NAS Super-Low Noise Linear Power Supply

[WESTLOWER]

Well done Marco, this is what I wanted to ascertain.
Interesting and up until these impressions, controversial.. full steam ahead for me!

[Arkless Electronics]

I hope I'm not treading on any toes here but just a reminder for any one interested that I can build power supplies of the highest quality and for any purpose. Yes, for any purpose... everything from a 2.7V supply for certain digital stuff to 500V or more for a valve power amp (like border patrol etc).
Applications are as wide as your imagination!

[Marco]

Well it's only really limited by the transformer secondaries 2 x 2.6amp therefore around 5 amps, but the manufacturers are usually pretty conservative.

The output pass MOSFETs are high-current 30amp devices.

Nice one, Dunc. Your suggestions for how to go about this project certainly worked out, and you've done a great job, so congrats mate!

Marco.

[Marco]

Well done Marco, this is what I wanted to ascertain.
Interesting and up until these impressions, controversial.. full steam ahead for me!

Good stuff, Adam. I think you'll be pleased with the results. The plaudits, however, should go to Dunc, as I only came up with the idea - he made it happen!

Marco.

[WESTLOWER]

I hear ya Marco, cheers Dunc, but you put your money up and went in blind..ish..!

Good stuff, Adam. I think you'll be pleased with the results. The plaudits, however, should go to Dunc, as I only came up with the idea - he made it happen!

Marco.

[Marco]

Lol - yeah, but taking such 'punts' is par for the course. It's just how I do things, and for me, the only way you learn!

Marco.

[Macca]

You can always offset the cost by flogging your Sony Cd player to me since you are not going to be needing it no more...

[Marco]

Lol... Then how will I play all those shiny silver frisbees I've still got?

However, in terms of sound quality, the linear PSU has certainly brought the RPi much closer to the Sony... There's probably less than 6% between them now, in that respect, but separated by £1000's, in terms of cost!

Marco.

[WAD62]

Lol... How will I play all those shiny silver frisbees I've still got?

However, in terms of sound quality, the linear PSU has certainly brought the RPi much closer to the Sony... There's probably less than 6% between them now, but separated by £1000's, in terms of cost!

Marco.

Hi Marco, let me clarify my understanding, you're also experiencing a noticeable improvement from a better PSU on your NAS?

what's your streaming architecture?

e.g. mine is a NAS with FLAC library running LMS (stock PSU) -> streaming FLAC -> Rpi2/piCorePlayer/wifi/Audiophonics DAC IiFi PSU)

To my mind the streaming of the FLAC data between the devices is still in the realms of IT, via TCP/IP, and as I recall your pi is connected via wifi, so that rules out pollution via ethernet...very confusing, unless you're transcoding at the server end

[Marco]

Hi Will,

Hi Marco, let me clarify my understanding, you're also experiencing a noticeable improvement from a better PSU on your NAS?

what's your streaming architecture?

Yes, you understand correctly

Mine is NAS with FLAC/hi-res library running (I don't know, what's 'LMS', lol?) > streaming FLAC/hi-res > RPi Model B/Moode (latest version)/wifi/IQ-Audio DAC/Paul Hynes SR3DR-05 linear PSU.

To my mind the streaming of the FLAC data between the devices is still in the realms of IT, via TCP/IP, and as I recall your pi is connected via wifi, so that rules out pollution via ethernet...very confusing

Yes, it is a little... However in terms of the latter, I still have ethernet cable (cat6a) connecting the router to the Seagate NAS drives, albeit only 2x 0.5m lengths, so although minimal, there's still exists the potential for pollution.

And has been said before, what is almost certain, is that the original wall-wart PSUs, supplied with the Seagate drives, would've been injecting the mains supply with high-frequency switching noise, so removing that from the equation will have resulted in some form of audible benefit, just not IMO to the degree that was actually achieved, which trust me, wasn't subtle!

Like I said, if you've ever added a high-quality off-board PSU to a CD player (e.g. reminds me in the old days of fitting an XPS to a Naim CDX), the sonic benefit obtained from fitting the linear PSU to the NAS drives is akin to that level of improvement.

Honestly, its instantaneous and very easily heard

Marco.