[AuralRelations]

Last week I ordered a Pangea Audio P-100 to use with my Musical Fidelity V-LPS. I was very excited about this upgrade since Stereophile raved about how it was such a significant performance upgrade. I was using a Pyramid PS-3KX with the V-LPS for the past 6 months, which was already a great upgrade to the stock wall wart. 
 
I received the unit, swapped everything out and flicked it on. I immediately heard a hum and my heart sank. I thought the whole point of a quality PSU was to get rid of hum. I tried everything to get it to stop humming. I repositioned it, tried different surge protectors, and different interconnects but all to no avail. It still made a hum, even at low volume, no matter what I did.
 
Although there was a hum, I could see why Stereophile loved this unit. The soundstage got wider, instrument separation improved, and bass tightened up. I debated whether or not to keep the unit regardless of the hum but I just couldn't do it. I returned it to Kraft Street Audio/Amazon today and went back to the Pyramid. The Pyramid's does not hum and performs admirably, especially for the price. I'll stick to this for the time being and maybe save enough money for a better phono stage or invest in the V-PSU II. 
 
I really wanted to love the P-100 but the hum was a deal breaker. Any P-100 owners want to chime in? Perhaps I had a defective unit.  

 

[KLJTech]

Did you contact the dealer about a replacement since the hum may have been due to a defective unit? Mine arrived a couple weeks ago and I'm using it with a DacMagic with very good results and the power supply is dead silent. I bet if you try another P-100 you'll be pleased. 
Best of luck!

 

[AuralRelations]

Quote:

Did you contact the dealer about a replacement since the hum may have been due to a defective unit? Mine arrived a couple weeks ago and I'm using it with a DacMagic with very good results and the power supply is dead silent. I bet if you try another P-100 you'll be pleased. 
Best of luck!

Yeah I've been thinking about that too. I should give the Pangea another shot. Just want want to be disappointed again. I ordered my unit on Amazon from Kraft St. Audio. They didn't have an option for an exchange so I'll have to just order another after the refund goes through. I wonder if the hum has anything to do with the V-LPS as it boots the gain so much.

 

[KLJTech]

If you're doing this through Amazon I would certainly try another one since they are so easy to deal with. I did all of my Christmas shopping through Amazon and needed to return a couple items and you're able to print up the return label right at their website. 
 
I've never used the V-LPS so your guess is as good as mine but the P-100 was designed by Peter Madnick so I have every reason to believe that its a well designed power supply (its heavier than a couple of my DAC's) and it really improved the dynamics and soundstage depth of my DacMagic.
 
I'd try one more just to make sure that you didn't get a bad unit...at least then you'll know one way or the other. 
 
Good luck.

 

[AuralRelations]

I love Amazon's customer service. They even refunded me the shipping amount! I'll try ordering another one tomorrow. I'll report back if that one hums as well!

 

[AuralRelations]

An update on the P-100. I ordered another unit from Amazon. It arrived yesterday and I've been testing it since. It still hums. It's a real shame because I do like the sound it makes. Tightens up the bass and brings forward the background detail. Also makes imaging of the instruments a bit more precise. 
 
Still, I'm going to return this unit as the hum really bothers me, especially during softer, silent parts of classical music. It seems to me that the P-100 is not really meant for phono stages, perhaps because of the immense amount of gain required. I'll be sticking to my generic Pyramid PSU for now while looking to upgrade to a new phono stage all together. 
 
I'm sure that the P-100 works spectacularly with DACs and headphone amps but I'm not so sure it's meant for phono stages. 
 
Bummer, really. I really wanted to like this unit. 

 

[jackinnj]

Pangea P-100 has a 22uH choke in the ground lead of the positive and negative regulators.  Normally, this pin of the regulator would be connected directly to ground.  The 1,000uF electrolytic filter cap on the output is connected to the ground pin of the regulator, NOT to ground.  Thus there is a resonant circuit on the output and the resonant frequency is 1.07 kHz.
 
You generally want to avoid inductive reactance in the output of a regulated power supply (since the impedance increases with frequency.) The Pangea designers have done the opposite. Thus downstream devices (opamps) become more susceptible to things like clock noise, radio frequency interference etc.  The Pangea has a common mode choke of 37uH on the output. It would have been OK if they put it on the input to the regulator, but placing the common mode choke on the output destroys any impedance lowering effect of the regulator.
 
Audio Advisor advertisement and youtube demo state that the device is encased in a steel chassis.  This is simply not correct -- it's an aluminum extrusion with steel end plates.
 
The Pangea P-100 is a badly designed external power device and is best avoided.
 

 

[AuralRelations]

Thanks for the detailed insight into the P-100. I knew it was too good to be true to have a $100 PSU be so "good." It was so hyped up by everyone, especially Audio Advisor, and I fell for it. 

 

[jackinnj]

The first image is a conventional after-market regulator based upon Walt Jung's design.  As you can see the harmonic content is pretty minimal.  This was a highly regarded device in "The Great Regulator Bake-Off",  the second image is an FFT of the Pangea P-100 -- both were loaded with a 50mA 1kHz signal from an Audio Precision SYS-2722, and a 100R non-inductive resistor -- you can see the harmonics and the line noise present on the output of the P-100.

 

 

[AuralRelations]

WOW, thanks for the detailed investigation, jackinnj! I'm sad that Pangea Audio hasn't addressed this issue yet.