[NoahH]

Hi all,
Has anyone experimented with lab power supplies for audio equipment? My basic thinking is they are set for pretty high precision and are often overbuilt enough that transient supply should be very solid, and one can be retasked to new pieces of equipment with different voltage / amperages with just config changes. Anyone given this a shot?

I am aware that some of the machines have fans that can be loud, but there seem to be a good number that don't.

[Speedskater]

Do you mean, replacing a components internal supply with an external lab supply?

[WGH]

I have used Acopian regulated power supplies for 10 years. Though not exactly lab grade, they are industrial grade and built for reliability, plug them in and they work forever. I use them to replace the switching power supplies in my music server. The Acopian power supplies are not family or pet friendly because they have exposed 120v connections, mine are tucked away and the only thing that will get zapped is a spider.

The "Series B" Gold Box, it is the most affordable with 0.25% load and 0.05% line regulation with 1 mV RMS ripple.
The "Series A - High Performance" has 0.005% load, 0.005% line regulation with 0.25 mV RMS ripple.

More info here:
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=177495.msg1868008#msg1868008

[NoahH]

Do you mean, replacing a components internal supply with an external lab supply?

The acopian is interesting. I was not thinking for in a server, but that one is interesting in that vein.

Speedskater -I generally was thinking for DAC supplies or lower-amperage uses like a preamp.

[S Clark]

I've used a Variac to supply 100V to a Japanese market turntable for the past several years. 
Worked fine. 

[jtwrace]

If you buy properly designed audio equipment any sort of external or replacement power supply is a total waste of money. 

[Speedskater]

Speedskater -I generally was thinking for DAC supplies or lower-amperage uses like a preamp.

Once again:
Do you mean, replacing a components internal supply with an external lab supply?
Or a components, external wall-wart supply?

[WGH]

I have a friend who likes building electronics from kits and is really good at it. He does months of research, picks the best parts and the builds are works of art.

A few years ago he built an Ultrapath linestage preamp. The power supply was in a separate case with an umbilical cord just like the big boys do. The preamp always had a low hum. Build #2 had the power supply in the same case as the electronics, hum was gone. Probably something to do with the ground plane differential.

Van Alstine tube preamps have six active high voltage regulators, one for each tube section. This design takes supply noise and interaction down to nearly zero. In addition, there are separate regulated power supplies for the tube heaters and the headphone amplifier. Smoothing capacitors are carefully selected modern, high-reliability, high-capacity units. Their amps have are no unregulated power supplies - anywhere! I wouldn't mess with AVA or any other electronics from a reputable manufacturer.

Just because you think you know more than the designers the unknowns can (and will) appear and bite you in the ass.

But if you are building one of the DAC or preamp kits from eBay then a lab or Acopian power supply will work.

[NoahH]

Once again:
Do you mean, replacing a components internal supply with an external lab supply?
Or a components, external wall-wart supply?

Fair enough - I will clarify further. I did mean wall warts primarily, but would use in place of internals in a few places for experiments or tuning, like kit preamps. But mostly wall-wart DACs,

[Speedskater]

Typically the wall-wart just supplies a rough DC voltage. The actual high quality DC supply is inside the component. Nothing good can happen if this internal supply is by-passed.