Articles

Soloist Installation

The Soloist in-wall power conditioner is one of the cleanest and most effective devices you can install in your home. A power conditioner, surge and spike protection device built into a dual gang wall outlet puts the power and protection where it belongs; in the wall. The Soloist eliminates the need for an external power conditioner and protection device and is perfect for every outlet in your listening room, behind a plasma TV or in the ceiling for a projector.

You can read about the Soloist here.

As the Soloist requires the homeowner or electrician to install the piece, we challenged some of our customers to take a Soloist home, install the device and report back to us their findings. How hard was it to install? How did it perform for you?

To select the customers for this challenge, we ran a contest and selected 10 people at random. Below are the reports and some of the photos of the customers who have installed their Soloist and reported back with their results.

Bill Harris writes:

'I Heard Music

Today I installed my new PS Audio Soloist. If I was installing this in a double gang box, it probably would

have only taken a few minutes. But my stereo was plugged into a single gang outlet and as you may know the Soloist is a double gang box size. To assist me in the install, I bought a Goldblatt wallboard saw, since I knew that the new Soloist conditioner would require a larger space than my single gang outlet and somehow the hole in my wall would have to be enlarged.

Of course, before beginning, I located the breaker switch and ensured that the power was off, by testing it with a lamp plugged into the socket that I wanted to remove.

I removed the wall plate and the socket, which is when I realized that I needed to call my friendly electrician (an audiophile, it turns out). I was unable to tell how the box was attached to the wall and felt that someone with experience should be involved. We talked for a bit and he came over.

He tested for the stud position and I measured the distance from the end of the wall, thus we assumed that the stud was to the right of the box. He used a box knife to cut around the single gang box to relieve it from the paint and with my new saw, enlarged the hole to the left side of the outlet to provide a way to feel for the nails securing the box to the stud. He said he only cut when pulling, in order to prevent the wallboard from coming apart in chunks.

Then he began the task of prying the box from the stud. Once it was loose from the stud, he managed it retrieve it through the hole (without dropping it in between the walls).

He then marked an outline in pencil to guide his enlargement of the hole to fit the new larger two gang box, packaged with the Soloist. Rather than using the wallboard saw, he went back to using the box knife to slice a smooth cut through the wallboard. He felt that this would further prevent the wallboard from breaking up.

Once the hole was sliced to size, he began fishing the wires through the back of the new box, by pushing open two of the slots. The slots are designed to provide some grip to the wires to prevent them from slipping out.

Once the box was in the wall and the built-in flip out securing hooks were tightened, he drilled through the box into the stud and used three square head screws to secure the box to the stud, so that removing tightly gripped plugs from the outlet would not cause the box to move.

We twisted the wires together and secured them to the wires of the Soloist with the supplied wire twists.

The wires were squeezed into the back of the box as far as they would go and the Soloist was slipped into place. Finally the supplied hex bolts were installed to secure the Soloist into the box in the wall.

We plugged in the lamp again and reset the breaker to restore the power. That worked and the small green LED on the Soloist lit up to show that it was working. Total installation cost $20 (I told you he was a friend, but we paid him more).

I vacuumed, picked up the tools and plugged in the power cables from the SimAudio amp and the Wadia player.

This is where it got interesting. I played the Modern Times CD from Spyro Gyra and noticed that my speakers suddenly had more bass. I had always thought that they sounded a bit thin and that I might need a bigger amplifier. I guess I was wrong. The instruments had better separation from each other and I felt like I was closer to hearing was laid down in the studio where it was recorded.

My wife, who is a singer, thought that the highs had more sparkle and were clearer. The electrician was also impressed. We played a Mozart piano concerto next and realized that our impressions were still valid. My wife also plays piano and thought that the sound of the piano was more realistic with the Soloist. We also tried voices with some Selah, the �In My Life�� title, and found that the voices had a fuller presence. We switched to Bob Dylan�s Blood on the Tracks and she listened to the whole thing, especially enjoying the acoustic guitar sound. We finally had to eat, but left the music playing. Later, we went to Paul Simon�s Graceland.

I have to admit that I did not think that a Surge Protector/Conditioner would make a difference in the sound. I knew about Paul McGowan�s pedigree and the reputation of his products. But I had no idea that something this simple would sound so good. In fact, I had used something like this before when recording vocal groups and heard no difference with it or without it. But then, it wasn�t a PS Audio product, was it?

This Soloist product was a system upgrade for me. At $200 US, it has to be the cheapest way to better sound of anything that I can think of.

It is not a tweak. It is a bonafide system upgrade, a way to purer, more truthful sound. You don�t have to do a blind AB test, switching back and forth to determine if there is a difference. It is patently obvious.

I actually felt that I was hearing things that I had never before heard on these recordings. I have heard

people talk about more blackness (in the background) and a lack of haze or grunge, but you know, I don�t think that I heard it that way. What I heard was more information. I heard a sweet, beautiful, non-fatiguing sound (also a surprise). I heard music.

Run to your dealer or logon to PSAudio.com right away and get some of these Soloist. Otherwise you will be deprived of some beautiful music. Forget about the cord elevators, tip toes and magic wooden blocks. The Soloist from PS Audio will deliver an extremely obvious audible upgrade to your music system. Run.'

Jerry Powell writes:

'I actually got the Soloist installed the day after I received it, and documented the installation with the attached pictures (you'll see that I started with a standard outlet and expanded it to accept the new duplex format--piece of cake all the way around). Unfortunately, I then had to leave town for several days and it kind of slipped on me--till I saw Paul's newsletter the other day, which reminded me.....

I've been enjoying the Soloist ever since I got back to town--I've got a Duet Power Center plugged into the outlet now so I can connect all of the components of my little office stereo system into a single 'star' grounding setup.

As you've heard many times before, no doubt, it dropped the noise floor noticeably, which heightens the apparent dynamics, brings out the low-level detail, and so forth--just as one would expect. It may be particularly noticeable in my home office environment, where I've got multiple computers running all of the time, including a Qsonix media server, which is essentially just another, specialized, computer. But I also feed the system from a Squeezebox and Internet Radio sources, all of which sound great.

Thank you for the opportunity to try a Soloist--very easy installation and very nice, clean appearance after-the-fact, which is perfect for my office environment. Of course I LOVE my PP Premiers (in my main A/V setup) and Quintessence (tv room), but this is a much better solution for my office.'

Richard Hassler writes:

'1.1 Introduction
Let�s start with a bit of history� A year and a half ago I decided to try to improve the power in my system.

I had two Adcom power switchers that also �filtered� the power. They helped with switching but I had come to realize that they did not really help to improve the power seen by my system. I bought two UPC 200�s and they seemed to improve the system performance. The UPC 200�s were feeding only part of my system: the Yamaha Pre/pro/amp, HDTV, DVD and D-VHS player.

Then I bought a Soloist, to help my Vacuum Tube Logic amp see cleaner power. The improvements I heard impressed me; but I needed to have more stable AC going to my amp. It doesn�t have the greatest bias regulation and I hoped that stabilizing the AC would reduce the bias drifts that I was seeing, due to fluctuations in the AC mains. This prompted the purchase of my first Power Plant Premier.

OK, so now I am intrigued. The PPP really changed the sound of my system for the better. It was downstream from the Soloist, feeding the VTL amp and the tuner. Then I replaced the UPC 200�s with a second PPP. It provided another step function improvement of my system.

Given the level of performance that I was experiencing at this point, I was very skeptical that I would see much improvement by merely adding a Soloist in front of the second PPP. It should just lower the noise floor that is seen by the components a bit more, right? You will see that I was pleasantly surprised.

NOTE: The new Soloist is in the chain for the pre/pro/amp, BluRay, D-VHS and HDTV which are all fed by the second PPP.

1.2 Installation
As the accompanying photos show, my system lives inside alcoves in my family room wall. This makes changes of any kind, a real pain. It took a bit of work to access the Hubble outlet that the Soloist would replace. Luckily, I was able to do it without removing my Yamaha integrated amp, because that would have required a rework of many system connections. Breaking and re-making all of those connections would render �before and after� comparisons less meaningful. Ultimately, I removed only a PPP and a shelf, to install the Soloist. It went smoothly except for a phenomenal brain cramp that resulted in cutting the hole in the drywall too wide to fit the double gang box. It mounted firmly but the result looks half-baked. Luckily this outlet is hidden by shelves, curtain, amp, � . The embarrassing part is that I am a surveyor and supposed to be an expert at measurements. So much for any chance at a reputation as a home improvement specialist!

1.3 Music Listening
I installed the Soloist immediately after I picked it up. I have listened to a wide variety of music for the last

week. Acoustic jazz, chamber music, hard rock, solo acoustic guitar, pipe organ, � I listened to it all. Using the Denon BluRay player, I listened to CD�s, multichannel music DVD�s (using DD and DTS encoding) and a few BluRay discs containing HD music. Most of the discs that I brought out were old favorites that I have heard through my system hundreds of times in the past. I expected subtle differences from the Soloist at best, but I heard more.

1.3.1    Highs
I didn�t detect further extension to the already extended highs that my system can achieve. I did hear a reduction in grain that significantly improved the reproduction of cymbals, bells, violins and the singing voice. I could hear more of the underlying sound without an excess in sibilance. These improvements let me hear how grainy and unarticulated the highs had been before the change. I heard these changes while listening to CD after CD. The improvements were real and obvious. As you see frequently described in the audio press� cymbals sounded like cymbals instead of like a shaken can of bb�s. The highs just sounded more natural than before.

1.3.2    Upper Midrange
It is difficult for me to describe the improvements that I heard in this critical part of the music spectrum. Simply put, I heard more information here. The harmonic structure that fills out guitar, voice, cymbals and other instruments, was more obvious. I heard of lot of sound where before it seemed a bit threadbare. A beautiful pallet of midrange notes revealed themselves from the mass of sound. My system was exposing music on my CD�s that I had simply never heard before. Acoustic guitar took on a new life through my system. Wow there is a lot of harmonic info that had been missing. Again, the words �more natural� come to mind.

1.3.3    Mid bass �Low bass
The improvements here are less difficult to describe. I could hear kick drum and electric bass significantly better than before. The leading transients were more sharply defined and provided a workout for the woofers (mid and sub) in my Quatros. Plucked acoustic bass sounded more lifelike. You could clearly detect the fingers move across the strings to provide the natural �thump� that you expect to hear. My system seemed to loose a bit of the midrange plangency when I added the Denon last spring. It is back with a vengeance, making the sound so much more full than I have been hearing. I am not talking about one-note, boomy bass here. I am talking about a well-controlled full-bodied foundation that extends smoothly down to the depths that my Quatro subs are able to achieve. There is plenty of definition and overtone present.

1.3.4    Soundstage
My system can throw a wide and moderately deep soundstage. The phase-correct Quatros are great at imaging as well. However, lately I have noticed a bit of clumping of images within the sound field. The Soloist seems to have tamed this malady in my system. The sound stage isn�t wider. I don�t think that it is deeper either although the rear boundaries seem better delineated. The sound field is more smoothly filled with images of the instruments that stand their ground and hang in the air as though there are tangible bodies there. This is probably the most pronounced improvement that the Soloist has wrought. How a power filter can bring about this kind of change blows my mind. The spatial images that a simply miked CD can provide, is startling. The improvements in the highs, which I described above, accentuate the effect. Bells, claps, and cymbal strikes now leave me looking around the room for the source.

1.4    Movie Viewing
I have watched several DVD�s and BluRay discs since I added the Soloist. I can�t say that I have noticed any profound improvements to the viewing experience other than the sound improvements listed above. The Denon player is amazing and the quality of its picture through my Sony CRT can be a �you are there� experience. If anything, perhaps I can see a slight improvement in the video dynamic range.

1.5    TV Viewing
I have watched a fair amount of TV since adding the Soloist. For digital television shows (including high def sports), there are slight improvements to the video dynamic range, as I have reported with the movie discs, but it is subtle at best.

On the other hand, analog TV has jumped up significantly in quality. A vast reduction in grain and noise has made the presentation more viewable. The color saturation has also improved. Unfortunately, the analog sources have a limited life span but at least I can enjoy them while they are still around. TCM was all but unwatchable through my system before the Soloist installation. Now the picture is nearly noise free and the black and white movies on that station show the great grayscale that my system can provide.

1.6    System Description
�    Vandersteen Speakers
o    (2) Quatro main speakers
o    VCC-5 center channel
o    (2) VLR-1 surrounds
�    Vacuum Tube Logic Stereo 90 amplifier (driving Quatros)
�    Denon 3800 BDCI BluRay player (analog outputs only)
�    Yamaha DSP-A1 Integrated Pre/Pro/Amp
o    internal amps drive center channel and surround speakers
o    Internal decoders not used for: CD, BluRay, DVD and analog TV
o    Internal decoders used for digital TV
�    Sony KD-34XBR960 HDTV
�    Magnum Dynalab FT-101 FM tuner
�    Audioquest interconnects and video cables
�    PS Audio power cables, Duet, Soloist, and (2) Power Plant Premiers
�    Finite Elemente vibration control
�    ASC 18� Tube traps

1.7    Conclusions
I am known as a bit of a complainer. I manage to find fault with most things that come across my plate.

Much to my chagrin, I have little to complain about from the addition of the Soloist to my home theater. It has incrementally improved the smallest of features and greatly improved others. Given that I already had the best power filtering that you can get, I expected very little change from the Soloist. I found just the opposite. Improvements were in abundance.

Thanks to PS Audio for this chance to add the Soloist to complete my Power Delivery System. It has opened my eyes one more time, to the importance of clean power.'

Larry Rasmussen writes:

The offer to install the soloist came just when I have been thinking I should ad some kind of device to protect the items at the right side of my system. The core of my system is on a rack to outside of my main left speaker in the corner and well served by a Quintet Power Center. However that leaves the video monitor in the middle, a DVD recorder serving as tuner for the Fuji Plasma, one of my newly acquired Channel Islands mono blocks over on the right and a pending added amp for a center channel all without protection. The rest of my system is a Cary Theater 11 Processor as pre amp for music and movies, KEF Reference 203 main speakers, and a JLTi combo DVD player The area is served by 2 dedicated lines, one for the main rack and one for the video monitor.

I used one of the existing house circuits for the Soloist. Instead of replacing the outlet I just punched a hole in the Sheetrock to the left of it. Measure the height of the box you want to match from the floor, draw a level line along that height, put the outlet box face against the wall and trace the outline. I use a tiny level that I use for speaker leveling on outlet boxes and level at each step. I just did a half dozen or so boxes in the house and it is super fast. Draw box, punch a one inch chisel through on each of the four lines, use double Sheetrock saw in so you don�t have to pull out to turn around. Do each line separately and it�s done in minutes clean, square, level, no ragged corners. I would have thought the chisel would make a mess but tried it on a whim, really just cuts a slot. Its very easy to tie in to an adjacent box and I really needed the extra outlets.

So I went back and forth a bit between an unconnected house circuit and the soloist with the plasma monitor and digital recorder/channel tuner. Nothing extraordinary leaped out. I�m on Comcast cable in a suburb of Seattle by the way. I did discern cleaner lines along the clothing during the Emmy show, a bit better differentiation or sharpness. I just watched a few shows over the weekend changing back and forth occasionally. Sometimes a bit of wavy interference was reduced with monitor and tuner on the Soloist, sometimes it looked the same.

My 60s track home exhibits none of the problems you read about in reviews of power equipment but I do appreciate the unobtrusive protection and bit of additional picture or audio clarity the Soloist and then more so the Quintet ad. I would be inclined to recommend the Soloist as a starting point for just about anyone.

Inexpensive, easy to install and your gear is safe whether you are a pretty casual mid fi guy like me or are going to get really serious about conditioning. It�s quality would be consistent with anything you would want to put downstream, gear or conditioning equipment.

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