Audiophile Power Regenerator Repair (PS Audio Power Plant 300)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Mark repairs a Power Plant 300 from PS Audio. This AC Regenerator has a blown output, and some dodgy behavior. Still not sure if you can actually hear any difference (I'll leave that debate for the audiophiles to fight over), but the grid electricty waveform is not getting any better.
Hope you fitted an audiophile-grade relay with ion-infused twisted pair armature leads. That fuse needs to have cost at least fifteen quid, too :)
I think there is a much easier fix: just wire the output directly to the input, and the thing will do exactly the same job as before ;)
You put far too much faith in my local power company
NAILED IT !
😂😂😂
No, you are wrong. The "thing" will do a better job than before.....
😀😃😄
true hater in his natural habitat! Says the arm chair audiophile that does nothing but look at what he can’t afford or have.😮
Hello Mark! I just stumbled upon your channel and I instinctively clicked on the subscribe button. Your troubleshooting and subsequent repair of this "smoke and mirrors/snake oil" AC power regenerator (seriously... how silly) was Top Notch. Color me impressed. BTW, Kapton tape used as an insulator is mildly acceptable, depending on the heat transfer coefficient requirement not needing to be moderately fast, however I take issue with this tape having the ability to be in the same league of thermally transmissive mica, Sil-pads, etc. Kapton tape is coated with adhesive on the sticky side (obviously) and the formulation of this glue does not address having any thermally transmissive properties at all. Just because the Kapton tape is a good insulator does not make it a good thermal conductor. In my opinion, using plain old school mica wafers or the newer Sil-pads will provide much faster heat transfer away from the BJTs and the speed at which the heat can be soaked away can be quite critical, when a lot of current passes through the active devices. Just my $0.02 worth of unsolicited concern. Thank you for the video and you did a beautiful job of repairing this "thing". Fred
was that relay powerful enough? it didn't look meaty enough.
I personally have experience with these "things", and know what positive improvements I can demonstrate in terms of noise-reduction and clarity. Have you used one are are you just convinced they are not worth it? If so why, pray tell...
@@vicweast Let's just put it this way, I've never come across an audiophile who has any knowledge of electronics or physics...
@@vicweast If you want to fight, you can check out the Audio Science Review.
Basically, it doesn't make any sense unless your device's circuitry doesn't use DC, but directly AC.
Any normal circuit's DC side should not be affected by AC in any way unless there are major power surge or blackout.
@@mattparker8747A good example is the late Siegfried Linkwitz (of Linkwitz-Riley filter fame) was a dedicated audiophile and an electronics engineer who designed instruments (Spectrum Analyzers etc) at Hewlett Packard for many years.
You know who could use that for it's ability to output 60 Hz? TECHMOAN! he could plug the step down transformer into the output and then generate some real 115V/60 Hz.
Good thinking, this would be ideal for Mat. Didn't occur to me when I was watching the repair.
Who?
@@ShainAndrews Enter "techmoan" into the youtube search field. Usually the first entry gets you to the channel.
@@ShainAndrews www.youtube.com/@Techmoan/videos
Hi Mark. I must say that watching your videos makes me envy the way you tackle such a wide variety of devices. You are a true professional. It's great to see you are able to put your hands on all the parts required and your test equipment is so comprehensive. Keep up the good work. Personally I would like to see you tackle one of those horrible little Denon mini reciver/cd players and their ilk.(model numbers escape me at this moment)
Kind regards Allan 😃
That solder sucker makes such a satisfying “nom nom nom” sound
Num num num num...nummy.
I'd have put a couple of internal Wago connectors in it to jumper the input to the output, nicked the magnetics for my windowsill collection, and stuck a housebrick in it to make up for the wieght loss.
What kind of mutant would take a rotational machine generated sine and then use an approximated copy of it "for audiophile purposes"?
Really - If your amp can't deal with the odd powerline glitch, bin the sodding thing.
(Deep breath) - Nice repair.
That's generally the opinion of Amir from Audio Science Review. And mine too. PS Audio stuff is vastly over priced .
just for general info, i just checked it º.º
kapton tape, heat pass thru,used in the old days 0.1 W/mK better than notinng...
silicone pads, used today 1.6 W/mK so, this is 16 times BETTER
You have to account for the thickness though. If the silicone pads are more than 16 times thicker than the Kapton tape, higher thermal conductivity won’t help.
The only thing that makes your audio sound better than the loud (unnecessary) fan on the magical AC generator, is when all that pretty AC current enters your amp and almost instantly gets chopped up into DC via a bridge rectifier. Oh well, it was pretty well it lasted until the bridge rectifier destroyed your beautiful artwork AC snake oil. If audiophiles spent a little time learning the basics of electronics, they wouldn't spend a dime on useless snake oil products. If you can't reliably tell the difference in a blind A/B test, than any perceived gains only exist in your head (the placebo effect). Better sound quality comes from spending your money on the few things that actually make a difference. Better amp, preamp, DAC, speakers, room treatment.....
There is a guy here who SWEARS that the kapton tape makes the transistor run hotter, giving the audio a "warm sound" with more "width" and "depth".
ROFL
My speakers at home are connected to my amp with old leftover ethernet cable, and I don't care.
Yes, a double blind test is the true measure of whether it makes a difference.
But what about my depth of field getting bigger? And my warmer punchy round bass? And silky yet transparent mids? And the smooth yet accurate treble? And my stereo field widening? And the fact that my tubes last longer? My $1000/ft speakers cables are at 90• bends for perfect sine wave conductivity. And yes I did make sure my power cables cost at least $5000 and they are most definitely directional. This magic box is a MUST in any serious system. Get with it, bruh!! /s
@@dh-_1011 Haha! I tried one of those directional power cables and it sounded amazing, but it wasn't worth the trouble of having to switch the cable ends around 60 times per/sec, so AC current could flow both ways.
@@gordthor5351 It’s a labour of love, it’s all about tOaN!!!!!!!!
I like your method of adding solder and heat from the back to avoid pulling pads off on the backside.
i agree!
You are quite talented. Grind a notch in the tube of your solder sucker for the iron tip to fit in and it will work better
Well, disregarding all the snakeoil comments, cuz there's already enough said about that...
Beautiful video! I really do enjoy watching You repair all those things
Oh, nevermind, they're held on by a clamp, not individual screws. Disregard that tip then, it only makes sense when the transistors are held by individual screws
I highly recommend that you upgrade & use a PACE SX-100 desoldering tool. It’s second to none & so good that you won’t know yourself. It uses extremely convenient disposable dross cartridges making its maintenance a breeze!
Second to none, after the Metcal desoldering tool. Of course not many people can afford Metcal prices, and it requires a seperate compressor.
What a pointless piece of kit, but I suppose someone must buy them. The story of the king’s new clothes comes to mind. As many have said, it’s converted to DC anyway and that’s all the amp see’s. All it really wants is a good low impedance supply which doesn’t sag under load, such as that available from a standard 13Amp socket. All this device can do is raise the impedance. If it were able to lower it, it would be possible to pull more power (for the same voltage) than it’s drawing from the mains, which is clearly impossible.
Any conventional power supply only pulls current towards the waveform peaks anyway, which is what leads to the distortion in the first place. If anything, the slightly flat topped waveform will reduce the peak currents in the rectifier and probably prolong its life.
The output waveform looks great with a small constant resistive light bulb load. I’d like to see what it does in the real world powering an amp with constantly changing load and phase angle. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t look any better than the raw mains, not only that, but it would also be constantly ‘on the move’ as well and would also inflict the same wobbly supply on any source equipment.
The option of 55Hz is totally bizarre. 55Hz is not used on a properly functioning mains supply anywhere in the world. If you were that worried about the quality of your mains, why on earth would you want a non standard frequency?
It seems to me, if you really need one of these, you should have bought audio equipment which was properly designed in the first place.
exactly this ^^
Audiophiles' brains and wallets don't work that way. They'd strap a tortoise to their amps if someone wrote a convincing article it would help with sound quality.
@@chimpana I have a giraffe on mine, I read somewhere it improves the high end.
nah the company should have made Tempest Grade isolation devices (for that ultimate red-black transition) and filters then they would have made zillions from the military
@@chimpana I can think of a number of examples, but I think my favorite so far is audiophiles who use little wooden stands, like tiny 3” telephone poles every 2’ propping up their cables so that their speaker cabling and patch cables (oh, excuse me “interconnects”) do not make contact with their carpet or other flooring, because…that’s…bad.
The person I first saw doing that spent 30 min trying to explain to me how much better his system sounded after this modification, and why, in pseudoscientific terms at least, it made such a huge difference to use his wood stands. It’s bizarre and hilarious. It’s woo-woo, almost like a set of supernatural beliefs. Makes me kind of sad, this sort of anti-scientific, non-evidence based approach, but I think the main thing that really drives me nuts about this is that it’s not even necessary because there’s so much great sounding, inexpensive consumer/prosumer and pro-audio gear available!
I am a musician, producer/sound designer (and so is my brother), mostly video game music/soundtracks and sound effects, so I obviously enjoy good music, played on a system that is adequate. Audio engineering has long been an apprenticeship-based profession, starting with the “tea boy” role in older studios (or the “roadie” role - in touring and live concert production) so it used to be a bit more difficult to access the knowledge needed to work in our field without some sort of hands-on training…but these days, there are so many ways to learn about the concepts behind sound engineering, so the knowledge is easily available to almost anyone with internet access. I hope more “audiophiles” will realize they don’t even need all this expensive, often absolutely useless and absurd crap to hear their favorite recorded music, faithfully reproduced.
Another belter Mark..makes my day...more vintage please.
Hi, did the transistors actually use Kapton tape to transfer heat from the transistors to the heatsink? Because if it was used it might be the cause of the origional failure, Kapton tape does not have very good thermal conductivity.
Btw I think the screws need to have a fine coat of snake oil to maintain the sonic properties of the power supply.
exactly what I thought!
i was type typing the same thing when i seen your post super odd.
@@RetroTuna nah you HAVE to replace all the capacitors with space-qualified, anti beta radiation ones, and they have a gold foil / kapton dielectric layer between their vaiorus hiss and click sonic-proofing layers, thanks for the tip I just realised I can use Kapton tape for picture framing as it wont melt in Thailand :-) (PS we got plenty of snakes here)
I think someone was in this before
The snake oil only comes with NEW gear, it's factory installed. Once opened the magic is gone.
Very Nice I'm sure Paul McGowan would be impressed.
I don’t think so I believe he likes to work on his own equipment he’d want any of his secrets getting out into the world.
"I'm not electroboom" is the best part of this video🤣
He is just as funny when he gets zapped. He even swears sometimes.
1:00 That sinewave shape was like that thirty years ago, so IMHO has little to do with "modern" electronics. Conventional power supplies are just as guilty in taking power at the peak of the sinewave as switched mode power supplies are.
I'm not too worried about the slightly distorted mains sinewave, my audio (and other) devices turn it into a regulated DC supply first anyway.
Its not actually the switched mode bit of the power supply that does that, its the rectifier, which has been used forever. SMPS can inject distortion into the net, just not harmonic distortion. Nowadays, there is more regulation on the distortion a supply is allowed to make, so I would imagine it would only get better, as long as we don't collectively buy unregulated imported electronics, which tend to omit most of the improvements, like power factor correction and EMI filters.
Yes, I get a nice waveform out of a ferroresonant converter, which also has a nice advantage that rectifier diodes run cooler due to the flat topped waveform, and it makes for a really good mains filter as well, surviving a few cycles of drop out with no hassle..
Almost as if audiophile kit is expensive snake oil!
Wow that was interesting to see that waveform clipped before you worked your magic on the PS Audio unit. I have never seen capton tape used before in that way and I worked in electronic manufacturing a long time. As you say there must have been a reason for it. Love your videos.
Mica insulators will give a grainy, mineral sound.
The audio characteristic of silicone is too soft and rubbery.
Kapton will produce a clear tight sound with solid bass and treble.
Unfortunately beryllium oxide will cause severe attenuation of high frequencies and make your high end setup sound like a cheap telephone.
Of course diamond is the superior heat transfer material of choice and produces no noticeable coloration, it is the best if you can afford it.
Vacuum tube amplifiers do not require heat transfer pads. That is one of the reasons they have a superior sound
@@gordonwelcher9598 Spoken like a true audiophile.....Cough!
🤣
@@peterallen8413 At low frequencies the heat is produced in waves. Inappropriate transient properties of the heat transfer material will cause the bass to be severely distorted due to thermal effects on the output transistor junctions. Nonlinear dielectric loss in the stray capacitance will affect the high frequencies. Tighter clamping will make a noticeable improvement in sound.
@@gordonwelcher9598 I'd love to see a double blind test for that woo woo!
Way back in the day I dabbled quite a bit in electronics and I would run across a piece of equipment that had heatsinked power transistors. The manufacturers always used mica and heat sink paste.
To my experienced eyes, this whole thing smacks of having been (badly) repaired before hence the Kapton tape for SIL pad bodge. Kapton tape as SIL Pads, sorry not on my planet! Good video as usual chap, keep it up! A
Going way, way back to the first days of the PC, we would frequently have to give boards with an edge connector the "pink pearl" treatment. That is, using a Pink Prearl Eraser to clean the contacts. Worked wonders 90% of the time.
Hi - easier to remove the transistor if you snip the pins first. You can then remove the pins one at a time without needing to overheat (and possibly lift) the pads.
I'd also be worrying about clearances to the case around the capton tape. Presumably those power devices are at mains voltage - pretty sure there isn't 5mm of clearance there. In fact the position of the screws make that impossible - as far as I can see.
Never thought of this, thanks! Of course do this only if I’m sure the semiconductor is faulty or else I’ll snip off a good one n can’t test whether it’s ok or not
Do not think the amplifier runs at mains, likely around 70V rails, with one power transformer doing the input and the other 2 the output sockets, each separate.
Don't trust audio engineers to get normal electrical safety standards correct 🤣
@@ivolol How dare you!! I'm shocked, shocked!! (Apologies to Claude Rains).
⚡⚡😂
Nice to have a big fat finger print on the front glass :P
Another masterclass in debugging and repair, thanks.
Audiophile Power Regenerator Repair. Great vid, thanks. Subscribed.
The kapton tape will run the transistors slightly hotter, for an accurate warm sound reproduction with a vintage touch. It will make silicon sound like electron valve vacuum tubes.
Further optimizations for a vintage HiFi experience include the omission of the gold-plating, most notably at the connection of the sine board. This feature will ensure that this unit's process of becoming of age will closely resemble to how the rest of your vintage equipment will develop with time.
🤣
and all that before the conversion to DC! Remarkable.
I always use 2.5 mm cooker cable to run to my speakers to ensure a pure warm sound all the way to the little Tannoy coils
You have a hidden talent for writing articles in audiophile magazines. ;-)
A bit of silicone tubing cut on an angle makes a lovely slip-on flexible nozzle extension for those solder suckers. You get a nice seal over the iron tip and joint, which makes the vacuum much more effective, and the silicone isn't deformed by the heat of the iron.
Sounds like a good idea 🙂
Can't beat a bit of a smile with Young Marko!! Great Stuff!
Perhaps the point of Kapton tape is no need for thermal grease. It will creep into the surface roughness to do the job pretty well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used by others. Myself I got this idea some 15 years ago and it has saved many a paper towel from cleaning the grease :)
It outperforms mica thermally, that much I know. Maybe not as robust very long-term? So far it’s not failed me once on my projects. Some are under power day-round.
no
Really enjoyed that this morning..unsure how audible of a improvement it would be but interesting all the same.👍
Seems illogical to take the energy from the outlet, reduce that energy by powering an additional device designed to somehow to improve the performance even though total energy is reduced and possibly restricted, passing through myriad components.
I would favor the "less is more" philosophy. Fewer components, less complex circuits, fewer possible points of failure, fewer components to fail. The KISS principle.
I wonder how many times his mum has to call him, to come in for his tea. Great content, can't stop watching , what a perfectionist , thank you Mark
I'm glad I found this channel. Delightful circuit repair ASMR with such calm and authoritative commentary; it's so relaxing and I just might learn enough to be able to repair my Arcam Alpha 9 integrated amp. Win-win!
I wish you were my neighbour. Great work!
Paul will be contacting you to do all the PS Audio servicing in the UK. (Just kidding). Another excellent video.
I've always loved that copper-chrome color of the kapton tape roll.
No matter what kind of dodgy AC line power comes in to audio gear, the power supply in the audio equipment will clean it up- nothing bad will reach the speakers. These AC power conditioners do nothing to improve sound quality- everything it might do is down to placebo effect.
Back in the 1990's I was at a Best Buy and they had two large plasma screen televisions that back then cost $10,000 to $12,000 US each. There was a power supply with large VU meters between them and it filtered the line voltage for 1 of the tv's. It cost $400+ US. I could definitely tell the difference in the two televisions the one that was going through the filter was much clearer a picture.
sure lol
I don't know but after all, it will be converted to DC anyways. But if your TT is using an AC motor, then that would work great 👍
Notes: don't trust capaitors to discharge themselves. Cut legs from dead components to aid removal. Awesome video bud... 👌😎👍
after being off for 20 years ?
@@ebaystars Glad you can put a time and date to the last charge cycle but when working as a psu repair engineer i saw lots of open circuit bleed resistors across the mains capacitors... 😁 If you do the math a perfect capacitor will never discharge so i guess its all down to leakage... 🤔
@@GeoffDavis1974 Im old enough to remember CRTS in TVs with HUGE voltages stored on the tubes flyback pin!! Did that thing actually have high voltages over it was it switched mode unit I didnt see a circuit ? looked linear in the main?
@@ebaystarsme too, i used to repair those also. the charge is in the tube and the tube has capacitance. Same deal...
I love it when you get quality hifi stuff to peep in!!
I was shouting at the screen "Check the emitter resistors" Maybe you did off camera but with shorted output transistors something would have to give and it wasn't the fuse.
Come on, kapton tape insulates heat!!!!! It's used for screening areas from. hot air. Why, why, why ???????????
the kapton tape is what's killing those transistors, kapton tape is a good thermal INSULATOR, not a conductor, and judging how some of the components are MELTED (and you did left them melted in there) this thing is running HOT. the kapton tape (without thermal paste in one side mind you) and the fact that theres a mod to lower the fan speed plus a missing one means this repair is just not gonna last. really wish you added propper insulators there, changed the melted ones and let the fan run how it shouldm factory doesnt really mean good.
Mark could've done the owner a huge favour by just wiring the input mains to the output mains and bypassing the whole stupid thing, then charging the owner $1k for the repair. Massive increase in efficiency, reduction in fan noise, etc, and the owner still gets a nice heavy expensive brick thing to feel good about showing off to people.
Only audiophiles would pay twice as much for an online UPS without the batteries.
I was about to ask, despite the obvious irrelevance of the mains line condition once it's rectified... Wouldn't an UPS do the same thing... Maybe not be able to switch the frequency though.
I think he got a deal since it’s used Einstein.😂
I find that copper desoldering braid is very useful.
It is always good to have It in your arsenal of desoldering aids.
Sometimes it makes a brown mess on the board that has to be cleaned with alcohol.
I was taught to use braid over a solder sucker by military electronics techs because there's less risk ripping off the pads. But if Mark uses one and he's had good luck with them, more power!
The solder mask comes off if you are not careful.
That’s why I use a top notch PACE SX-100 desoldering tool! It’s the best desoldering tool I’ve ever used. It sucks all the solder from plated through holes as clean as a whistle & allows the desoldered component to literally fall out without causing any damage to the PCB.
I have good ears (I am a musician) and I listen to good equipment indoors. The true audiophiles tell me I won't hear any difference with a device like this because my modest (by their standards) equipment isn't resolving enough detail. I am using about £1200 worth of amplification and speakers, which isn't exactly cheap. But surely, if someone is spending £10,000 on a component, you'd expect the power supply stage to be sufficiently well engineered that a power regenerator should not be necessary?
In the real world this device only has value if you live between a steel mill and a welding shop, but it's nicely made nonetheless.
And even then it won't do anything.
@@Wizardofgosz Yeah you're right, if the steel mill is chomping whole cycles out of your mains then this contraption probably won't even work and your flickering lights are likely to be a bigger concern.
Try to make a voltage divider and put your mains out into a scope, and you will see how distorted it is.
@@qddk9545 Sure, but distortion of the mains doesn't translate into distortion of the audio.
@@qddk9545 Yes? And?
Then this miraculous thing happens. The AC gets rectified and FILTERED through this thing called a POWER SUPPLY, and the power comes out as clean DC.
ua-cam.com/video/12T7JFLGlf0/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/II07bFlteig/v-deo.html
I used to work in notebook service and kapton tape has been used always to cover nearby elements from heat while soldering and/or electrical insulation, but never this way. Like William J. wrote. "mica plates" is the way to keep stuff cool and isolated.
This is a wonderful video Mark! I'm 67 and have occasionally done a bit of hands-on electronics and wiring, your videos are interesting in terms of professional technique/tips-to-be-gleaned! BTW, I love the PS Audio regenerators, they make an actual qualitative difference in the sound from my systems.
Nope - Please review ua-cam.com/video/jeirY9tC_NU/v-deo.html HTH
Fabulous work Mark. Thanks for the vid.
I bought one of those PS Audio Power regenerator used,and I use it as a boat anchor.
Ah, the audiophool market. Where one can sell a device for converting 240VAC into 240VAC, and customers will tell you that their CD player sounds better for having done that.
EDIT It appears that autocorrupt got audiophile. Oh well.
Absolutely love the channel for your wayyy in depth repairs,BUT ,cant agree on kapton tape for heat sink insulators, need thermal conductivity along with electrical isolation.
those connectors are called speak-on connectors. They are indeed used for both speakers and mains utility power. Not confusing at all!! :)
They are actually different between power and speaker, if I remember correctly
@@hvdtoorn They are indeed different. Speakon for Speakers and Powerkon for Mains. They only fit in their designatet sockets.
They are Neutrik PowerCon and used where 16A inputs are needed. The superior PowerCon TRUE1 is used extensively in the pro AV/events industry
Another Excellent repair ( and my second viewing of yr videos) I've been avoiding buying ones of these for my Linn systems but maybe I should get one. Also - Re: the Kapton tape, Linn use Mica wafers on the Klout Power amps between the Sanken Trannies and the heat sink block and this is supposed to have improved the sound quality when introduced as a factory enhancement. I'm starting to binge watch you.. instead of getting on with my own projects. Look what you made me do !
They're great if you want to waste a lot of money and help Paul buy another Tesla.
It'll warm up your room and increase revenue for the power company. If you believe that Linn know how to design audio circuits then you can safely assume they also know how to design a PSU that'll work just fine over the limits of what the power grid delivers.
@@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy would hope so, but my old dealer in Switzerland still used external Power conditioners, I think from Isotek. I was considering a TORUS TOT MAX for my main Music system and something else for my Home Cinema room once its up and running. But would be good to get a spectrum analyser on the mains first to see how clean or dirty it is. I know a guy who might be able to look at that for me.
@@stephenyoud6125 Any properly designed equipment will work fine on the standard mains. Hifi dealers like to sell more stuff, whether or not it does anything useful. Edited to fix spelling mistake.
Basically a UPS (sans batteries) with an "audiophile" price?
Why did I only now find this channel? Love it, subscribed!
This is why people like Sennheiser provide separate psu for their 50 grand plus headphones etc nice clean power plus the old tubes look awesome!!!
I use a CVT (Constant Voltage Transformer) to do this job. It works very well and is a passive device. CVTs are expensive as well.
that thumbprint will make this ps a collectors item when Mark hits the bigtime.
Flooding the connections with solder does work, but I've lifted thinner PCB traces doing that. Boo! on me. This looks like a robust power circuit board, so safer to do. Just have to be careful. Nice to find the core problem so quickly, though. (I swear I can smell the flux in every one of these videos, ha ha.)
I can't believe I watched a man stick Kapton tape on transistors for five minutes... lol. Cool video. New subscriber.
He has many other interesting and satisfying performances, stay tuned. Loved the audiophool bits, interesting and entertaining. I have seen and read of such things and find humor in it, although many are quite vexed.
I bet that the clipped mains by having more DC component would have LESS ripple after going through any half decent amplifiers rectifier and filter caps... audiofools will Buy anything.
Imagine him and Mr. Carlson having a conversation.
If I've got this correct, this audiofool device turns AC, into DC, DC into AC, so that your audio gear can then turn the AC into DC.
A DC ADC converted AC into DC bits AC would be converted to AC using a DC rail.
I am thunderstruck.
If all repairs were like this.... couldn't have been any simpler
Kapton as a thermopad? Bad idea... While electrically insulating it not only conduct heat poorly, but also quickly degrade when exposed to high temperature - that may cause shorts to heatsink. There is way better stuff specially designed for that role, for using at mains potential, too, if that's the case.
Good to see o e of Paul's pieces put back into service after years of use. I thought the unit was from the mid 90s when Paul was trying to put back the company on the map after he bought it back (after having sold it). This was one of the first products to really get ps audio going in the direction they are today. They made bigger versions of the the 600 and and 1200 I think for powering various audio pieces. Seen a number of these needing work and it's interesting why these transistors fail and that scorched relay. Only seen a couple of your videos but their fun, inspiring and educational. Just curious if you do any videos on things for beginners like soldering tips, general advice on measuring and tech tips? Thanks from the USA!
PS Audio made money buy scamming uneducated old "idiots".
It is nice to see I am a fan of ps from New Zealand
I love your repairs. Even if it's audiophoolery equipment. I quit my job when my company transitioned from designing mastering equipment to designing esoteric audiophile shit. Unbearable for me as engineer.
Paul drives me nuts! Not sure what it is about him, but I watched his videos for a while, and I just could not stand listening to him anymore.
I used to watch his videos too. But then I realized that if you're not using PS Audio components or audio cables that cost $100/inch, your system is crap.
I can't watch him, he comes across as disingenuous. He's clearly a competent and knowledgeable engineer who understands the principles by which good sound is produced. Then he goes on to feed the rumours and claptrap circulating in audio circles, upon which he sells vacuum tube amplifiers and power regenerators. He knows full well this contraption won't make any difference to any well designed audio equipment. If this made a difference then the equipment it feeds has a poorly designed PSU. He pushes flawed concepts, like conflating the purity of the AC supply with the purity of the audio signal. He sells nonsense hyper expensive power cables and snake oil mains fuses. It's sad and I can't watch the guy, he's trading on the ignorance of fools who have more money than sense.
@@jamesrindley6215 When he did a tour of his home theater setup he doesn't even us his own stuff. He uses Emotiva amps because he "doesn't have room" for the monster size PS Audio components.
@@domosautomotive1929 Yup, and he no doubt knows full well that all correctly functioning amplifiers sound identical.
Impeccable work!
The Audiophil people are also a case for themselves! Amplifiers must be analog and the power supply must be made with a heavy iron core! otherwise you hear switching noises. Digital amps suck! but using a digital amplifier so that the analogue amplifier gets a digital 50-60hz sampled at 20-40khz sine wave on the main connection is ok! that makes the sound much better than the analog one from the main connection. we have smps that are worlds better than analog iron core transformers. and even outperform this combination by far. for the money i would instead of that shit that can't do anything. just use 10 12v car batteries. 75ah 12v cost $100 each
. 10 of them and for 1000 dollars you have the best power supply that money can buy! for 100-150 dollars there is the charger. for $1150 anyone can build their zero ripple power supply. that's enough for 2x50-2x100w analog eazy! You can draw 400w of power from this battery pack for 22 hours, but I would take about 10 hours, i.e. half the capacity, as a benchmark and tha recharge!
To those audiophiles that say they prefer valves because the sound is "warmer" I reply back so you prefer distorted sound? Distorted is so dirty word for the audiophools. This device reminds me why there are people that spend 12000$ on a LAN cable (Audioquest Diamond LAN cable)
Paul will tell you straight up that valves colorize the sound. If that is your preference they have a product. If it is not your preference they have a product.
interesting that this uses powercon for the power input, that's generally only used in the pro audio space, not by audiophiles
they also don't use speakon for no good reason in the hifi space, it's much superior to screw terminals or banana plugs
An audiophile product that actually does some useful things. Pretty amazing. As a guitar player I use valve amps and use Furman power conditioners. Not to sort out dodgy sine waves, but to deliver a regulated voltage. Not a lot of people know this but UK mains voltage is permitted to anywhere between 216 volts to 253 volts (230 volts -6%, +10%). If you move between locations with the same setup this wide possible range can make the equipment sound different... And it can change quite a lot while you are plugged in and playing in a given location and that's just the worst. I also see it outside of the limits of -6%, +10% sometimes 😕
When this said audiophile, I was expecting NOS GEC KT77, reformed waxy caps that look like they could have been from Stalin's birthday cake, rolled aluminum oil caps, mustard caps, carbon comp resistors, separate HT and Filiment transformers, 2 single end transformers for push pull, a 2 wire plug cause the grounded chassis will affect the sound, and a whole drawer full of pre and power tubes (valves) to roll for each song selection as different combinations match the sonic properties of the music.
I build amplifiers, if all the ratings match the label, you will not ever notice the difference. On bass amps I do oversize the output transformer because OT saturation can be noticeable at low frequencies, Nichicon, F&T or Mod electrolytics, but other than that, most of my useage stuff is pretty generic. I laugh when a customer thinks that blue molded ajax caps, RCA or Mullard tubes, and every resistor being carbon comp is the key to perfect Fender tone... But oh well. They pay.
A god trick with removing power transistors is to put enough solder on so it bridges adjacent pins and then heat the whole thing up, or 2/3 and then leaver it from side to side.
Love this repair, always wanted to see inside one of those; turned into a bit of PS Audio bashing in the comments😉 . If you want more, look into Audio Science Review channel for an unbiased and sound technical analysis of audio products.
I like it! For the initials alone already!
capton tape is thermal insulator, so uve insulated transistors from heatsink.
Kapton has high thermal resistance, the opposite of what you want for a power device heat sink washer. But given power transistors have heatsink top and bottom it might not matter.
What's with the strange 1930's intro music? 🤣
EDIT: I've been a Hi-Fi enthusiast for 44 years, and my equipment has always sounded superb, powered by our "ropey" UK electricity! 👍🤣
But does your gear have the "warmth", "depth" and "width" that you gain from the thermal insulation that kapton tape delivers?
GOOD equipment won't generate audible noise until the distortion becomes quite high indeed, on the order of 25-35% or so. (ie, square wave input!). Truly proper kit will eat even that and perform within spec. The main issue with square wave and clipped sine wave power is audible harmonics being generated by the magnetics themselves (transformer hum and hiss) and potentially lower capacity of those magnetics due to partial saturation though any reasonable kit should have enough headroom to deal with
Based on poor reviews of PS Audio power products (e.g. from Audio Science Review channel) not too sure this unit was worth repairing. I enjoyed the video though. Nice work!
The product is based on flawed concepts and appeals to people who don't understand how PSUs work. It's not necessary to have a perfect sine wave supply and any well designed PSU will handle any grid supply that's within the spec limits. It might just make sense to use this if you have a turntable with a synchronous AC motor, but even then, the grid doesn't wow and flutter much because generation equipment has huge turbines with huge flywheels. Of course there are "reviewers" claiming they can hear differences, but the same loons also claim they hear the difference between two brands of banana plugs on the speaker cable, or different types of stands used to support the amplifier. There's one born every minute.
@@jamesrindley6215 You need old growth oak to hold you're speaker cables off the carpet or you'll introduce harmonic distortion from the carpet pad... 😂
@@frizzlefry1921 Good point, and don't forget your cryogenically conditioned gold plated mains fuses.
Straight from my home town. I've had many conversations with Paul over the years. Very neat to see a device pop up on your channel. I could most certainly hear differences all the way through my late 30's. I've done a lot of true A/B tests. Now as I'm closer to 50 than 30 my top end response is finally rolling off. Always been very diligent about hearing protection.
Such skill and knowledge but irritating to watch you dragging components out when you could use solder wick to save ripping at the pads.
There is special high conductivity kapton tape, Kapton MT+, that might have been used originally on those mosfets. Still wouldn't use kapton tape for the job if I didn't have to...
so all this does is convert your ac to dc, convert it back to ac only for your amplifier to convert it back to dc again. So in the end they assume that the power supply in your amplifier is so bad that it needs this extra step without doing anything different from any other basic power supply.
Heij Buddy, I just wonder: You have the most beautiful measuring stuff and still desolder like a cave man?
I do way less fiddeling than You but I didn´t want to put up with that anymore so I bought a desolder station, a zd 915. Applied the overvoltage mod in form of a step down converter in place of some load resistors switched in line with the pump and fan- works splendid.
The poor fan gets 18 volts, it´s dragged down by the load of the pump to 12 volts. Now with the converter it´s at 12,5 volts all the time and the pump starts up instant. This thing really sucks now and is way quieter as before. A good machine.
Thanks for bringing us along to the workshop. I guess some idiot overloaded the output and took the transistors out.
Paul Mc Gowan is or would have a heart attack watching someone else work on his equipment. If you know anything about him he doesn’t sell his equipment in stores and always talks about if you have and problems with his equipment send it to them to repair. 😢
lovely video mark again
Love the part snooping and replacement, one question - how the heck do you source the replacement parts when they are so old. Heck I have problems with getting parts that are only 5 years old, let alone DIP chips and specialty relays !
Get em from Paul Mc Gowan.
Guy that owns it probably has a 115dB SNR DAC, with the power regenerator cooling fan generating 70dB of noise. Brilliant! Kapton tape thermal conductivity is probably what killed the outputs. You used low oxygen audiophile grade solder right?
Capton tape??? Think they were out of the proper mica foil... or the guy building it couldnt give a toss. Its thermal properties are totally wrong here... so factory "correct" could have done with an upgrade
I was concerned about that - a quick web search suggests there are different grades of Kapton tape, with Kapton MT and MT plus being thermally conductive and electrically insulating, whereas Kapton HN is just electrically insulating. Don't know how you tell them apart or what type Mark was using. If the thermally conductive types are as good as mica or sil-pads, I'd be tempted - quite convenient.
Kapton and mica are superior thermal conductors to silicone pads. They should however be greased on both sides.
Painful to watch that wrangling out of those transistors by moving around soldering iron. I was just waiting for the PCB to suffer consequences. 🙁
says the troll!
Beautiful sine wave or bad sine wave - it doesn't matter to most modern solid state amplifiers because AC will be converted to DC.
I have never seen such a distorted incoming AC sinewave. I guess I'm lucky.
Great repair Mark, I had one of these years ago and the monster P600. Anyone serious about audio quality this is where you start before upgrading equipment. Sadly the new units offer more power and run cooler but at the cost of purity :(
I used to repair to component level in the 70s mainly using standard parts. To replace a circuit board if it was available was uneconomic and an admission of failure. Certainly kept your brain active.