< or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 30473 times.

ClefChef

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #60 on: 3 Feb 2019, 02:20 pm »
To dispel some of the power supply myths:

Linear power supplies are not "noiseless", the cheaper ones with simple voltage regulators are much noisier than quality SMPS.

In the old days SMPS would add system noise by injecting carrier frequencies back into the AC power supply lines, with that noise then travelling to other audio system components. Moderns SMPS don't have that problem anymore.

SMPS have better regulation and significantly lower output impedance that contribute to better SQ.

wushuliu

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #61 on: 3 Feb 2019, 04:08 pm »
To dispel some of the power supply myths:

Linear power supplies are not "noiseless", the cheaper ones with simple voltage regulators are much noisier than quality SMPS.

In the old days SMPS would add system noise by injecting carrier frequencies back into the AC power supply lines, with that noise then travelling to other audio system components. Moderns SMPS don't have that problem anymore.

SMPS have better regulation and significantly lower output impedance that contribute to better SQ.

I think there are some major caveats to that. I've noticed a trend lately of people saying SMPS are now perfectly fine to use and better than linear. What gets left unsaid is that these SMPS are few and far between, tend to be custom made, and/or expensive.  SMPS still have plenty of issues to contend with. Look at the iPower for instance. IFI has a whole of verbage as to how awesome it is but feedback indicates it is plagued with problems - high pitched noises, sudden failures, and potentially damaging components (iPhono users have had some serious issues to point to the iPower as cause). I've had two and experienced some of these issues and to top it off I didn't think it sounded all that great, even with all that engineering and cool custom packaging. So SMPS still has a ways to go.

maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #62 on: 3 Feb 2019, 05:47 pm »
There are SMPS and SMPS. I trust more in the good work of Meanwhile than in the ifi.

Some of the new DACs use super regulators and they with a good SMPS is enough. RME ADI-2 DAC. Others waste them and they make a mess, like Wyred4Sound DAC-2v2 SE DAC, with a terrible/horrible IMPLEMENTATION, vade retro satana.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-wyred4sound-dac-2v2-se-dac.6507/

SMPS are more problematic when they have to feed amplifiers with many watts -> a lot of heat (SMPS) + cheap Big capacitors is a bad combination.

Talking about SMPS, a new thread: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/332893-amplifier-smps-ebay-experience.html

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/318372-modulus-686-380w-4-220w-8-balanced-composite-power-amp-extremely-low-thd-post5677344.html

Quote
Yeah, Hypex doesn't have anything that would work. I looked into this a number of years ago when replacing my Linkwitz Pluto modules (3886) with SMPS supplies. I ended up using Connex SMPS300RE. After purchasing six of them, I finally found three that worked well and continue to do so. The other three I threw on the shelf to collect dust.

maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #63 on: 9 Feb 2019, 11:16 am »
AUDIOPHONICS PSHP Linear Power Supply for ifi Audio Pro iCAN 15V 4A

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/hifi-power-supply/audiophonics-pshp-linear-power-supply-for-ifi-audio-pro-ican-15v-4a-p-12843.html



Quote
Made in France

The components of this power supply are of first quality:

    Metal Resistors
    10 capacitors filtering 2200uF / 35V
    Voltage Regulator LT1083

Thus, this regulated linear power supply developed by our team comes to compete with more expensive solutions.

Equipped with a 100% Aluminum case, two Jack DC 5.5 / 2.1 & 5.5 / 2.5, this power supply with an extremely stable 100VA transformer even under heavy load, and will allow you to make the best of connected audio components requesting from 15V up to 4A.

Only € 199. Without measurements and more specs. With no possibility to customize, I think. With a cheap Chinese RF/EMI filter.


maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #64 on: 27 Feb 2019, 09:57 am »
TeraDak DC-30 Linear Power Supply - Review, by DarqueKnight

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=162655.msg1730866

with graphs from before and after. Wall, PS Audio PowerBase, Teradac DC-30... and iFi Audio iPower.

maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #65 on: 27 Feb 2019, 10:33 am »
Figure 10. FFT plot of passively filtered open circuit AC voltage from the wall. The only signal of value is the large spike on the left, which represents the 60 Hz power signal. Everything else is harmonics, the power company's 470 Hz signaling tone, and noise.




Figure 13. FFT plot of open circuit AC voltage measured at the output of the iFi Audio iPower switch mode power supply. No even order harmonics were generated, but the odd order harmonics are significantly greater in amplitude in the voltage from both the wall and the AC regenerator.




Figure 14. FFT plot of open circuit AC voltage measured at the output of the TeraDak LPS. In stark contrast to the switch mode power supplies, no AC artifacts at all.


maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #66 on: 27 Feb 2019, 10:36 am »
iFi iPower

https://ifi-audio.com/products/ipower/

Quote
Effortlessly powerful.

If your system’s power supply is unclean, background noise affects your sound quality.

The iPower cleans this up, addressing the problems at both the output and input stages.
It makes your sound flow cleanly and effortlessly.

and...

Quote
The iPower makes music come alive with incredible low-floor noise and adds detail originally lost through conventional power supplies that are often just mobile phone chargers that have no regard for quite power.

The iPower is at least ten times quieter than previous iFi power adapters, twenty times quieter than audiophile linear power supplies and one thousand times quieter than standard wall adapters.

Quote
Quiet! Active Noise Cancellation+ (ANC) at work!

Exceptionally quiet power. The measured noise floor is 100x quieter than the Common Noise Filter.


Btw, some posts above I wrote: "There are SMPS and SMPS. I trust more in the good work of Meanwhile Meanwell than in the ifi."
« Last Edit: 1 Mar 2019, 04:37 pm by maty »

audioengr

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #67 on: 27 Feb 2019, 05:35 pm »
The Sbooster is worth a try.  You should measure this.  A great value and fast regulation.  This is the problem with most LPS. Too slow regulation to be used with digital.

Steve N.

fado

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 277
Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #68 on: 27 Feb 2019, 05:55 pm »
I recently received a Paul Hynes Design SR4 modified to supply 15V/2.0A with 0.4 meter silver umbilical for ~$600.00 USD including insured shipping. 6,9 and 12V loads can be selected. For me, Western Union funds transfer was the least expensive option. I don't have experience with other Linear Power Supplies but did shop SBooster, Custom HiFi Cables Ltd, refurbished Mojo Audio and Keces.

My Paul Hynes purchase went smoothly. The SR4 is his standard build ~ 10/month. 

maty

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #69 on: 1 Mar 2019, 05:33 pm »
GB for Simple Cap-Mx Regulated Low-Noise PSU

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/group-buys/334346-gb-simple-cap-mx-regulated-low-noise-psu.html

Quote
Have you ever found yourself making a basic circuit that is so simple, that you say to yourself, "it's so simple I will just make it from scratch on veroboard..." It works so well and is so useful, it becomes an integral part of many of your future projects. Before you know it, you have hand-assembled on veroboard the same circuit a dozen times. Well that's what I have been doing whenever I needed a source of ultra quiet (battery-like) single-rail DC power in the range of 5v to about 32v and current under 1amp. I use this countless times for low noise headphone projects, DACs, etc.

Well, I sort of got tired of making them from scratch and worked with JPS64 to put it on a simple 50mm x 75mm board the following: a CLC filter, an Easy-Peasy Juma cap multiplier, and a 78xx regulator, and throw in some smoothing caps, snubbers, output bypass caps, and LED power indicator, and input/output terminal blocks. I typically use a 12v 1000mA Class 2 transformer wall-wart ubiquitous with routers and switches that we accumulate over the years.

That then powers a clean DC-DC step up converter to about 4v+ regulator dropout (circa 2v) above our needed voltage. So for example, if you need a clean 18v supply, add 5v or 23v as the DC-DC stepup output. Put that into this unit, and let its cap CLC filter, cap multiplier, and voltage regulator give you a clean source of 18v with ripple as low as 4uVrms (if you use a TO-220 formatted TPS7A4xxx LDO regulator). If you can live with 50uV noise, a simple 7818 regulator will work fine. I have used this on countless headphone amps and the noise floor measures flat like a battery. Absolutely no mains hum gets through...

You need to be registered to see the pictures and the graphs. I have uploaded an optimized picture of the prototype.




maty


viggen

Re: < or = $700 Linear Power Supply Comparisons
« Reply #71 on: 31 Jul 2021, 02:00 am »
i got the ifi because of this thread and used it for about a year powering a element h usb card.  there's a small improvement in sound.

recently replaced the ifi with, coincidentally, the same 65va lpsu wushuliu linked in the first page of this thread.  there's a massive improvement as result.

so, depending on what you're powering, noise is probably not the only thing that matters.  larger power reservoir is probably important too.