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By now, the tubes in the DAC and amplifier were ready to do their jobs. Our listening session kicked off with the P1000 set to 230V/50Hz, exactly what the Gas and Electric company should deliver. We now availed ourselves of a display option that reads out the combined power consumption of the connected gear. In our case, it was 258 watts. With the P1000 capable of delivering 1000 watts, we were well within its safe zone and with our Class A amplifier, this figure wasn't likely to rise during playback.


The first CD spun was Luka Bloom's Innocence wherein the Irish singer plays a nylon-string guitar. What happened from the first tones and continued over the next few hours was a bit of a shock. With the standard (but now rock-solid) 230/50 setting, a real and true 3D image unfolded. Luka was there, 1.5 meters behind the front of the Avantgarde horns. Soundstaging has never been a real issue to us since the engineers at the mixing consoles artificially create it on most recordings. Simple two-mike recordings are rare and the natural soundstages they create have always been considered a bonus - until now.


What was going on here? The sound was instantaneously the equal of the highest quality late night listening – alas now it was 3:00PM on a busy Monday. No need to close the curtains, light the candles, spread out rose petals on the floor or get undressed to enhance the musical experience. It was already happening.

If the sound was so dramatically improved -- and not just changed -- by regenerating and balancing the AC power, were expensive power cables still necessary? When we swapped out Crystal Cables for ordinary grounded power cords the effect was once again dramatic, albeit now in the negative. The sense of reality diminished as dynamics got sloppier and overall speed decreased. While the noise floor remained low, the live-like feeling vanished. Something similar happened when the Avantgarde subs were switched to the filtered-only outlets. The active subs are working from 18 - 170Hz where the midrange horns take over. The impressive 3-dimensionality was reduced to a shallow postcard.


When all equipment was back on the regenerated outlets, we needed to find out what the optimum settings were for our situation. We started with TubeWave since 40% of our system is equipped with valves - the analog side of the DAC and the Audio Note Meishu. This setting added a bit too much warmth but proved useful with overly bright CDs. MultiWave 4 enhanced the image in a way that broadened everything. Audible walls -- if any -- grew wider apart and the space between the musicians broadened as well. Intimate small-scale settings like Trio Hadouk's Live à FiP were torn apart as though the musicians had a quarrel.


Here's a bit of advice when working with a P1000. We experimented first with the wave settings and after a few hours thought to have dialed in the best values. Then we let the P1000 degauss the system - in PS Audio terms, do a Clean Sweep. There are two modes of Clean Sweep, a 30-second version and a shorter burst. The changes the P1000 made to our system were already very noticeable yet after the degaussing, a touch more finesse was added. The frequency sweep between 50 - 120Hz "loosened the system from any stress". However, this rendered all our previous efforts to find the best wave setting obsolete. It was back to square one. Before each CD we listened to now, the P1000 was asked to do a quick sweep.


After many experiments and many more CDs, we think that a standard SineWave setting at 222V/76Hz gives the most satisfying results for most of the music we play. However, large concertos with full orchestras tend to prefer the Autowave. Why a higher than standard line frequency? The Euro standard of 50Hz has nothing to do with quality. It is the easiest frequency to work with for the power companies but transformers and capacitors in audio equipment are happier operating at higher AC frequencies.

It would be a nice feature if PS Audio could include remote control for the wave settings. Since all settings can already be performed on the fly, you could sit in your favorite position and tune your power supply from the hot seat. As it stands now, you have to work in tandem or get up, change something, sit back down and listen again.


More complex music like Renaud Garcia Fons' Navigatore, Avishai Cohen's At Home, Marvin Sewell's The Worker's Dance or Antonio Placer's Nomades now enjoyed the stage width and depth as embedded in the recording. Recordings like WaterLily's A Meeting by the River and MA Recordings' La Segunda with their less-is-more approach to recording gained in emotional value. A grand piano recorded in a church -- Yoram Ish-Hurwitz' interpretation of Liszt's Annees de Pelerinage -- becomes a real grand piano. The full 2.74 meters of the Steinway appears like magic just across the room.


With vinyl, the P1000 can help to lock in the RPMs if the turntable has an AC-synchronous motor. Just dial in the correct frequency for a perfect 33,333 or 45 RPM. But remember, all other equipment will receive the same frequency - one setting is valid for all eight regenerated outputs.


PS Audio states that MultiWave3 is suited for video use. To try that, we ran an extension cable from the P1000 to the TV and hard disc video recorder and dialed in Mwave3. PS Audio is right. The video image lost its grain and became more vivid without getting overly bright.


In conclusion, we have to confess that we are impressed by what power regeneration can do in combination with balancing the AC output and the DSP logic that enables all manner of settings. The P1000 does things to the music that we did not expect to find ourselves so overwhelmed. Admittedly, the fact that the power plant has so many options requires experimentation to hit upon the most optimal setting. However, after those initial efforts, the real listening commences. We now question if prior reviews of equipment would have elicited different results had the P1000 been in use at the time. Truly, the differences the P1000 makes to the overall perception are not subtle.

The monstrous P1000 is not the most ideal power regenerator for all situations. We can envision scenarios where two smaller regenerators like the P500 would be a smarter choice. Think for instance on when you want to have certain equipment like digital powered up constantly yet the analog kit only when necessary. It is possible to leave the P1000 and certain equipment powered on while individual power switches control the rest. However, your energy bill will not be the same. The P1000 consumes a lot of power itself. Those heat sinks aren't just for show. After all, this is a 1000-watt amplifier. The P1000 adds quite some BTUs to the room and even at standby just feeding our digital gear, the top plate stays warm to the touch. Nevertheless, the P1000 is on the top of our personal wish list. The fact that daytime listening is now better even that the previous best nighttime listening is well worth the expense. Just imagine what might happen at nighttime when all the right psychological factors come together for added atmosphere...
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