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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: It’s mad, mad, mad... electricity.

Post Subject: PurePower 3000 vs. PurePower 2000Posted by Romy the Cat on: 11/10/2011

It is mean rainy day today in Boston and I’ve been playing with my new PurePower 3000 regenerator. It has been a bit bumpy as there was a frustrating issue, that looks like a shipping damage, the PurePower guys promise to fix it.
My initial sentiment from yesterday was that PurePower 3000 has a different sound then PurePower 2000 only got more conformation and more evidence today. In short: PurePower 3000 do sound better then PurePower 2000, in fact it even measured better than PP2000. If I were an industry-plugged reviewer then I would try to convince you to sell PP2000 and to get PP3000, I am sure the PurePower people would love it. However, since I do not give damn what you buy or use you need to understand that my comments only about sonic differences I observe. Furthermore, I am not sure that the sonic advantages of PP3000 are because it is “better”. I comment upon the observable differences, hot to interpreted those differences is a bit more complicated subject. I not always have the explanation to myself, if you do than good for you, share them with me and I will tell you why you are wrong.

1) PP3000 is heavier than PP2000, looks like the same side and looks like not much heavier in specification but it is much more pain in ass to move it.

2) PP3000 has more noise from fans than PP2000. It is “fanyer” sort of speaking. It is absolutely not bother me as my PP3000 sits good 25 feet away from my listening position. If it was sitting right next to my chair with 3-5 feet then it might be an issue I guess. I think it is because the fans in the unit are sucking intake air right from the holes atop the front panel. If PurePower would put one surface between the fan and hole, creating sort of labyrinth for incoming air then it would kill the noise significantly. Nevertheless, the severity of the noise is not too critical and if the unit good 10 feet away then it is not a problem at all.

3) The signature of PurePower “fuzziness” atop of the sinusoid that that I been reporting on all PurePower unit is there but it measured the best that any another PurePower unit I had. The amplitude and the spread of the fuzziness is very consistent, lower than with any other PurePower unit I measured it and the most important the it is practically identical between unit runs on battery or from power lines. None of the former multiple PP1050, PP2000 that I experimented with did not have this last characteristic.

4) DC offset adjustment. PurePower still use that ridiculously-manuals DC offset destroyer that I very much disagree with them. However, it looks like it works with PP3000 better then with PP2000. With PP3000 in the best DC offset setting I get lower noise in my toroids then I had with the best setting using PP2000. With both of them I have them practically silent but with PP3000 this definition of silence is literal. You need to understand that level of my anal-retentiveness and demands is much higher than any normal person would demand. I do not even measure DC. I usually take doctor stethoscope and press it against the toroid that feeds Melquiades amps with B+ for output tube. Then I spin the DC offset on regenerator unit I have minimum noise in stethoscope. With PP2000 I had very fine residual noise (not in room but in stethoscope). With PP3000 I have practically no noise at all (in stethoscope!)

5) With all playback driven from PP2000 the regenerator meter shows 96% load. With PP3000 it shows 55% load. Frankly I think this factor might be responsible for most of not all sonic differences that I see between the PP2000 and PP3000. If so then I would like to see the PP5000….

6) Ok, the first half elephant in the room – the dynamics. Believe me or not but PP3000 is more dynamic then PP2000. It was very sensible from the very first note that I heard from the PP3000. I do not know what to say else about it.

7) The second half elephant in the room – dynamics is that PP3000 looks like provided even further HF attenuation. The upper MF aggressiveness, characteristic for electricity, looks like with PP3000 subdued deeper. I would say I can run my MF and my tweeters harder with PP3000 to get the same level of comfort. I would say that I can do 1/3dB at MF and one full dB on tweeters. This is very good and it is an indication of PP3000 advantage. IT is very much might be due to the fact the I do not load PP3000 as much as I would do with PP2000 – with the same load but at near full capacity the PP2000 I am sure output more distortions then PP3000 at half capacity.

8) PP3000, probably because more HF attenuation, exposes more texture in sounds. This is what I did not expected.

9) PP3000 it looks like have slightly “flatter” imaging. I mead the depth and the complexity of imaging is there but it is a bit more “depth compressed”. I am still looking in this and will play with it. It might be some fine aspect of grounding or something like this will see. The effect is very mind but I think worth to mention.

The most important in PP3000 in my view is that in PurePower Company did not fuck up with PP2000 sound. It was what I was very much afraid. The PP3000 is just more beefed-up version of PP2000 with more powerful output stags and more cooling. Still, it might be perfectly possible that despite the PurePower assurance that “it basically the same unit” the glorious sound of PP2000 would not be there. It did not happen. The PP3000 has the very same sound as PP2000 but with differences that I have described above. It is very possible that I would not observe those differences is I was able to load PP2000 with no more than I would say 30% of load. However, a single pair of my Power amps loads PP2000 with 75% and I have no ways to do anything with it. Since I was not able to make my multiple PP2000 to run simultaneously loaded in the same playback (did not sound right) the PP3000 is the only solution for me. Not I need to continue harass the PurePower to make that damn bypass remote control and to lobby for 4kW or 5kW version of generator. I wonder what will make PurePower to do it. Do I need to start some kind of movement “Occupy PurePower”? You know, for those audio people it is never enough….

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

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