PS Audio

Quintessence Power Center

The new Quintessence Power Center is only $1195 - now the new retail is only $999, please email about specials and free shipping.

Only "B" stock available - now only $499 plus ship and tax.  Only 2 units left.

Features:

 

Benefits:

 

Information:

The Quintessence Power Center is the world's first component level AC power center to offer true surge protection, front panel harmonic power analyzer, AC volt meter, remote control and outstanding AC filtering in an affordable shelf or rack mount chassis product.

 

The Quintessence offers both double common mode and differential mode noise filtering of the AC line, improves performance of connected equipment and provides a safe and noise reduced power source for both audio and video equipment.

 

More Information:

The Quintessence Power Center is a remarkable system wide AC power filter capable of cleaning the AC, protecting your equipment and providing state-of-the-art passive filtering.  If the Power Plant Premier is not in your budget, then the Quintessence is the next best thing.

In fact, if you take all the features, functions, look and feel of the Power Plant Premier, remove the AC regenerator, add a remarkable new power line filter in its place, you get the Quintessence Power Center.
 
The Quintessence is our finest passive Power Center ever made and replaces the Power Director Series of AC products.
 
The Quintessence is housed in a scrumptious new chassis whose industrial design is based on the insides of a BMW automobile and is the brain child of one of our country’s brightest new ID talents, Chris Malato.  Not just another “box” the Quintessence marries solid aluminum castings, extrusions, milled blocks and hand crafted parts to form one of the most stunning pieces of industrial art anyone’s laid eyes on. You’d be quite proud to display this beauty in your system.
 
What are we trying to achieve?
The mission of any AC power product falls into three main categories: 

  • How well does it remove what we do not want on the AC line?
  • How well does it preserve what we do want on the AC line?
  • How little damage does it do in the process of the first two missions?
     
    There are two ways to deal with the problems inherent in AC power, active or passive.  Active means there is an electronic circuit that adds or subtracts substantial energy where needed, or completely rebuilds the AC power as in the case of a true regenerator.  Examples of active products are the Power Plant series, Exact Power AC correction device, APS battery backup unit and Accuphase among others.
     
    Passive means there are no electronic circuits that add or subtract energy in a meaningful way.  These are typically filters that remove noise problems but cannot repair sine wave distortions.  Examples of these types are the PS Duet, Quintet, Quintessence, Monster Cable power products, Panamax, Belkin, Richard Grey, Shunyata and so forth.
     
    Passive product come in all types of configurations, but the three main types are series, parallel and isolation transformer based.
     
    What do we want to remove?
    We would like to have perfect AC power if we can, because the problems on the AC line are many:
     
  • clipped sine wave
  • varying voltage levels
  • harmonics
  • surges
  • spikes
  • noise 
     
    Only an active device can hope to eliminate the first three items but active power devices are expensive and many are power limited.
     
    Passive devices can reduce the last three items and, if properly built, can make a significant improvement in audio video performance.

    • What the Quintessence will provide
    The Quintessence provides clean, noise free power at frequencies unheard of in a passive power device.  While most passive devices start their cleaning activities at 50kHz to 100kHz (some even into the megahertz regions), the Quintessence is remarkable in its ability to clean the AC within the audio band.  A special high permeability magnetic filter starts cleaning at frequencies below 10kHz!
     
    To make matters even better, the Quintessence provides this astounding level of cleaning without restricting the power.  The magnetic filter used to perform the cleaning is wound with 11 gauge wire, heavier than what’s typically found in the wall of your home.  Even on a heavy 15 amp load, there’s no measurable drop in voltage with a Quintessence Power Center.  Unrestricted, clean and safe power is what the Quintessence provides along with stunningly beautiful video and audio performance.
     
    Let’s take a tour
    Perhaps the biggest benefit is clean, safe and unrestricted power.  At 1750 watts there’s enough power for even the most demanding systems.  Whether it’s an audio based two channel system or a video based multi-channel home theater, 1750 watts will power pretty much anything you have. 
     
    The Quintessence takes what the wall AC has to offer and cleans everything above 7kHz, where its competitors start their work at a frequency 10 to 100 times higher.  The Quintessence fixes problems associated with noise and improves video performance as well audio while providing clean power to connected equipment, regardless of the power demands.
     
    Surge and spike protection are unparalleled in the Quintessence Power center.  Not only does your equipment benefit from the surge protecting over under voltage control of the Quintessence, but its remarkable filter slows down spikes before ever reaching your equipment.  
     
    The 5 IsoZones and 10 receptacles on the rear of the Quintessence keep one piece of equipment from contaminating other pieces plugged into the Quintessence.
     
    Inside is an amazing piece of construction.  From the custom built Power Port AC receptacles, to the 1/4 inch thick copper bars that carry the power from the Power Cartridge to each of the receptacles with zero loss, hundreds of hours of design time have gone into the building of this amazing power delievry system.
     
    Front panel features
    The front panel of the new Quintessence has a number of innovative features and functions not found on any other power product.
     
    THD in and out
    No one has ever dared place a true THD meter on an AC power product, and for good reason; they cannot do anything about the problem.  Our power lines are polluted with 3d, 5th, 7th, 9th and higher harmonics that reach into the many kilohertz region as a result of AC sine wave distortion, common in everyone’s home.  
     
    While only a Power Plant can reduce the actual primary distortions, the Quintet can remove some of the upper levels of harmonics from the line as well.  We added the harmonic distortion analyzer on the Quintessence so users can feel in control of their AC power.  Watching the THD levels change as a function of time of day and load is both informative and instructive to those of us who are more comfortable knowing what problems we face.
     
    Voltage meter
    The Quintessence’s front panel also allows you to measure AC line voltage in real time.
     
    This feature is valuable to monitor what the status of your line is and, as with the THD measurement feature, as a means of gaining control and insight into your home’s power quality.
     
    Remote control
    Perhaps the one consistent customer request we’ve had over the years is for a remote control to activate the different functions and display options.  The new Quintessence has an included remote control that can change the display brightness, choose THD or voltage, or turn the power on or off.
     
    Rack ears included
    Many of our customers have asked for an easy rack mount solution for the Quintessence Power Center.  The Quintessence is two rack high (3.5 inch) and comes with rack ears you can choose to add or keep off the front.
     
    Rear panel features
    The rear panel of the Quintessence is where the action happens.  On the rear panel there are 10 AC receptacles, 5 IsoZones, a power sequencer, circuit breaker, CATV connectors and telephone in and out.
     
    5 IsoZones™
    IsoZones™ are one of the new technologies we’re introducing with the new power line that includes the Quintessence Power Plant, Quintessence, Quintet and Duet Power Centers.  An IsoZone is a separate differential mode filter, fed by a common mode Nano Crystalline filter.
     
    Each of the 5 IsoZones on the rear of the Quintessence separates equipment noise.  All electronic equipment generates AC line noise, some more than others.  When you plug a digital device in the same receptacle as an analog device, the noise of one can interfere and contaminate the performance of the other.  To solve this problem, you need effective isolation between equipment.
     
    The challenge is to build a filter that is effective at isolating noise while at the same time, non-intrusive.  It’s not difficult to build a filter that has remarkable performance in terms of noise reduction.  It is extremely difficult to build such a filter without using a lot of wire and components that restrict the power delivery of the filter.  The IsoZones use very short pieces of heavy gauge wire, wrapped around small high permeability magnetics to achieve both these design objectives.
     
    To further enhance their performance, each IsoZone is fed from a common mode filter made of pure Nano Crystalline, a remarkable new space age material that has the highest permeability of any magnetic material currently available.  Together, the two filters form an isolated cleaning network that is both non-intrusive and an excellent performer.

    Power sequencer
    The new Quintessence has the capability to drive an entire system and it is therefore essential that connected equipment be turned on in the proper order.  Preamps, surround processors and sources need to be turned on first, while power amplifiers, integrateds and receivers should be turned on last. 
     
    In some cases, like that of a Tivo, hard drive music based systems or control setups, it is important to never lose power.  The Quintessence’s rear panel power sequencer allows you to select any of the three available power zones and choose always on, switched on or delayed on.  With these choices, you can setup your system to automatically leave power on, turn it on or off via the front panel power button (or the remote), and delay the turn on sequence until the source equipment has been activated.

    12 volt trigger
    The Power Plant also features two 12 volt triggers.  These triggers are easy to use and will turn on or off the P3 (Power Plant Premier) power sequencer.  Apply 12 volts at either trigger input and the P3 will sequence on the connected equipment.  Remove the 12 volts and the P3 will turn off the connected equipment.  !2 volt triggers are commonly found on surround processors, receivers, automation equipment and some preamplifiers.

    Power Cartridge™ surge and control
    One of the more interesting and novel features of the Quintessence, as well as all products in the new power line is the Power Cartridge™ AC input module.  Invented by PS Engineering, the Power Cartridge contains the surge and spike protection, circuit breaker, over/under voltage control and the first stage of common mode filtering.
     
    The unique cartridge is the heart of our new series and can be replaced in the field should a problem ever occur.  For instance, if the home is struck by lightning or a surge or spike big enough to damage the cartridge, it easily slides out and can be replaced by the dealer.
     
    CATV, telephone
    For those owners of complete AV systems that have connected video and telephone, the rear panel supports two sets of antenna, cable TV, satellite or anything using a CATV connector or two sets of telephones.  Anything plugged into these in/out connectors will be protected from high voltage spikes that can come through these outside world connections.
     
    The Quintessence is shipping shortly
    The Quintessence will make its grand debut at the end of October, not much more than weeks away.
     
    It represents thousands of hours of design work, engineering effort and lots and lots of dreaming about how to make this the world’s best passive power product.
     
    We’re proud that the Quintessence has it all.  Regardless of your system’s configuration if you’re looking for a chassis based system to provide clean and safe AC that gives your system the best chance of perfection for the money, then the Quintessence is the best choice there is on the market today.