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Finally we added the two Avantgarde Duo self-powered woofers to the mix. This got ugly. The reading went to 440 and the speaker at the back of the Analyzer started to literally scream. Here we had to conclude that digital gear is not as bad relative to dirty power issues as we are told. In this case the simple woofer amps polluted the power lines far more severely than a high-power class D amp with switch-mode power supply. In our personal setup the cleanest power came from running the PWT, D-Premier and Avantgarde Duo on separate and dedicated outlets of the PPP. Divide and conquer.
Benign class D amp
What happens in a situation where there is no clean power to begin with? For this question we used a PWT CD transport, PWD DAC and passive Furutech TP60E. The wall outlet we used caused a reading of 426 plus a preacher. The reading remained consistent once the power strip was in place. When the CD transport plugged in still switched off, the display showed 029 and the analyzer emitted some crackling noise. The preacher had vanished. Disconnecting the transport and plugging the PWD DAC in whilst still off changed the display to a whopping 507 together with two interfering radio stations. When we added the transport again but still in the off position, the reading went down to 037 and the crackling sound was back. Just a single radio station appeared when the transport was switched on together with 037 on the display. Both units powered on caused really loud noise and 109 on the display.
Another audio story we’re told over and over again is how bad computers are for power quality. Time for a little private investigation. Our iMac was plugged into a power strip. With the computer off the display on the Noise Analyser showed 281 and our familiar radio station was present. Switching the iMac on made no difference. What did was unplugging the computer from the power strip. The reading went up to a high 577 and medium loud noise emitted from the speaker at the back of the analyzer. A similar scenario unfolded with a laptop plugged into the strip. Connected the meter showed a lower reading albeit with radio reception.
Benign dimmer
From this we conclude that power issues/component interactions remain puzzling and not at all straightforward. What we learnt is that a dedicated regenerated and filtered power zone like the PS Audio PPP and similar gear offer works best. Having our system run that way the Blue Horizon Noise Analyser showed all zeros and no noise. Sonically this translated to the most realistic images with shockwave transients and clean decays. The other thing we learnt is that the Noise Analyser is mandatory for reviewers. For consumers at least their dealer ought to have one and loan it to them or come over and do an analysis. Simply selling and installing a regenerator/filter is not enough. Component interaction will play funny and unexpected tricks. Those can be eliminated by trial and error but need confirmation with an analyzer.
Critics may protest that it remains unclear what exactly the analyzer measures and whether the measured noise really has a detrimental effect on our hifi sound. The first is very true. Only a very expensive electrical analyzer can determine what rides on the power line and what causes it. Regarding the latter, in our case eliminating the cleaning agent of PPP and instead relying on ‘pure’ wall power simply killed the music. What we’d still like to see for this mains analyser is a volume control because some noise can get very loud; and an adapter by way of a male IEC so that power cords too can be assessed.
Quality of packing: Excellent Condition of component received: Primo. Quality of owner's manual: Simple card says it all Pricing: The benefits of insights gained completely warrant the expense. Human interactions: The way they should be. Remark: The results beg for further investigation regarding the shielding of cables (or not), inline filters built into power cords and such. To be continued...
