Review: EXACTPOWER EP15A Tweak


Category: Accessories

I just purchased the new ExactPower EP-15A AC Line Voltage Regulator from a Audiogon Seller " Chichiuno ".

The first thing I noticed when taking it out of the box was the build quality, all aluminum, and heavy. I pluged the EP-15A into the wall and all of my gear into the eight AC outlets on the back of the unit.

I turned the EP-15A on and played Lee Ritenour Rit's House, and I was amazed! It was as if I added another 50 watts to my Power Amp! The volume level had to be turned down from the normal listening position. The sound was smooth and rich. The sonic benefits from this unit are cleaner sound with no hum, and power, power, power! My Velodyne pumped out deeper bass, the Monitor Audio tweeters produced crisp high frequencies without sounding too bright, and the mid-range truly opened up with finer detail.

The EP-15A made a big difference in the sound of my system, but that's not all, the picture quality of my TV increased dramatically with brighter colors and sharper picture.

If you are looking for a cost effective way to give your system the boost it needs, try the ExactPower EP-15A. "You can't go wrong with ExactPower on".

By: Bryan Freeman

Associated gear
McCormack DNA-HT5 AMP, McCormack MAP-1 Preamp, Denon 3800 DVD, Monitor Audio Gold Reference Speakers, Velodyne HGS-10 Subwoofer, Sony Trinitron Monitor.

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sailor
The ExactPower EP15A is a great unit, but there was a design flaw in the power supply section of the control PCB. The electrolytic capacitors specified and supplied in ALL EP15A units were undersized relative to the load imposed on them. This causes the capacitors to fail prematurely and the regulated voltages on the control card to drop out of regulation, resulting in lower-than-specified output voltage with LOTS of nasty ripple. So robust was the controller circuitry that the unit still works until the capacitors have completely failed. The cure is the replacement of the factory caps with correctly-sized (much larger and higher quality 105C low-Z) caps. This entirely fixes the problem and prevents its re-occurrance. I recently tested a new-old-stock, never-used unit and its voltage regulators were not working correctly out of the box due to this problem. The primary symptom of capacitor failure is the inability of the unit to sustain full load current and it buzzes loudly as it tries. If you own an ExactPower EP15A and have not had the control board caps replaced and upgraded with larger values (2 x 100uF in original for example on the positive 12V regulator to over 1000uF in the modified unit) then your EP15A NEEDS this fix. If your caps haven't failed completely yet, then they WILL soon. As the caps deteriorate, the performance of the unit slowly deteriorates over time, until it fails completely. Tragically, this slow deterioration of the unit robs the user of the full benefit of the ExactPower EP15A. Recapping the unit gives it better than new performance.
I routinely do the recap of the control PCB and the meter PCB and I am equipped to re-calibrate the unit to factory specs. Email me for details if you would like further info.
BTW I understand that Middle Atlantic (who now owns the ExactPower product line, has been repairing these units, but I believe that they are replacing the defective 100uF caps with new 100uF caps. These replacement caps will fail prematurely just like the old ones. They must be replaced with caps with larger value to prevent recurring failure -- especially the +12V filter caps, which are dreadfully undersized.

Thank you Steve.

I have used EP-15A and SP-15 for 5 years now. Nothing goes wrong so far.

Can you explain in details how to recap the 2x100uf to 1000uf you said? Is there enough room to put the big 1000uf caps?

Thank you
Sam
Steve, I'd like to get more info about this upgrade as my caps just went. How can I get a hold of you?
Steve, I am another person who is experiencing a loud "buzzing" from my Exactpower EP15A. I see that you haven't replied back to other members' posts. I'll try to PM you.