[BrianM]

Hi,
All this talk about enhanced power supplies in units like the T8 made me think about the issue of outboarding the power supply to a preamp, as one often sees.  As AVA preamps do not go this route, could anyone comment on to what extent this is worthwhile feature (or not) versus what I would presume to be the added cost of doing so?  Benefits/tradeoffs?
Thanks...just for my own edification...

[avahifi]

An outboard power supply means long lead lengths from the supply(s) to the active circuits, which will introduce numerous underdamped high frequency resonances into the equation due to the nature of the random L/R/C networks unintentionally created.  This is not a good thing.

Our new preamplifiers are designed with shielded ground plane circuit boards, keeping the power supply feeds as short as possible, and as non reactive as possible.  You simply cannot do this with an outboard supply. Putting lots of capacitors in an outboard box does not help matters, the output impedance will still be high.

Good design for better sound, not just different sound, requires very careful engineering analysis of the real issues.  Unfortunately most "audiophile" ideas that are not based upon careful engineering tend to not be very useful when distilled down to what is really happening.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[CE2]

McIntosh now does it.  It helps to light up the room, more blue lights.  They must be getting audio design ideas from HVAC systems.  Condenser and Evaporator separate.  CD makers are doing the 3 piece nonsense too.