“Ah-ha” moments don’t come that often in the audiophile world. When so much sounds so good, it is very hard for new products and technology to really stand out. I had such a moment, not that long ago, when before real smartphones and smart cars I managed to make it through the maze of the South Bay streets and arrive on time for a demonstration of PS Audio’s 32-bit DAC. I can’t remember which one, but it was new, and it was before 32-bit was even a buzzword. It was even classical music, but man it sounded fantastic.
Since then, I have kept an eye out on PS Audio, and I even purchased a DAC and some power conditioning products of my own. But I was spellbound with the idea of power regeneration, but it was always out of my price range. Like Boromir, I was transfixed by the idea of what pure, clean power could do. And like the one ring, clean power is something that binds the whole system together. If the power was clean from the start, there’s almost no need for high-end power cables. “Shhhhh, quiet now, the cable nazgul will hear.”
It was with great joy that I finally had a chance to have one of the PS Audio power regenerators to demo and listen to critically. And this review took a bit longer than normal to write. I wanted to make sure this power regenerator really could bend the will of my audio system to its own power.
Ok, Ok, I promise no more Lord of the Rings analogies from here on out. I shall not let fantasy nerdom pass into our audiophile world.
Struggles with Power Straight from the Wall
So why power regeneration? What’s wrong with power straight from the wall and how can the PS Audio DirectStream Power Plant 12 make it better? We could spend hours slinging mud over these three questions, but from my listening experience, clean power matters. I have moved three times in four years with the same base audio system. According to my wife, all this moving is rather irritating, and while I agree with her, at each location and in each new listening configuration, I have learned that not only does gear placement and room condition matter, so does the power coming from the wall.
In one spot, I had a few nicely isolated power outlets that were well grounded and recently installed. The noise floor on my turntable was extremely low and the whole system sounded wonderful. The next place didn’t have a good room, but again it had good power. Unfortunately, in my current house, the wiring is old and the circuits are shared among many rooms with lots of noise introduced into the system. And frankly the grounding also leaves something to be desired.
But now this is a home we own, and I had the freedom to set the listening room up any way I wanted. Which means custom sound damping material on and in the walls, new thicker carpet and a real solid wood door. However, I didn’t redo the wiring, and the power just isn’t that good. So in comes the PS Audio DirectStream Power Plant 12.
The DirectStream Power Plant 12 has been completely redesigned from the ground up featuring a new FPGA based DSD sine wave generator and three times the lower impedance of its predecessor, the P5 Power Plant. It offers 8 segmented outlets, 1200 VA output and a color touchscreen interface where you can custom tune, or use a pre-set, to adjust the regenerated power to your specific needs. It also has a THD meter, oscilloscope, power meter, and the list goes on. This is one super-techy piece of gear that makes me feel a bit shaped. I’m using it mainly for vinyl, technology we now think of as being older than dirt. The DirectStream 12 is the smallest of the DirectStream line of Power Plants, but it fits easily into a gear rack, and it only weighs 48 lbs. This means you can lift it on your own, but please, with your knees, watch your back.
Review System Components
I demoed the unit with all of my gear, including things I normally don’t test, like my computer monitors, Samsung TV, and I even plugged in my smartphone hoping it would make the damn thing smarter! But I spent the majority of the time listening to my analog setup, which includes a Rega P3/24 with a SoundSmith MMP-3 phono-amp, Carmen v1 cartridge, some upgrades in cabling, along with a Melody iA11 integrated amplifier or the Orchard Audio Crispin amplifier and Burson HA-1 and Pass Labs HA-1 headphone amplifiers. My speakers were the PMC TBi2 bookshelf model and the Audeze LCD-2 for headphones.
So What Changed?
There are two aspects of any power regeneration unit I would be most concerned about. One is how it changes the sound of the system, and two is can it deliver the power the system needs. With the above mentioned gear I used in testing the DirectStream Power Plant 12, I was not able to really test the power delivery aspect of the unit. The gear I have just doesn’t require that much power. But I did quickly hear the difference in the system when the Power Plant 12 was providing the power.
Three facets of the sound changed most. First the tightness of the bass was improved, not a lot, but noticeably. Clearly the lower end had a bit more power when the bass drop hit, and it faded away faster, opening up the lower mid-range more and giving the overall sound a better sense of definition and distinction between each instrument or noise in the music. The regenerated electrical signal also increased the openness of the system by tightening up the bass, which also enhanced the dynamic impacts of low frequency hits. This also made the vocal mid-range more open, more focused and more present in the room. It also helped with spacing in the music and the over-all sound stage.
The high-end though didn’t seem to change all that much. The price point of the speakers and headphones could be the limiting factor in this case. But that is also OK with me. The clean power didn’t change the presentation of the sound. It didn’t move it closer or retract it from where it initially was; it just made what was already there better.
One thing did surprise me. How do you make a four thousand dollar headphone amplifier sound better? Well, give it a clean sine wave source of power. I suppose it isn’t hard to believe, but even the Pass Labs HA-1 was improved with the DirectStream Power Plant 12’s regenerated power, and that caused me to spend way more time listening to my headphones than I probably should have. It is hard to escape the music when the rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper and more interesting to listen to.
Overall, I think the DirectStream Power Plant 12 enhanced the quality of my components without changing the nature of them. I used both aftermarket and generic power cords, and while there was a difference in sound with each power cord, the overall improvement of the system could not be doubted. A $4,999 moveable, power station might be cheaper than the electrician combined with the cost of good power cables. I recommend giving a DirectStream Power Plant 12 a listen. I’d invite you over for a listen myself, but I might have moved again, by then.
Price:$4,999.00
