PS Audio PerfectWave Power Plant 3
Description
The P3 unlocks the magic at a price you can afford
The P3 is the smallest of our personal power generating stations, but don’t let that distinction fool you. The P3 produces pure and perfect AC and is the power source of choice for almost any size system. Smaller than the P5, this workhorse can be the foundation on which you build your system when a P5 isn’t in the cards.
The P3 Power Plant is our most affordable full function Power Plant with 3 separate regenerated zones and a 4th, high current filtered zone, the P3 can handle any size system you want to power. From the biggest power amplifiers to the smallest pieces of source equipment, this combination of regenerated AC coupled with a high current unrestricted filtered zone will work magic on your system’s performance.
With your system powered directly from the output of the P3, dynamics and openness are unquestioned. A Power Plant is clearly one of the most important pieces of audio equipment you can own – building a firm and reliable foundation for your system that will serve you for years to come.
How it works
The PerfectWave P3 Power Plant takes your incoming AC power and converts it to DC, similar to what comes out of a battery, and then with patented PS Audio technology regenerates and produces new sine-wave-perfect, regulated high current AC power. In the process of regeneration any problems on your power line such as low voltage, distorted waveforms, sagging power and noise are eliminated.
Since the introduction of Power Plant regenerator technology in 1997, many reviewers as well as many thousands of customers around the world have experienced for themselves just how critical and unique a Power Plant is; the term accessory doesn’t begin to describe its value. One of our customers, a long-time reviewer for one of the established audio journals, remarked that “Its the first component anyone serious about high-quality audio should get.”
It’s good to understand the importance of power in a high-end audio system. Everything we see and hear through our system is really the power from our home’s wall socket manipulated to make music through our speakers by our electronics. The quality of that power is critical to the success of any high-end system.
Regenerated power is what separates the Power Plants from power conditioners
The power that comes out of your home’s wall socket is unregulated, variable and prone to distortion. Inserting a standard power conditioner only makes that situation worse or has little remedy for the problem.
Only a regenerator, like that found in the Power Plant, can address the major issues of our home’s power.
To handle the challenge, inside each Power Plant is a massive power amplifier that delivers the new and distortion free AC to your equipment. The power amplifier is fed from a low distortion sine wave generator and controlled from the front panel touch screen of the Power Plant.
The internal power supply stores enough energy to allow the power amplifier inside the Power Plant to deliver massive amounts of energy to your equipment. Peaks of more than 70 amps can be delivered when a typical home wall receptacle can only provide 15 amps.
MultiWave
One of the major advantages of generating new power from old is the ability to also generate new waveforms that enhance the capabilities of the power feeding your equipment.
MultiWave extends the peak charging time of the sine wave so connected equipment has more energy storage and less power supply ripple. Turning MultiWave on is like adding a larger capacitor bank to your connected equipment’s power supply. The audible results are dramatic and produce a bigger soundstage that sounds far more natural than with a simple sine wave.
CleanWave
CleanWave is another unique feature to the Power Plants and helps connected equipment demagnetize their transformers. AC power is never quite symmetrical and the small asymmetry that occurs can magnetize connected power transformers.
Activating CleanWave from either the Power Plant remote control or front panel can remove this problem from connected transformers resulting in far cleaner audio.
100 times lower output impedance
Low output impedance is critical to maintaining a dynamic and robust presentation. Dynamic sags in the power line occur whenever your power hungry equipment demand power to drive your loudspeakers or projector causing noticeable degradation in the performance. Placing anything in the path of the power, like a power conditioner, only worsens the problem.
A Power Plant, on the other hand, regulates the power and provides a constant output irregardless of the dynamic demands of power hungry equipment or your neighbors. When your power amp is asked to produce loud orchestral levels you want to make sure it has all the power it needs. Power Plants have such low output impedance that even the hungriest of amplifiers won’t be starved for clean AC power. The results of feeding your equipment with low output impedance are dramatic: unrestrained dynamics even under the loudest passages, an open wide soundstage that does not collapse with volume and a naturalness to the music that is remarkable.
Complete protection from any power line event
Owners who have invested in a Power Plant can rest assured their connected equipment will be safe from any power line event such as over voltage, under voltage, surges, spikes and potentially threatening problems.
The input voltage to the Power Plant is fully protected by state-of-the-art clamping devices and the output of the Power Plant is fully regulated so even large voltage swings that would normally damage connected equipment are made safe by either clamping or regulating. In most cases, connected equipment enjoys the protection and performance benefits of fully regulated power, even under extreme circumstances.
In the event of a major surge or spike, the Power Plant will automatically remove power from all connected equipment and shut itself down. When power is restored to normal, the Power Plant will safely turn all connected equipment back on in the sequence owners have set up for it.
Stereo Times review