Greetings. I received my PS-2A yesterday, and eagerly plugged it in to try it out. I used a 1966 Fender Deluxe that has an 8 ohm 12" Eminence speaker that came from a Two Rock cabinet. I set the amp to about 3 and it’s pretty damn clean at that volume. I set the amp/speaker impedance on the PS-2A to 8 ohms, and the switches in the “Flat” position. At the same volume as the amp, it sounds great and very transparent. I mainly bought this thing to be able to dial in a living room volume with the variety of amps I have, so I turned the volume down on the PS-2A, and much to my surprise, there’s a VERY noticeable “fuzzy” breakup sound to the tone. It doesn’t sound all that bad, it sounds like tube amp breakup. But it’s absolutely not what I want. I have heard so many great things about this amp from YouTube videos by Tim Pierce, Shane Theriot, and others, and they all say that it’s completely transparent. So I’m quite baffled at this very unexpected surprise. Lowering the volume of an amp is my main use case, so if this is something that is to be expected, the PS-2A is not for me. I’m hoping there’s some setting that I can apply that will fix this. The unit seems very well built, and I have no complaints about the transparency at the same volume as the amp, but as the volume on the PS-2A is turned down, the sound gets fuzzier. Thanks.
Hi @bluzcat
The Power Station can actually go down to zero volume. What is left is noise that comes directly from the transformer and other internal components. There is also signal bleed that comes through the speaker. But this only happens when the volume is at zero. I think that is what you are hearing. Try and increase the volume and you should still get a quiet level but without the distortion!
Thanks for the response. This is not at all what I was referring to. My point is that the PS-2A adds grit to my otherwise VERY clean tone from the amp. This is contrary to what the claims of the amp are. It’s supposed to be transparent, and when I lower the volume (it’s not turned off AT ALL), it’s anything BUT transparent. This is annoying because it means I can never have a completely clean tone at low volume, which makes this device useless to me. I’ve tried numerous resistive load attenuators in the past, and I’ve returned or sold every single one of them because none of them have been transparent. I had high hopes for the PS-2A, and I’m still hoping that there’s some setting or tweak that I can make so that it will sound the way it’s advertised to sound. If this is not possible, I’m going to send it back as it’s not useful to me. I don’t want the attenuator to add anything to my tone whatsoever, if this is possible.
Hi @bluzcat seems you have had bad experiences with attenuators, even resistive ones.
What you are describing has not been my experience with the Power Station; at very high volume levels it adds tube tone to the sound. And at low volumes I have never heard anything like this before. The only similar issue I encountered was the physical vibration of the output transformer and a slight signal bleed into the speaker when the volume was turned off.
- What is your volume level (difficult to gauge but how low is it)?
- Can you post an audio clip so we can debug the issue (it would be very useful to hear what you are hearing)
- Also, what are the settings on your amp and the power stations’ front and back panels (photos fine to post)?
Hi @dan I’ll try to get some pictures and sounds samples tomorrow. Need to set up a good mic and my DI unit so the recording comes out better than what the phone can provide. Thanks.
Hi @dan , I recorded a couple of snippets on my phone. I can clearly hear the clipping even on that recording.
