Paul S wrote:

Any updates from users/sufferers on the "new", lighter/cheaper-to-ship APS stuff?  Mani?

SOS wrote:

Well after getting little communication from PP I decided to sell my unit. The last communication from them was on 1-7 here is their response:<BR><BR><EM><STRONG>Hi Steve,<BR><BR>The reports you have provided are giving us valuable clues to the cause of the <BR>noise, but are not definitive. <BR><BR>We do not think it is a fault in the unit you have. i.e. your unit is probably <BR>operating properly. The problem is that there is an interaction or connections <BR>somewhere that exists when you plug your phono equipment into the PurePower <BR>that allows ground noise to enter your pre-amp.<BR><BR>We are running some simulations here to try and reproduce the effect and <BR>develop a way to ameliorate it.<BR><BR>We hope to have a definitive answer mid next week. (We are scheduled to visit <BR>CES the last half of this week.)<BR><BR></STRONG></EM>So now it's Jan 23rd and have heard nothing from PP. Maybe my unit is working as designed but I've heard from 2 other customers of the same scenerio while the original worked fine until the new 2000+ was installed and they got a hum. Very strange but unfortunate. Oh well time to move on. Suggestions?<BR><BR>

Come on, Steve! If you sell step-up transformers to for many customers who have no noise problems and then one of them report that with his cartridge your transformer has hum then would it be reasonable to suggest that the problem is not in your step-up transformer but in the way how this transformer is your in that specific installation?

You buy or sell PP - that is completely up to you. Frankly, dealing with ground loops is not the PP’s prerogative and if I run PP I would not promise to you a fix on PP side but would flat deny the complain. I still feel that you did not invest your own efforts to find the source of your ground loop but it is your rights to do or not to do.

BTW, if you report that you have 2 other customers with the same scenario then it might be indicative of slightly different problem. You are a dealer and I very much presume that your customers sue some kind of equipment that you sold to them. Most likely it is the same equipment that you use in your own installation. I give you 99.99% probability that the very same analog component that you all share between all 3 of you is the guilty party in your ground loop problems. It might be cartridge, TT, arm, phono cable, STU, phonostage or a way how everything is connected. This is common for passive and particularly balanced phono devises that they might have internal grounding problems that might be highlighted or reveled only under certain operation conditions. Perhaps PP is the condition that let this defective component to indicate your ground problems. 

All that you need to know that you did NOT provide the specific of you problem and that PP with grounded output, even theoretically could, not be a SOURCE of the loop. I am very confident that if you call me when you were dealing with the problem I would find your loop but as you sold the PP not it is not necessary. If you find another power devise that works for you than let me know but I am afraid that to find another active devise with PP-level sound would be orders of magnitude more complicated then to fix your ground loop.

SOS wrote:

First the other customers of PP that are having a hum problem are NOT my customers and use different components than I. Second it is not just the turntable motor but also get the hum from the phono stage when plugged in. Again plugging these components into other conditioners do not give me the hum issue. Finally not receiving timely responses from PP to me is unacceptable. Customer service is as or if not more important than the product itself. My own motto goes something like this: customer service is like making love to a gorilla you don't stop when you're satisfied you stop when the gorilla is satisfied!

SOS, as a starting point, it does not seem at all odd to me that adding an "other" piece of equipment to the electrical chain might require a reconfiguration of the system ground scheme.  Of course, the phono stage is the worst case for hum, PP or no.  May we suppose that you used well-shielded phono cables that are well away from the PP unit?  Did you "dangle" the "downstream" shield connectors and ground the "upstream" shield connectors?  Do you use a dedicated, low-resistance ground rod/wire for the phono gear?

I have found it is normally the case that all gear has to be plugged into any ONE "power conditioner" or "regenerator", or - at least - "other" gear must be on a totally separate circuit (eg, not the other 1/2 of a 220 line, sharing a neutral).  Properly designed amps, in particular, should generally have their gound wires "lifted".  In any case, the PP (or any switching device) is best kept at a distance from other gear (and leads), since it also broadcasts its filth over the airwaves.  

Taking the foregoing into consideration, yet, one would not expect the PP itself to "add" typical AC "line hum".  I agree with Romy that it "sounds like" the hum you've experienced is the result of some sort of ground-related mishap that might be/might have been solved by due diligence in the course of system-specific ground sleuthing and by re-configuring the grounding scheme, "as necessary".  In your specific case, you probably know that it is often a good idea to run a ground from the TT motor straight to the dedicated ground line.  I can share that this is the only thing that works in my system.

If you read back over this very long thread you will quickly gather that I have expressed putative disappointment as contempt for PP's ridiculous "QC", and I have literally waited for years for some sign that PP have finally developed and integrated a viable QC program.  Meanwhile, during the course of my waiting, I have come up with no alternatives to the PP.


Best regards,
Paul S

SOS wrote:

I fully disclosed to the new owner what issues I had only with analog, which he also uses. Well he received it late last week and he also has the buzzing sound with analog! The is confident he can solve the issue and I wish him all the luck but now this is the 4th person with a 2000+ unit that has the same issue. I truly believe it is now in the design of these new + units because the original units did not have this problem, either at my place when Romy brought one over or at another guys place (not my customer) who has the original non plus PP 2000 unit and all is great but when his dealer lent him a + unit the buzzing started and he could not solve the issue. If this issue was ONLY my issue I'd tell all it was my system and ignorance that was at fault but with 4 systems with the same issue.......well you decide or can speculate what the issue is.Again I wish PP can figure this all out b/c it is a wonderful unit and will do very well in the market but at the moment not as is.