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.
Hi @bluzcat !
This is great, thanks so much for posting the videos, I can definitely hear what you are describing.
Please toggle the HI/LO input on the front panel.
I see the levels on the amp are reasonable 3/4.
I think the volumes are loud enough to eliminate signal bleed and transformer vibration, but with compressed audio this is hard to verify without being in the room.
Can you match the volume between your amp and the PS-2A and toggle between OPERATE/BYPASS? Put your ear close to the top of the PS-2A. Do you still hear the same distortion? Can you eliminate bleed and vibration? Is this sound 100% through the speaker?
Here is our standard checklist for distortion debugging:
- Check the impedance setting – what are the impedance settings and speaker impedance?
- Check the speaker cable for shorts – you have a combo, so is there an adapter connected in between SPKR OUT and your speaker?
- Check the speaker – Step 1 should cover this
- Check the signal level at other devices in the signal path or in the loop – Do you have any FX in the loop or in front of the amp? Try removing them.
- Power tubes may be weak; refer to qualified service personnel.
This is a new PS-2A, right? So I doubt it is the tubes. But we can start to suspect that next. If you have a spare set of tubes, that would be the next thing I would try.
Hi @dan and thanks for the quick response. Yes, the sound is 100% through the speaker. I tried the Hi/Lo switch for the input, and it gets even worse when I push the button in (Hi). The speaker is an Eminence 8 ohm speaker, and the original speaker that was replaced was also 8 ohms. I’ve set the PS-2A to 8 ohms both for the amp and speaker. The guitar is a Warmoth strat with Harmonic Design Z90 pickups, straight into the PS-2A. No effects, nothing in the effects loop. I tried with another combo amp as well, and it’s the same thing. As I mentioned in a previous post, when the PS-2A volume matches the amp, the sound is fine. It’s when it gets turned down that it starts clipping.
The unit is brand spanking new. I received it on Tuesday of this week. If you agree that this is not the way it should sound, I’m just going to return the PS-2A to the online retailer that I bought it from and request a replacement.
@dan interestingly, I connected another combo amp that has two 10" 8 ohm speakers in parallel mounted in the cabinet. I changed the impedance setting to the 2-4 ohm setting for both the amp/speaker on the PS-2A, and made sure the amp speaker impedance was also set to 4 ohm. This sounded fine, and I did not hear any significant degradation at low volume on the PS-2A.
I’m still stumped about the previous test with the Fender Deluxe. The speaker is definitely an 8 ohm speaker, and the speaker that it replaced (Fender Oxford) was also 8 ohm. And when the PS-2A was set to 8 ohm for both the speaker and the amp, I was experiencing the clipping that you heard. That’s puzzling to me.
Could the speaker in the Deluxe have a problem? Maybe some mechnical issues that is masked at high volumes?
I doubt it, the amp by itself sounds great at any volume. But I’ll double check. Can I try with the PS-2A impedance settings at 4 ohms, even though the amp/speaker both are 8 ohm?
Yes, that is fine for testing. Interesting to know the results!
@dan here’s the latest. I have a speaker cab with two 16 ohm speakers in parallel for a total impedance of 8 ohm. I have a small 15W “audiophile grade” amp head that I used for testing. I set the switches on the PS-2A to 8 ohm amp/8 ohm speaker. Everything sounded great. No distorsion. Then I used the 15W amp and the speaker from the Deluxe cabinet. Same thing, sounded great. Then I used the same Deluxe that I recorded the snippets with earlier, and used the external cabinet. Sounded great, no distorsion. Then I tried the original setup, the Deluxe with the built-in speaker in the cabinet. This time there also was no clipping. I’m stumped. But I’m happy that it seems to work as expected now. Maybe I had fumbled with the impedance settings earlier 
I don’t think that was the case, but I can’t be 100% sure. Anyway, the unit seems to work as expected, and sounds great. Case closed I guess. Thanks for the assistance.
Hi @bluzcat
Thanks for coming back. I see this thing happen from time to time. The act of dismantling a rig and reconstructing it sometimes works out whatever bug was there, as unsatisfying as that is. Monitor it; if there are any more issues, just let us know.