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Thread: PSU Upgrades. Why?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

    Default PSU Upgrades. Why?

    There are power supply 'upgrades' for many Hi-Fi components, from turntables to phono stages and amplifiers and pre-amps and so on. Some from the manufacturer or others being aftermarket units.

    If these 'better' power supplies are needed, that implies that the original was inadequate. If that is the case, why are so many products being sold with unsuitable power supplies? Or, is the wool being pulled over our eyes?
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  2. #2
    Join Date: Aug 2010

    Location: Torquay, Devon.

    Posts: 5,684
    I'm Shane.

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    Can't really answer your question, Geoff.

    When I had a Cyrus 8VS2. I noticed a difference, when I connected the PSX-R. The sound become more smoother, couth etc.

    S.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: cheltenham

    Posts: 746
    I'm matt.

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    Have a read of this - LINK

  4. #4
    Join Date: Sep 2013

    Location: North Island New Zealand

    Posts: 1,757
    I'm Chris.

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    As one door opens, a thousand are flung open underneath is a saying Ben Duncan used to use.
    Very much applying to this topic. If you have the patience and time to examine all the short cuts
    taken in power supplies and arising everything that can be done, then welcome to the effort some of us
    put into equipment building and its design.

    Take as example a humble bridge rectifier found in almost every piece of equipment, does an alternative exist ? Of course it does. It is a Linear Technology now Texas Instruments LT 4320 and instead of diodes it uses N channel mosfets. is it good ?
    well I am trying one in a few weeks when some low Rds on N Channel Hexfets arrive, so can report then.

    You need to appreciate there is a plethora of mathematics that goes into good circuit design, It is relatively easy to design
    the same circuits that everyone else uses, So inventive and exciting circuit forms are there, and a few of us on the forum
    do our best to escape the all to common and boring forms, to bring you what is best.

    Cheers / Chris

  5. #5
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    If these 'better' power supplies are needed, that implies that the original was inadequate. If that is the case, why are so many products being sold with unsuitable power supplies? Or, is the wool being pulled over our eyes?
    A few replies, but no answers to the question.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  6. #6
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: The Black Country

    Posts: 6,089
    I'm Alan.

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    Inadequate to give the ultimate best performance yes, I wouldn't say unsuitable given cost constraints and the law of diminishing returns.

    With a bog standard psu you might be getting say 90% performance, but for the extra 10% you are probably doubling the purchase price, as a really good psu tends to be as as complex as the amplifier it is powering.

    Think of the power supply as an amplifier but supplying power rather than an audio signal.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: South Wales

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    I'm NotTakingLifeTooSeriouslyTheseDays.

    Default

    A lot is down to cost saving, and the rest down to what the designer perceives as adequate at the time of manufacture!
    A...
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  8. #8
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

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    I'm Dennis.

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    We are, surely by definition, all seeking the last microgram of performance, and the law of limiting factors applies so that as each component gets better, other factors can now become the overall performance limiter.

    So we are then in a position to question and re-validate what we previously took for granted as performing optimally, but this opens the doors to foo purveyers.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Aug 2016

    Location: Edinburgh

    Posts: 185
    I'm Patrick.

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    On YouTube there is a clip of a salesman talking about the Michell gyrodec in which he states the upgraded PSU improves performance. That's fine but for over £400 I want to know a bit more specifically how it improves the sound of what's already on offer. I'm saying this as someone who has no experience of listening to the gyrodec but is planning to get one in a few years.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

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    I'm Geoff.

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    Maybe I'm being pedantic, but surely we are being sold products that work at their optimum and if performing as they should it require no improvement. To suggest they require an upgrade and can be improved implies that they are not good enough to start off with. i.e. substandard or defective! The perception being 'oh, it'll work, but it won't be right until you upgrade the power supply'.

    It's a 'Catch 22' situation. Either something works as it should, or if it needs a power supply 'upgrade' to work properly, then it is defective.

    I don't actually think there's a definitive answer, but I'm waiting to see .
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

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