highs are also clearer and have more focus and details. I currently own the Monster HTPS 7000 and the PS audio is definitevely an improvement over the Monster.

I find the regular sinewave setting at 68 hz the best on my system with the voltage setup at 119V. It brings precision and makes my system sound more 'surround and stereophonic'. Nevertheless, I think the unit is a bit hot for what it does. It is important to use a good power cord with a high electrcity capacity transmission.
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