[alanmaher]

Steve

Please take into account that the PE IV and PE are just part of our tonal picture.  Jen best described the PE series like this...think of the filters as a paint-by-numbers picture.  The PE provides the black canvas while the PE II, III, and IV (and maybe a soon to be released V...keep your fingers crossed) all enhance different tonal colors of the picture.  The II adds top end extension, the IV extracts micro detail, and the III fills in all the wonderful harmonic detail and shading.  Combine this with our Studio Reference power cable series and you now have a killer a/c set up.  While I'm on the road I will also be beta testing our new Reference power cable with the PE series.  The Reference is designed to offer killer performance for the buck...I'm hoping to target the price around $150/$175 pending the final part design...I'm playing around with different ways to dress the cable.

Reference Power Cable: http://alanmaherdesigns.com/RPC.aspx

BTW, we are looking at the idea of bringing out a new cable design (interconnect and speaker) which incorporates our PRT technology.  I'm currently playing with a new AES/EBU and analog RCA / XLR design for an upcoming studio project.  If all goes to plan I expect the cable to be released the end of March / April after I return.  Stay tuned....   

[Big Red Machine]

I'd be interested in at least 2 power cords.

Pete

[Bill@LakeGeorge]

I  just installed a PE IV, II and 2 PE's and I can't believe the video, I was watching a SD boxing match on Showtime and it looked like HYDIF.  The audio is another story, but I know from past installations of PE's that this can take up to a week.  But WOW on video for now.

[jmichael]

Two weeks ago, I picked up some Monitor Liberator cords. I separated my audio and video equipment from each power conditioner. I placed a liberator & PE on both power conditioner inputs (PE II on the audio side), one PE on the source. Last night, I placed a Liberator w/ PE on the Panasonic 42" Plasma and dang, them are some wonderful eye poppin' colors and details that I see. I have not listened to any music for about 3 weeks now on this system but plan to in the next several days. Also, I'm still waiting on the two PE III's & PE IV that I have on order.

[alanmaher]

Great news!  Keep it comin'.  Sorry I haven't been around much, but I had a real busy week last week between the PE's, Munich trip for the project, and the latest studio pc build...Vista Ultimate x64 has turned into being a royal pain in my ass....the first build didn't install properly, so here I am at it again today....wish me luck.

First off...all Jan 28 - Feb 2 shipped sometime during last week...only a few Feb 4-9 orders remain because I ran out of WBT solder...don't worry I have an order in the mail from Percy that should arrive before the end of the week.

Bill...excellent!!!  At least you know the PE's are installed in series...if not the video picture would have washed out after 2 days...series provides increased color saturation, hue, black level, contrast, and sharpness.

Robin...how is your set up coming along, I know you loaned a few filters out?

Jeff...like I said to Bill, video is always the first thing people notice when comparing the PE, II, and IV.  The PE III is designed to offer audio a different harmonic boost....don't plug and play the III, fiddle around with the placement until it finds a happy home....if not you will not be 100% satisfied.  The III usually takes me a few hours of spot testing until I find the best spot....it's worth the wait.

Just a note....the PE V has turned out to be a killer filter.  It is a little larger compared to the PE case, but it should fit nicely beside smaller components on the rack or on top of components if you have the available space.  The PE V serves two purposes...One it's used as a high-end filter right at the iec...Two, the drainage shield inside the case can be positioned over the component power supply / transformer for additional EMI filtering at the source...it can be used like a grounded Quantum Disrupter....very cool stuff.

[alanmaher]

Hey Bill...do you still use the old power cords I built you at one time?  If so, that could be a reason why the filters don't jump out at you.  The old cords work in the same frequency range, as do all my designs, so instead of being shocked by the difference, the PE is filling in the small holes that get lost by the power cord tuning...there is only so much you can do with braided cord designs.  Try several Hammond chokes and hold off adding additional filters until the PE V is released.  The V will blow your mind...it's that good 

[alanmaher]

PE / Choke Tip:

Place the PE in front of the choke.

Example:

Wall Outlet: PE Installed w/ component power cord.
IEC Socket: Choke Installed.

For those with transformer based PLC's the set up is more of a mixed bag of experiments.  The example works for the primary side of the transformer.  Pending balanced vs. isolated, you can add up to 2 193M chokes with 4 PE's of various models installed in parallel.  The trick here is to maximize the choke effect along the length of the in-wall wiring.  In Robin's situation, he could use a y-liberator at the wall.  Wire 2 chokes into one a/c female receptacle, and a PE filtered power strip into the second female receptacle.  Mirror the in-wall wire size for the power strip power cord wiring for a seemless install.

The secondary side of the transformer is a little different, here it can go either way.  First start off by adding 1 193L per duplex outlet.  This can be achieved by adding some type of liberator at the component a/c outlet.  PE's should also be added to the a/c outlet at various locations and number of filters.  Here's what I mean....I wire the transformer into the top receptacle of outlet 1.  Plugged into outlet one I have a Reference power strip that has 2 PE's installed internal.  I also have 2 PE V's plugged into the same strip.  I have audio/video components plugged into the bottom receptacle and outlet 2 and 3.  Outlet 4 is how I power a massive external hard drive set up using 2 highly tweaked master power squids.  One master squid branches off into 4 isolated squids.  Each squid pigtail (total of 5 per squid) has one external 1.2 TB case (4 hard drive cases) installed via a Studio Reference Jr. Power Cable.  The 5Th female pigtail is filtered via a PE or PE V.  Each hard drive case has a 193L installed across the iec.  I have 3 filtered branches that handle the hard drives and a 4Th to handle the usb hubs (4) and router.  Each filtered stage offers audible and visual improvements...so for those who think usb cant be tweaked...think again.  The ground in usb connections is awful and easily upgraded by filtering.

As for the components, I use a combination of chokes and PE V's pending the tuned application at the iec end of the power cord.  Some components sound better with chokes and others with PE V's, it's a mixed bag pending the quality of the component power supply.  Take a look at my Benchmark Dac 1 that I use on the mobile rig for example....the Dac 1 is super sensitive to power cord upgrades.  It loves a warmer sounding cord, so in this case, adding a PE is a major no no at the iec.  On the other hand, if you add a 193L across the iec you will experience a gigantic improvement across the board.  The choke helps fill in the gaps and add shading where the Dac 1 is lacking...now you have a killer dac worthy of $$$$$$ priced systems...the same goes for my Apogee Big Ben/Rosetta 200 set up I have in the other rig...2 chokes transform the set up into one of the best digital set ups on the market.  Not true for my Lavry DA10 that I currently have installed in the living room....in this case the PE V kicks royal butt across the iec with a 193L at the outlet....with that said, it has become painfully aware that I must retire my loved Lavry DA10, pass it down to my daughters system, and step up to a usb dac/pre amp....I just ordered a Benchmark Dac1 pre the other day.  My AES/EBU pro sound card that I have installed doesn't want to play nice with Vista x64, so I picked up the Benchmark with the hope of tweaked Dac 1 performance with usb plug and play...I'll report more when I get back...I doubt I'll see it installed before I hit the road.  Ah...speaking of the road, place pre-orders with Jen while I'm gone, I will take care of everything starting March 21.  I told her to start ordering parts around March 10, so please place orders prior if you want a March 24-29 ship date...all other orders will ship the following week pending original order date.  In other news....I was picked up for the Kiss 08' European tour starting in May....so I will be on the road from early May to the end of June.  No tours planned for the summer until I find out what Jens work schedule looks like pertaining to the PCS move.  Right now it's up in the air if we move in the fall or not.  The last time I moved the ARMY was nice enough to let me know where we were moving 3 weeks prior...so it's anyone guess at the moment....I will try to update the web site at the appropriate time, obviously security is a concern so the timing and destination will probably be skewed for a couple weeks  aa knowing me..............

[alanmaher]

BTW, the latest batch of PE IV's (including all other PE models) that were mailed out the past few weeks have been slightly tweaked compared to the filters mailed out during beta testing.  Capacitors have all been upgraded (all models) and I nixed the WBT solder and started using Cardas, so the filter will have a warmer fleshed in balance compared to the brighter WBT top end...that's all.  Hopefully this will address some of the audiophile concerns about the added brightness.  The initial "Holy Cow" reaction takes a little longer to become audible, but it's all there after the normal 10 day set up without the extreme top end brightness.

[mercman]

Alan,

Is the PE V going to be released at the end of March?

[alanmaher]

The PE V is looking more like the middle of July. 

[alanmaher]

"what if any is the difference between an AC Liberator cord and an AC y-connector cord?"

Besides one is single parallel install and the other is a dual parallel install?  Keep in mind....the filters are only parallel to each other in the y-cable...they will be parallel or series at the wall pending their install placement on the circuit.

[Bill@LakeGeorge]

Well after 3 days the new PE's are starting to settle in.  I left the Isotek track 2 running for 8 hours, while at work.  On sunday my bass had become muddled and when I got home from work it was back, nice and tight.  The next 4 or 5 days should be great.

On another note I had some guests over for the Super Bowl and they could  not believe the picture on my Sont 60" or my Sony Pearl on a 106" screen.

[alanmaher]

How are the latest batch of PE IV's holding up? 

[michaelv]

I just received PE IV and PE  last night.

I plug PE IV at the wall outlet where power conditioner connected to. Then , i move PE over the next outlet.

First impression: More weight in low end (i mean bass is heavier, tighter which i prefer). The mid range is somewhat dark, but clean, and more details in the music.

I hope that , after the break-in period, the sound will be more defined. In general, i like it.

[michaelv]

Alan,
 I currently install one PE at the wall outlet (this is for video only). If i want to install one or two Hammond 193L ,  using AC liberator, which configuration do you recommend? 

1. connect both PE and choke 193L to AC Liberator, then connect AC Liberator to the wall outlet

2. Connect PE at the wall outlet, and the chokes with AC Liberator connected to power conditioner.


thanks.

[alanmaher]

Mike

Give the PE IV at least 20 to 25 days to gel on the circuit.  It's performance will be altered by other PE's, II's, and III's installed around the home and on the same circuit. 

Depends on the circuit.  Each one of the examples will work just fine.

Example 1:  Monitor (iec) liberator with choke installed at the iec socket.  PE IV and PE installed at the wall via a y-cable liberator.

Example 2.  Monitor (iec) liberator with choke installed at the iec socket.  PE IV installed at the wall.  PE installed one outlet over in a shared configuration.

Example 3:  Choke installed at the wall.  PE IV installed one outlet over.  PE installed 2 outlets over in a shared circuit configuration. 

The example works for all PE models.  Keep the higher model numbers closer to the system component/PLC.  Always place them as follows:  Circuit Breaker > PE > PE II > PE III > PE IV > Choke.  The examples are listed as good, better, and on my goodness!!!  In reality all three examples offer top notch performance, but the closer the choke can be installed to the component, the better it's performance on the circuit will be in reference to the component power supply.  The choke effect is local compared to the distance filtering of the PE series.

[Bill@LakeGeorge]

Hey Bill...do you still use the old power cords I built you at one time?  If so, that could be a reason why the filters don't jump out at you.  The old cords work in the same frequency range, as do all my designs, so instead of being shocked by the difference, the PE is filling in the small holes that get lost by the power cord tuning...there is only so much you can do with braided cord designs.  Try several Hammond chokes and hold off adding additional filters until the PE V is released.  The V will blow your mind...it's that good 

Alan, Where should I add the chokes? And should they be Hammond 193L?

Thanks

[mercman]

How are the latest batch of PE IV's holding up? 

After having the PEIV in for 5 days with the 3 PE units, I am very impressed with the bass dynamics and enhanced detail in the midrange. At this point, the mid bass may be a touch too lean, that's why I ordered a PE III.  Naturally, the PEIV needs more time, but I am quite pleased at this stage of burn-in.

Steve

[alanmaher]

The PE II will also add a little meat to the upper bass and lower mids.  At least one should be added to the circuit when the other 3 models are installed.

[alanmaher]

Bill

How do you have it set up right now and what are you trying to do?  Give me a little info first.