Hey all...just emailed PS audio today regarding plugging in the P300 into a Brickwall surge protector, and here's what they said:


You can plug the P-300 into the Brickwall Surge protector and not do any physical damage to the P-300. You will however degrade the sound quality of the components plugged into the P-300. We recommend that you plug the P-300 directly into the wall. The
P-300 has its own surge and spike protection theat exceeds the capabilities of the BW unit.

Thank you,

David Buhs
PS Audio International, Inc.


--So its official---just plug the P300 directly into the wall

BillyHOEZ

Quote:



Sorry dude, nothing is official. You heard exactly what you should expect to hear. If you were to contact Brickwall and ask the same question, they would give you the opposite answer. Both of these companies have a significant interest in wanting you to believe that the other's product is inferior in some way or another. I'm not saying this guy is necessarily feeding you a line, but you shouldn't trust them either. The only way you are going to know is to do an A/B test for yourself, but even that isn't really realistic, as you will have to power down your system and restart it, and by then your auditory memory will probably have faded anyway. Good luck. I personally would trust the Brickwall's surge protection WAY ahead of PS Audio, but that's my own bias.

LOL, I got the same email from that guy. Except that he made no mention of the Brickwall degrading the sound quality. I'm gonna test it out myself, though. He said that everything would be OK.

I don't really want to let my P300 be the sacrificial component in my system. I'm sorry but a $189 Brickwall as expensive as it is, is the CHEAPEST component in my system. Well, not nearly as cheap as my CD Transport. Haha.

BTW, the Brickwall does an amazing job of eliminating ground loop buzzing. At the latest LA/SoCal meet at Akio's place, he had two cheapo surge strips plugged in. I plugged in my Little more Power amp into it and got a lot of nasty buzzing. I yanked the Little and plugged it into my Brickwall. Nada. Buzz gone. So if you just want to get rid of ground loop buzzing, the Brickwall might just be all that you need.

That and nice heaping helping of peace of mind.

-Ed

CRAP!

CRAP!!

CRAP!!!

Damn Brickwall does limit the sound.

Mostly compresses the soundstage. Damnit!

Is there a better way to protect the P300?

I don't want to let it be the sacrificial component in my system. The P300 only uses crummy MOV's, right?

What's up with the new "tranzorbers" in the new P500, and in the new Ultimate Outlets?

I don't feel like spending $400 to protect my P300.

-Ed

Edwood go to www.psaudio.com and check out what it says about the p300's surge protection. You wont be so worried about the p300 after you read their description of the protection the p300 offers. It has MOV's in the first protection stage but it also has trazorbers and transformer isolation protection.

Kewl, so does this mean that older P300's have those Tranzorbers?

-Ed

Yes it does. They have been built that way from the beginning.

Hey guys, I got another email from PS Audio. Here's what another person had to say about this issue:


We do not recommend plugging the Power Plant into any other device. The reason being is that the majority of surge protectors on the market use MOV to protect the surge place a certain amount of restriction on the line which often times causes impedance- which then corresponds to lowering of the sound quality.



The P300 will protect your system from any surge or spike- however in doing its job, it may not be able to protect itself- that’s where your Brickwall comes in.



I would suggest listening to the P300 with out the Brick wall for a few days so that you can hear what the sonic difference really is- then make your decision on whether or not to put the Brickwall in your system.



Thanks and let me know if you have any other questions



All the best

Angie Duran

Sales Manager

.....interesting

Someone's trying to cover their ass!

I see that some people at PS Audio are not that confident with the surge supression ability of the P300.

I really think it's really really stupid to think of a $1200+ piece of electronics as "sacrificial."

Well, I've confirmed for myself that the Brickwall does degrade the sound.

Even the Brickwall and everything connected to it would not survive a direct lightning strike. And if you are listening to headphones at the same time, you may not either.

So basically, if you hear thunder, unplug everything you value.

Not something I have to do often in SoCal.

-Ed

Quote:



What if you're listening to closed headphones with loud music? Don't close your eyes?

With the Ety's, not only would it block out thunder, it would be a direct line into your head for a direct lightning strike!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTT!!!!!!

Lightning--->--->--->

-Ed

Anyone try freeding a P300 with a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet?

Stereophile has a little piece on this set-up...sounds interesting and very expensive...

Overkill?
The Power Plant takes raw AC from the wall, converts it to DC, then converts it back to AC, precisely regulating the output voltage and using a DSP-based signal generator to produce a pure 60Hz AC sinewave or the alternative MultiWave combination of waveforms. The Power Plant's output has demonstrably lower noise and distortion than raw AC, and might be expected to be impervious to all but the most marked variations in the quality of AC supply. To use a UO at the input of the Power Plant might seem redundant, or to amount to overkill. Nevertheless, PS Audio says that, used in this configuration, the UO can produce some useful "pre-cleaning" of the AC, with further sonic benefits.

Well, I tried this combination, and I have to agree with PS Audio's recommendation. The difference was not night-and-day, but the sound became a bit more open and more dynamic, and there was some reduction of upper-frequency grain. The results were better with the High Current UO than with the Standard.

I also tried plugging the UO (Standard or High Current) into one of the P300's outputs, then plugging the digital source components into the UO. This is the recommended setup for preventing the digital components from dumping noise back into the P300. I compared the sound of this combination to the sound with the digital components plugged directly into the P300. Result: no difference that I could consistently identify. This is not to say that there would be no audible effect with other digital components or in other systems, but in the hierarchy of PLC-related improvements, I would put on the lowest level the addition of a UO after the P300 just for digital components

It would also be better for the Ultimate outlet to take one for the team, rather than the Power Plant.

Now if I can only find a High Current UO for less thean $200. That's about how much a Brickwall costs.

-Ed