PSU Upgrades. Why?

[RobbieGong]

I would say Geoff, you have been in this "business" long enough and you already know the answer to your own question. Carry on.

that did cross my mind, that he just fancies some chit chat

[Arkless Electronics]

In many cases the external power supply is totally irrelevant. EVERYTHING is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit.

[RobbieGong]

In many cases the external power supply is totally irrelevant. EVERYTHING is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit.

Good point Jez and would explain Paul Hynes triple stage regulator modules for the Technics SL12XX, which are attached to the pcb and work together in compliment with his SR7 external power supply.

[Puffin]

The Teddy Pardo article IMO goes quite a way to explain how better implementation of regulators and their circuits "should" lead to a less noisy supply. Would it cost a manufacturer vastly more to use something like this? I built several of his TeddyRegs and Powerregs some years ago after a group buy of the boards on PFM. I have to say that I did not notice a vast improvement in SQ, but then I probably didn't implement them in the best way. As Jez says "In many cases the external power supply is totally irrelevant. EVERYTHING is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit".

[Edward]

This thread is beginning to feel like the Linear vs Switched mode PSU thread of a couple of weeks ago or so.

I'd go along with Jez's comment about everything is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit. The question for me, and I guess Geoff, is how does one know if the main unit's power handling is 'defective', room for improvement or optimal anyway. How can one objectively measure that rather than simply spending a ton of money in the hope that things will improve - or worse developing a subjective opinion (expectation bias) on the 'improvement'?

Edward

[Arkless Electronics]

Good point Jez and would explain Paul Hynes triple stage regulator modules for the Technics SL12XX, which are attached to the pcb and work together in compliment with his SR7 external power supply.

I wrote a load of stuff in the recent thread on SMPS which is relevant to all types of PSU and there is more in the mythbusters thread (abandoned due to poor signal to noise ratio!) plus a thread from Paul Hynes recently on PSU's

[Arkless Electronics]

This thread is beginning to feel like the Linear vs Switched mode PSU thread of a couple of weeks ago or so.

I'd go along with Jez's comment about everything is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit. The question for me, and I guess Geoff, is how does one know if the main unit's power handling is 'defective', room for improvement or optimal anyway. How can one objectively measure that rather than simply spending a ton of money in the hope that things will improve - or worse developing a subjective opinion (expectation bias) on the 'improvement'?

Edward

All that really matters in an external PSU is that it can supply sufficient current at the right voltage. This assumes that the power is dealt with properly in the main unit of course. Some equipment has no regulation, smoothing etc internally and hence relies entirely on the quality of the external PSU but this is a VERY bad way of doing things and thankfully only a few manufacturers do things this way.

In general, the PSU's of SS power amps (and power section of integrated's) use the crudest of unregulated supplies. A regulated supply capable of powering a power amp is as complicated and expensive as the power amp itself, which answers the question of why they are so rarely used! Luckily power amps are designed to have good PSRR and largely ignore the crap power feeding them

[Yomanze]

If a component is dependent on a single rail DC input then it's going to be hobbled from the start in a lot of areas. Adding in a fancy external power supply can't fix the baseline performance inside the unit.

The best two ways to do it are either: have a galvanically isolated multi-rail external DC power supply, or to do the same inside the box.

[Edward]

Cheers Jez

Is there a way for punters to objectively measure their amps to see if an alternative PSU may improve things?

Do your comments hold true for other things - like DACS, computers, TTs etc?

Edward

btw: did you get the Marconi thing yet and does it work?

[Arkless Electronics]

If a component is dependent on a single rail DC input then it's going to be hobbled from the start in a lot of areas. Adding in a fancy external power supply can't fix the baseline performance inside the unit.

The best two ways to do it are either: have a galvanically isolated multi-rail external DC power supply, or to do the same inside the box.