O.K., progress. The Frequency Response issue is solved. I had "A Weighting" engaged. There is a flat spectrum response with it off.
But, the PL does have a noise issue. THD is very close between the two units. But THD+N is way high on the PL, and readily visible on the RTA. The Acurus does have a safety cap between chassis and cord ground. The PL has no connection to the IEC socket ground,
Mark L. recommended the Vishay X440 safety caps a while back, I do have some. these are rated X1 and Y2, pretty damn cool that one cap can do both. So I'll install one between Line and Neutral as the X cap, and another between Line and chassis ground as a Y cap. Then retest for noise.
If you look at the screenshots, FFT is at maximum resolution, the fundamental is balanced between the two units and as close to 0 dB as I can get it without clipping the QA400, and averaging is set at 10 to reduce jitter.
The Acurus is the Yellow trace, PL2000 the red trace. Lots of noise between the harmonics. Oh, and the PL is on the right channel of the QA400.