Repurposed old Caiman dac Maplins linear power supply....

[Gazjam]

Have a few of these kicking around Gaz towers, so of a bored Saturday decided on a whim to try something Id been putting off for a while.
On the back of improvements from my recent DIY “Gutwire” earth cable, was feeling a bit tweaky again so opened up one of the Maplin supplies and set voltage down to 12V.

I run a network audio digital setup, where my Dac/streamer is fed Music via ethernet from my Router. The Router is supplied ethernet from a Virgin Media Superhub.
The Routers crap switch mode psu runs 12V 2A, so within the Maplins range...cool.

The Maplins linear supply is hardwired from my balanced mains unit, so you’d hope that feeding the Router with this should be a little better electrically than the Cheapo chinese switch mode supply it came with?
School of thought in the benefits of eliminating switch mode supplies to eliminate noise, RF interferance etc, absolutely works for other kit, but I’ve never tried it on my Router feeding my Dac though?

Result.

Noticed improvement right away, top end especially the higher frequency stuff like strings and vocals flow better, sounding a touch less stridant and more natural.
Piano’s got noticably more weight and air about it, easier to hear the subtle spacial cues...cool.
Glad that tweaky thought popped into my head this morning, its a tweak well worth doing imo if you run a network audio setup.

Only switcher in my Network chain now is the one feeding my Virgin Superhub I’m using as a modem mode feeding the Router.
After checking I’m happy to report its 12V 2.5A again, another Maplins linear coming up to power that.
Might even make another improvement, who knows, the psu is lying unused....so why not.

Get rid of the switch mide supplies if you can folks, the noise they can put back into mains can effect sound quality.

[struth]

Good idea. Marco has a linear on his router I think

[Firebottle]

Good one Gaz