Hello there,
I've been messing around with power supplies for my DAC today. Until now I had a regular wall wart that was included in DAC's box. I grabbed a Mean Well RS-25-12 from my workplace as we have lots of these leftover from big projects and also an acid battery pack from my motorbike, which is less than 1 month old.
The results were quite surprising. For now, after 2h of testing, the winner for me is the Mean Well (10 quid?) with the best separation and colorfullness, the sound became much more refined and juicy. Strangely enough, I cannot decide between the wall wart and 12v 10Ah battery pack - I thought the last should provide the cleaniest power, well, maybe it did, but it didn't result in 'better' sound, at least for me. The sound is maybe a bit... uhm, bigger (?). But if there's a difference, it's too small for me to hear and enjoy the change.
So:
LED regulated +-10%(!) power supply > acid 12V battery pack >= wall wart.
Another great upgrade for me for silly money :D
DAC power supply
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Anesthetise
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DAC power supply
analogue: pioneer pl71, 2x technics 1210 mk5, shure m44g, goldring 1042, mastersounds radius 4v, mastersounds fx unit, strymon el capistain, half a tone of records
digital: laptop, rp4 with digi+ hat, V-DAC II + tomanek power supply, SC5000 prime
wires: ls3 and various interconnects, half a TB of files
amplification: p50sa seiden modded, a80s, royd rr1, goodmans magnum
digital: laptop, rp4 with digi+ hat, V-DAC II + tomanek power supply, SC5000 prime
wires: ls3 and various interconnects, half a TB of files
amplification: p50sa seiden modded, a80s, royd rr1, goodmans magnum
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_D_S_J_R_
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Re: DAC power supply
I need confirmation on this, but batteries used to be known for high frequency noise as well as a good DC voltage. Hope I'm not wrong on this. DAC's may be more sensitive to this unless heavily immunised as say, the Bushmaster II is supposed to be.
I still use a QED Digit, lightly breathed on and twin-supplied. the main chip is fed from a Positron (I'd like another but not for £100 including another Digit!) and the audio output chip is currently fed with a Beresford Caiman smps, well ferrited and now supplying the chip via a Mark Grant S-Booster inline filter, which I 'imagined' cleaned up the audio a little (I can't be a*sed to take it out, so it's staying put!). The difference adding the extra supply makes is staggering and many times more than interconnect shenanigans I've found and all the other bits keep it competitive!
As for optical. In theory this should be better than having an electrical connection joining DAC to transport/computer, but the Tos-Link connector is to optical what RCA phono plugs are to analogue audio. We're stuck with both for now so have to make the best of it I think.
I still use a QED Digit, lightly breathed on and twin-supplied. the main chip is fed from a Positron (I'd like another but not for £100 including another Digit!) and the audio output chip is currently fed with a Beresford Caiman smps, well ferrited and now supplying the chip via a Mark Grant S-Booster inline filter, which I 'imagined' cleaned up the audio a little (I can't be a*sed to take it out, so it's staying put!). The difference adding the extra supply makes is staggering and many times more than interconnect shenanigans I've found and all the other bits keep it competitive!
As for optical. In theory this should be better than having an electrical connection joining DAC to transport/computer, but the Tos-Link connector is to optical what RCA phono plugs are to analogue audio. We're stuck with both for now so have to make the best of it I think.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...The time has gone, The song is over, Thought I'd something more to say...