In many cases the external power supply is totally irrelevant. EVERYTHING is down to how the power is dealt with inside the main unit.
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
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".
Buy Bose...And get your parking validated!.
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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
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
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
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco
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.
Mana Acoustics Racks / Bright Star IsoNodes Decoupling >> Allo DigiOne Player >> Pedja Rogic's Audial Model S DAC + Pioneer PL-71 turntable / Vista Audio phono-1 mk II / Denon PCL-5 headshell / Reson Reca >> LFD DLS >> LFD PA2M (SE) >> Royd RR3s.
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?
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco