By Paul McGowan From PS Audio

One of my readers emailed me worried about Power Plant regenerators. I thought his concern, along with my answer, might be interesting.

The concern is one we get a lot. “All power regenerators limit current. They can only provide a percentage of the total available current in the wall. I am worried about restricting current to my equipment.”

It is true that any piece of electronics connected to the wall has a limit, including power regenerators. And it would seem that at some point the power fed our equipment will get strangled, compressed, run out of gas. I mean, the words we use suggest that, right?

Words can mislead.

When a Power Plant exceeds its limits it shuts down (something they almost never do in real life). There’s no restriction so obvious as the unit turning off.

But, up until that rare occurrence, a proper regenerator does not restrict or limit power. In fact, the opposite is true.

Our wall AC sockets are limited to their rated power before they shut down. Let’s use 15 amps as an example. If we exceed the wall’s rated power, we trip the breaker.

Now let’s add a regenerator between the wall and our stereo system. Suddenly, we’re able to exceed the wall’s 15 amp rating and not by a little.  A regenerator like the Power Plant can deliver as much as 70 amps at peak—more than 4 times the current available from the wall at the top of each cycle.

This is possible because of its onboard storage reserves which the AC system in your home does not have.

So, while the word “limiting” has a frightening connotation to us audiophiles who want nothing to do with terms like limiting, compression, restriction, choke points, etc, itsactual meaning is far more benign and the truth is very different.

Once we understand, the simple words we use will no longer strangle meaning.

For more on this story go to: https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/strangling-meaning/