AC ReGenerator

[reformed audiophile]

Thanks Nat. Will sort out the plug issue I'm sure. The more pressing matter now is which unit to get. I was set on the AG500 but am now wondering if I may be better off with the AG1500 should I decide to move beyond 10W of valve power.

my 100w tag Mclaren 100P is cut off at 80hz so all the low energy stuff is sent to a sub hence the low power consupmtion.
At full range I'm sure the utilization would be a great deal higher so keep that in mind

PWS, does this mean you are not running your sub through the regenerator? Why not?

Looks like one difference between AG500 and AG1500 is that the later has the adjustable fan speed and the former doesn't.

That would account for whoever it was saying they could hear theirs whilst Jerry said he hardly could - Jerry's is the 1500 and the other poster had the 500.

This from the FAQs: 'On the AG500 this is a whisper quiet 15dBA and on the AG1500 variable speed, noise is between 10dBA and 25dBA'.

So a 5dB difference would be clearly audible but the sound of calm breathing is 10dB...

[PWS]

My sub is 400w RMs so will need te 1500 for that just got the 500w version

[pedalfaster]

Got my AG1500 today. Tried it first just on the power amp. Not a big difference. Then plugged the rest of the system in. WOW. Big upgrade. Tighter and more focused sound with a larger scale. Money well spent although it is a bit smelly to start with. Well pleased.

[reformed audiophile]

Ordered the AG500 today along with IEC-IEC leads. Looking forward. Thanks all for the replies. Happy to report back later.

[The Count]

Mine arrived during the week but was away so only just unpackaged it.

This may be a silly question... I'm confused about the fan speed 'screw' - is this actually a screw? There is a blue circle that looks to have white behind it but not an actual screw and I'm a bit puzzled

[daz-b]

Aha. Cheers. Yep I'm not going mad or blind. Got the blue bit but nothing in the middle

My '+' on the fan speed control is not as pronounced as the photo of Jerry's. So I got a nice sharp screwdriver head to push in and turn. Did the job.

[harrisonfraud]

I thought I'd try and get in on the action before the offer ends (i.e. today), but I'm a little confused by the price/VAT listed on the website. For the AG1500 it says £580 inc VAT, but when I go through the checkout process it takes the 33% off the £580, and then adds VAT on again. Doesn't that mean VAT's been added twice?

[powerinspired]

I thought I'd try and get in on the action before the offer ends (i.e. today), but I'm a little confused by the price/VAT listed on the website. For the AG1500 it says £580 inc VAT, but when I go through the checkout process it takes the 33% off the £580, and then adds VAT on again. Doesn't that mean VAT's been added twice?

No, its just the way the numbers are presented. The VAT total shows how much VAT is being paid, that's all.

[harrisonfraud]

Ah yes. I feel a bit thick now!

While I've got you, I assume you can put a Schuko socket on instead of a UK one? I think I saw that option somewhere on the website?

[powerinspired]

Ah yes. I feel a bit thick now!

While I've got you, I assume you can put a Schuko socket on instead of a UK one? I think I saw that option somewhere on the website?

Yes we can, please specify you want a Schuko in the order comments.

- - - Updated - - -

Aha. Cheers. Yep I'm not going mad or blind. Got the blue bit but nothing in the middle

A bit odd, as we test this prior to despatch and we need to adjust the fan to full speed by default. Maybe got a bump in transit, send us an email and we'll organise an RMA to get this unit back and checked out.

[steelhull]

Am I completely daft??

I have a rather nice, stupid money, system. My AG1500 has just arrived and been plugged in. I swear that I can hear a difference; better highs, more separation, more air.

I unplugged it and listened again then replugged it (probably unnecessary, I think that you can switch it in or out)-I am confident that that the music has improved.

This is a complete no brainer.

Mike

[volante]

It was new essentially Jake, I bought it from Tony, had the Silent Sharkoon Fans fitted and then realized I couldn't accommodate it, my fault due to rack space!
so Tom had it and as he wanted to use it with his Quantim Filter it didn't work and wasn't meant to be used with filters so a day or two later u bought it, so essentially it was new just burned in a little for u

Have just received my AG 1500. Does Danny's post (" it...wasn't meant to be used with filters") suggest that one can't use the Quantum QX4 (which is a purifier not a regenerator intended to deal with EMI and RFI problems rather than voltage fluctuation) with the AG regenerator or have I misundersttod the post? I would have thought that the AG 1500 simply in effect replaces the fluctuating power supply from the 13A wall socket to provide a constant power supply and that plugging in a purifier into the outlet socket of the AG and plugging in all the rest of my system into the Quantum (which is what I normally do when the Quantum is plugged into the 13A wall socket without the AG) should be ok ? So to clarify the daisy chain (in reverse) is: all hifi equipment plugged into a couple of Vertex Taga distribution blocks (themselves daisy-chained), which in turn are fed by the Quantum QX4 , which is fed by the AG1500 (using the provided 10A IEC to IEC) which is plugged into the 13A wall socket (using the provided 13A plug to IEC). Apart from commenting that I may be leaving nothing to chance with my mains supply arrangements (!) does anybody have any thoughts or experiences? Thanks, neil

PS Obviously I can play about with different combinations myself but just wondered if others had had any actual experiences to save me making a mess of things.
Have turned the fans down to minimum setting and can't hear them unless I get really close to them. Can't really comment on sound quality until I have had some proper listening sessions and I am only listening to a radio 3 signal at the moment so the differences will probably not be as marked as compared with a signal from a CD or Vinyl.

EDIT: Tony of Powerinspired kindly called me back and the gist of what he said was that adding a Quantum or other filtering/purifying device in the chain would not cause any problems as such. It may just be that the noticeable effect of the filter/purifier may be reduced because of the improvements brought by the AG itself, but that it really depends on the nature of the filter/purifier and, as we know, this varies from one product to another. I haven't finished trying all the possible configurations with my particular system with Vertex tagas and Quantum in or out of the system (as it takes a long time and is a bit of a fag swapping cables around behind my system) but what I can say is that for a relatively small sum (compared to what we pay for a couple of cables and other system gizmos) it's worth trying one of these out particularly for someone who has no existing mains conditioning/filtering/purifying - it's very quiet -my fans are turned down to minimum without any problem- and it's plug in and play item. As someone else has mentioned on this thread you don't need the battery option just the AG itself.
Tony tells me they are flying out of the door at the moment (salesman as he is) and maybe Tony can be persuaded to extend the generous discount - hint hint - to encourage others to give it a go.

[harrisonfraud]

So what's the difference (in function as well as effect on audio applications) between a regenerator and a balanced power supply (see this link)?

I quite like the no-nonsense look of one of these. If it's just transformers it won't be noisy and require a fan, will it?

[leenorris78]

With all these fans turned down to minimum, how would this affect battery life?

[powerinspired]

With all these fans turned down to minimum, how would this affect battery life?

Not at all, the batteries should you choose to have them are in separate cabinets.

[JANDL100]

Note that on the AG1500 the separate battery unit is not needed for normal hifi type use - only as a backup in case of mains outage. You just need the smain AG1500 unit.

[Malc50]

Completely missed this thread, looks like you guys have been getting some good results . I am suffering some mains hum from my power amp this may have helped. Great price with the may special offer can't believe I missed it !

[powerinspired]

So what's the difference (in function as well as effect on audio applications) between a regenerator and a balanced power supply (see this link)?

I quite like the no-nonsense look of one of these. If it's just transformers it won't be noisy and require a fan, will it?

I used to work for a company that specialised in transformer based protection similar to that product. Transformers can provide very good levels of power protection, and also isolation which can be used to good effect. However they do have drawbacks. For example, they cannot provide voltage regulation and can in fact make things worse. They also cannot do anything about the quality of the waveform being provided. That is, if you have a power source with high harmonic distortion, you will still have harmonic distortion on the output of the transformer. This is the fundamental difference between a ReGenerator, and this balanced power supply, or any other filter based product. The ReGenerator recreates a new power source, which is of high quality and is stable.

One of my clients who was a HiFi enthusiast tried one of my previous companies transformer based system and told me it negatively effected his system, and I believe this is caused by the extra impedance being added into the supply line by the transformer. The bigger the transformer the less this effect will be, but again ReGeneration overcomes this by being a genuinely low impedance source.

[powerinspired]

EDIT: Tony of Powerinspired kindly called me back and the gist of what he said was that adding a Quantum or other filtering/purifying device in the chain would not cause any problems as such. It may just be that the noticeable effect of the filter/purifier may be reduced because of the improvements brought by the AG itself, but that it really depends on the nature of the filter/purifier and, as we know, this varies from one product to another. I haven't finished trying all the possible configurations with my particular system with Vertex tagas and Quantum in or out of the system (as it takes a long time and is a bit of a fag swapping cables around behind my system) but what I can say is that for a relatively small sum (compared to what we pay for a couple of cables and other system gizmos) it's worth trying one of these out particularly for someone who has no existing mains conditioning/filtering/purifying - it's very quiet -my fans are turned down to minimum without any problem- and it's plug in and play item. As someone else has mentioned on this thread you don't need the battery option just the AG itself.
Tony tells me they are flying out of the door at the moment (salesman as he is) and maybe Tony can be persuaded to extend the generous discount - hint hint - to encourage others to give it a go.

Just to clarify, it would be better to not have any other filtering devices after the AG ReGenerator, as this adds additional impedance to the feed, however it is no problem to the unit to have one connected.

[westiebj]

Hi
Just received my AG1500 and very impressed so far ( quick delivery and well made unit ) Early days yet to make a statement on improvements to sound etc .. but made a few interesting discoveries :-

1. When first connected I was getting an alarm and several flashing lights ... which according to manual was due to L and N reversed. After swapping the mains lead to the one supplied, and inspecting my v expensive mains lead I found this to be the case ! Not sure what impact this has had prior to the UPS but not a good sign on some of the after market quality cables ...

2. I have checked the input voltage several times during the day and evening ... and it hovers around 230 + / - 3 v typically. So maybe my mains want so bad after all :-( . We shall see

3. My amp is an ARC DSi200, which is a 300W / 4 Ohm per channel integrated. This is a digital amp and as such is supposed to be v efficient. Interestingly even when driven at high levels I can see no load indicated on the UPC LCD .. Does anyone know what the resolution is for this measurement? ..

4. I do not have a battery connected to the UPS but the display indicates 109.6 v DC ? Is this normal ?

5. I have the fan set to just under half way .. and the temperature is stable at 30 degrees C ... 20 degrees when in standby. Fan is very quiet so impressed with that


Final question .. does anyone know how to switch of the Alarm ? .. Its VERY loud and when switching on / off is quite a suprise ( especially late at night! )

Will come back after further listening and update all ... but these are my initial comments / findings ..

Thanks