Hi Trerik,
@DavidPhelge @Paul any suggestions to help this PS-2 owner?
Trerik, one issue that came up in another thread was interference from the top of the power stations injecting noise into signal cables. It might be worth moving the cables around to see if this helps. Unbalanced signals are very susceptible to noise, and sometimes they can only be centimeters away from the transformers in the power station of placed on top or near by.
Regards,
Dan
Thanks for your suggestion, but I’m afraid this didn’t solve anything.
I did experience something very strange though. Before I explain what happened let me say this:
-I tried the following with three different, good quality speaker cables that I know to be fully working. The speaker cable is definitely not the problem here.
-I didn’t have anything connected to the “amp in” socket on the Power Station when the following happened. The only thing that was connected to the Power Station was the speaker out cable, which went in a straight line backwards for about 20 cm before it came off the edge of a desk and then around 30 cm further to my iso cab (which was mic’ed). The only part of the cable that was anywhere near any electronic equipment was the jack plug that went into the Power Station (which I could obviously not remove…).
So, here’s what happened:
When I wiggled the output speaker cable a bit (making sure I didn’t unplug it by accident) the hum disappeared. It was still silent when I replaced the cable in the EXACT same position as before. The then hum gradually re-appeared, VERY slowly (over several minutes before it was back to it’s “normal” level). When I tried this again, the same thing happened. If I kept wiggling the cable I could also make the hum instantly re-appear. So basically I could make the hum disappear and re-appear by wiggling the cable. When I had done this a couple of times it stopped doing anything at all. It seemed like it had become less sensitive to whatever was happening. But the hum always re-appeared, either very slowly, or suddenly if I kept wiggling the cable. If I powered off the Power Station and switched it back on, it was like this behavior was “reset” somehow. The hum would once again respond to wiggling the cable. The “speaker out” jack socket on the Power Station did not seem to be the cause of this strange behavior. If I tried to wiggle only the jack plug while keeping the cable completely still, nothing happened (although when I gently ROTATED the jack plug inside the socket I swear I heard a “click” that sounded like a relay or something… and this happened twice).
One more thing: Sometimes after I had wiggled the cable around a bit (or simply tapped the cable hard with my fingers, which actually seemed to produce the same result) the hum would pulsate up and down for a while even after I had left the cable alone. When I say pulsate I mean volume, not frequency. The frequency is always around 150 Hz.
I hope I’m explaining this in a way that makes sense, because the whole thing doesn’t make sense to me at all…
Btw I tried cleaning the jack sockets on both the Power Station and my iso cab, as well as the jack tips on my speaker cables with deoxit to make sure they weren’t oxidized. This didn’t make any difference whatsoever.
Hi Trerik!
Good job on these discoveries! Thank you for such a detailed response, you don’t know how motivating it is to get this much information.
So you have tried this with three different cables and also done this without anything connected to amp-in.
The interesting thing here is that the noise goes away when you put pressure on the cable and not on the jack plug. Then when you rotated the jack plug in place something happened too.
Just to check, these are mono jack plugs, not stereo jack plugs and the cable is unshielded two core speaker cable?
I think we must be looking at a failing contact, this might be failing mechanically rather than chemically. Perhaps there is very weak pressure on one of the contacts and over time - very slowly - to moves away forming a good contact.
The relay switching is clue, this happens when the power station thinks is speaker cable has been unplugged, again pointing towards a bad socket.
Regards
Dan
Yes, mono plugs, standard guitar speaker cables, not shielded instrument cables, I would NEVER use those as a speaker cable,
I purchased the Power Station from Haar Guitars in The Netherlands. They say they have a tech who can (hopefully) fix it. I guess this is probably the only solution at this point? It’s still under warranty, I’m outside the EU so there’s quite a bit of hassle involved with customs, but I need to get it fixed ASAP. If that’s what it takes I’ll just have to deal with the paperwork and the shipping costs and get it done.
Hi Trerik,
Yes, arrange a repair locally, we will work with any reputable repair shop. If you do that, you need to get the repair shop to email support@fryette.com. Or yes, shipping to the USA is the option!
Regards,
Dan
Thanks!
I’m not sure what you mean by “shipping to the USA is the option”?
Do you mean I could send it directly to you instead? The shipping costs would be a bit higher, but I wouldn’t mind that if this means the unit can be repaired faster.
If not, I will return it to Haar Guitars in The Netherlands ASAP.
Btw, that “click” I heard, possibly from a relay… After it happened twice (within a couple of seconds) I have not been able to reproduce it again. But the hum is still there, so I guess shipping the unit out of the country for a repair is inevitable, no matter what caused this.
I do have two experienced amp techs locally but they are extremely expensive, and also have waiting lists of several months. Shipping the unit out of the country for a warranty repair is by far the better option for me unfortunately.
Typo, I think I wanted to say “Shipping to the USA is an option”, see here for that How can I request Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) for a product repair or return?
Regards,
Dan
Thanks! 
If I return it to you in the USA, will the dealer warranty still be valid? I know you generally have much shorter warranty in the USA than in Europe. I purchased the unit over a year ago (but less than two years). It’s still under warranty from the dealer here in Europe.
The thing is, I have a feeling it could be difficult to explain all of the above to the dealer. They have been rather curt in their emails. It’s probably just a language thing, but I fear communication may become an issue. I know absolutely nothing about them (or their tech) except that they were the only place in Europe where I could find a Power Station at the time, except Thomann, who sent me an opened/used unit. Probably a customer return, which I told them I would keep if they would give me a B-stock “customer return” discount, but they refused so I returned it for a refund.
You on the other hand have been extremely helpful during my attempt to troubleshoot this, and know these units better than anyone. We may have better consumer laws in Europe, but customer service is usually FAR better from American companies.
Hey Trerik,
Worth asking them directly with the support email, I’m not sure either.
Include a link to the forum post for reference. It has a lot of debug information!
Regards
Dan
Will do.
The thing I don’t understand is that IF this is a poor contact/socket, why does the hum disappear when I remove the top lid? But then again, if it’s a bad GROUND connection I guess all kinds of strange things can happen… I guess it could be even be something as simple as a cold solder joint somewhere.
Anyway, I’ll contact support by email and take it from there, thanks!
Yes, very hard to say. Do you have a DVM or scope? You could probe the chassis and see.
Scope, no. DVM, yes.
Probe the chassis, sure, I can do that, but what do you mean exactly? Chassis to ground?
I’m not very good at troubleshooting electronics I’m afraid. I actually work at a guitar workshop but I mostly do woodwork, fretwork and that kind of stuff. I’ve obviously done lots of soldering too, but when troubleshooting anything more complicated than passive guitar wiring I usually have to leave it to someone else.
Hi Trerik,
Just if you were interested! It might make more questions than it answers, but yes chassis to ground. Something is conducting noise into the circuit, so something must not be grounded.
I have an unrelated question for you. Do you mind if I pick your brains about getting a guitar neck made in a PM? I have a guitar neck that I want to clone, approximately is fine.
Regards
Dan
Sure, go ahead! I’ll be happy to help if I can.
I’ll check chassis to ground when I get home and report back, although like you said, it probably won’t provide us with any definitive answers.
So, chassis to ground conductivity:
The top lid itself seems to be non-conductive, or covered in something non-conductive, so I used the screws in the top lid. There was no conductivity between theses screws and the top lid (I didn’t want to scratch the top lid so I didn’t make any attempt to dig hard into the finish).
There was however conductivity from these screws to ground/chassis at the output jack. This was with the Power Station switched off. I was in a hurry so I didn’t have the time to power up everything. Please let me know if this makes any difference, I can try with everything powered up later today if needed.
I have the same symptoms (new sample, inspection date September 04 2024, acquired from Thomann and used in Netherlands).
I would have included all the measurements, but the forum only allows one embedded picture for new users, so I’ve only included that of the mic’d cab. Below is based on measurements with combinations of line out measurements with:
In addition I have made measurements of:
They all show a consistent image. Although the frequency is exactly 150Hz (grid is 237.5V@49.95Hz) and noise is slightly lower that what you are reporting:
While not ideal, these figures are good enough for recording.
However my main problem is that the PS-2A introduces an audible hum through my cab, not present when using my amps directly (or with the PS-2A in bypass). So I’ve done some measurements with a Berhinger ECM8000 measurement microphone:
It seems to be at the same frequency I can hear and feel something (transformer, reactive load?) vibrating when the unit is in operation:
I’ve ordered a mains filter and will report back when it arrives (should be Saturday). But based on the measurements I have little hope that it’s ground related (unless it’s indeed a third harmonic that’s somehow getting through one of the the valves or something).
Edit for typo.
Thank you for your excellent description of the problem. It’s starting to look like this must either be an inherent problem with these units (which I kinda doubt after seeing so many excellent reviews, I mean, this level of hum would be an absolute disaster when used on-stage, through a large PA-system!!) OR maybe a bad batch???
Just out of curiosity, what was your setup/signal chain with the Lehle P-split? I think I’ve got a Radial StageBug Isolator somewhere at my rehearsal space. I guess I could try that between the guitar/amp and see if the hum is reduced. When troubleshooting this hum I went straight into tube amps (no pedals) so I somehow doubt if a Stagebug inserted between the guitar/amp will make much difference, but stranger things have happened. I won’t get the chance to try this for a couple of days though.
I just bumped up your user level! Go right ahead 
One thing I would like to point out:
The hum starts to build up even when holding the top lid close to the Power Station without actually touching it. I can even hold the lid upside down, bring it closer to the Power Station, and the hum will appear. I’m no electronics expert, but to me this suggests that the hum is originating from inside the Power Station, rather than a grounding issue. The hum starts to significantly increase when the top lid gets closer than around 1-2 cm (I don’t remember exactly) to the Power Station.
@dan Great, thanks!
Just to be clear: I fully appreciate a valve amp is not a precision instrument and a -90dBFS noise floor would be acceptable for me, but I reckon it should be able to operate without introducing an audible hum over the speakers, that is not present in any of my amps (not even if they’re dimed).
Same behaviour for me.
Here I used the Laney, but the same can be observed with Orange Rocker 15 or using different cables. Switching the amp from standby only increases background hiss but does nothing for the peaks so I left it off.
Signal chain:
Laney IRT60H (standby) --> [Amp in] Fryette PS-2A (operate) [ Unbalanced line out} --> [unbalanced in] Babyface Pro
Below you clearly see the spike at 150Hz decreasing with more than 6dB with the top off (while the 50Hz actually increases a bit).
Same with ground lift on, which works well for the 50Hz but doesn’t affect the 150Hz in any way. Again, top with the top removed the 150Hz drop by ca 6dB. Removing the top doesn’t really affect the 50Hz peak.
Unbalanced though, you see again the 6dB reduction at 150Hz when the top is removed, but interestingly also a more problematic 50Hz peak compared to the ground lift which now correlates with the reduction of the 150Hz peak.
Signal chain:
Laney IRT60H (standby) --> [Amp in] Fryette PS-2A (operate) [ Unbalanced line out} --> [in] Lehle P-Split II [ISO] --> [unbalanced in] Babyface Pro
This same correlation can be observed using the P-Split. Toggling ground lift has no effect here.
Now to correlated what we’re seeing on the line outs with what I’m hearing in the cab. I’ve left the preamp gain of the Babyface to 0.
Signal chain:
Laney IRT60H (standby) --> [Amp in] Fryette PS-2A [Speaker 1 out] -> Orange PPC-212V --> ECM8000 --> Babyface Pro
Here we can observe a significant reduction in both 50Hz and 150Hz of ca 14 dB when we remove the top!
With the microphone in a stand ca 10cm above the PS-2A, we observe a difference from measuring on left and right side, with a 200Hz peak on the right and that 150Hz peak on the left.
Again removing the lid (not moving the mic in between) all but removes both the 150Hz and 200Hz peaks.
Hope this helps. I’m happy to conduct specific tests if that would further help you in diagnosing the issue. Just to be clear:
I captured the screenshots from the default Reaper spectrum analyser but later confirmed the exact frequencies in a different plugin which shows the cursor information. As these graphs leave us with an approximation of the levels, let me know if you would require these more precise.
