Power Regenerator do anything?

[gagelle]

Has anyone used a power re-generator like the "P.S. Audio Power Plants?" I'm just curious if they do anything for the sound quality. I was reading an article about malformed electric sine waves that are becoming more common. The author claims they can cause all kinds of distortion. And then I read about a circuit in one of the Decware tube amps that does something similar to the P.S. audio units. (Boy, are they expensive.)

 

[Capt Odyssea]

The principal is sound, AC/DC/AC conversion is really the only way to clean up a sine wave if it is unstable from the source generation/distribution.
Cycles in north America @60hz, and via monitoring being done currently only really strays a few hundredths above or below, in a sort of drifting manner.
Other places not so lucky, with cycles all over the chart and with a rapid rate of change.
So, not to address the particular brand, the batteries are simply a buffer between the utility and their inverter, which should be pure sine wave and very high quality.
Also, the Ampacity of the unit is important, an inverter will clip, just like an amplifier if over driven/drawn.

Power companies use there themselves by the way, when areas/branch circuits get too much reactive to restistive loading, throwing the phase angle out of whack.
Much bigger units, and some use flywheels to "store/buffer" the energy.

 

[gagelle]

Thanks capt. I've been reading so much contradictory information about the subject until I found a site where a real engineer posted a paragraph about the placebo affect. His explanation pissed off many people but was the only one with scientific evidence. I find comedy everywhere these days.

The principal is sound, AC/DC/AC conversion is really the only way to clean up a sine wave if it is unstable from the source generation/distribution.
Cycles in north America @60hz, and via monitoring being done currently only really strays a few hundredths above or below, in a sort of drifting manner.
Other places not so lucky, with cycles all over the chart and with a rapid rate of change.
So, not to address the particular brand, the batteries are simply a buffer between the utility and their inverter, which should be pure sine wave and very high quality.
Also, the Ampacity of the unit is important, an inverter will clip, just like an amplifier if over driven/drawn.

Power companies use there themselves by the way, when areas/branch circuits get too much reactive to restistive loading, throwing the phase angle out of whack.
Much bigger units, and some use flywheels to "store/buffer" the energy.

 

[llanger]

Great explanation Capt Odyssea. Are you saying that a home "power regenerator" is unecessary in North America?

 

[Hyperion]

Great explanation Capt Odyssea. Are you saying that a home "power regenerator" is unnecessary in North America?

Not sure about that.... :scratch2:

It depends what problem you are trying to address - frequency drift (affects some turntables), but not a lot else (in our world). Or noise or waveform distortion, which affects everything to a greater or lesser degree.

 

[Capt Odyssea]

Less critical perhaps?
A regenerator will also "carry you" through a brown out of short duration,
Manufacturer should spec that.(based on battery size)
See this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdBB4byrZ6U&list=UU0uqG3I8AxZ8ZMgB5NlFpFg&index=3

For grid Perturbances, real time, actual events.

 

[woodj]

Glad to see this info addressing what seem to be many misconceptions.

 

[gagelle]

I couldn't afford one of those power re-generators anyway. I have no idea what the waveform is like in my area. I do know that in the summer, on days of high demand, the voltage is lowered by a small amount. From what I've read, it may not affect anything but if lowered too much can do damage.

My amplifier has three levels of very sensitive protection circuitry. It actually takes 45 seconds to determine conditions before it turns on. I have no idea whether a distorted waveform would be picked up by its protection circuitry and keep it from turning on. I would have to ask its designer.

But I'll throw another variable into the mix. I've read that some amplifiers are not supposed to be plugged into any power filtration device; that the manufactures recommend plugging them directly into a wall socket because power filters would affect performance. I then read a test report on power filters performed with equipment meant to measure if audible frequencies were being cut by the filters. This test is a few years old. (I wish I saved the link.) Every power filter tested, except for one brand, did filter out parts of audible frequencies. The result would be a degradation of sound quality. The one that worked correctly is no longer sold. I couldn't even find a new version so the company may be out of business.


Last night, I read an interesting point made by someone on another audio site. When new audio products are reviewed, they are never tested for inaudible distortion on an oscilloscope. So the whole design might be unstable; perhaps with inaudible oscillation. If it sounds good, it gets a great review. I've read many online reviews and none of them actually tested the design stability. So what are these reviews worth? The reviewers get to borrow high end equipment and sometimes buy things at a deep discount. In the 70s people were suspicious about collusion between the companies and the reviewer. The most trusted reviewer was Julian Hirsh and even his objectivity was questioned because he worked for a major audio publication. It seems to me that the general quality of audio reviews has declined, and almost everyone is writing reviews. So we wait for the product to be out for some time and rely on customer feedback.

If anyone knows of a truly independent reviewer who tests down to the engineering level, please let me know. I haven't been able to find one. I realize that listening tests are subjective but a good reviewer should be able to clearly describe an amplifier's sound characteristics. He has more experience with a variety of equipment.