Going Linear with the Caiman

[StanleyB]

It has mystical powers, for which one is expected to pay a mythical price .

[Ikemen]

Any progress on modding the Maplins linear supply? Is this PSU still worthwhile upgrade for a Murata regs, Gator board Caiman, on a decent system?


P.S.

The things some bottom feeders will do just so that they can have a parasitic relationship with the Caiman .

Obvously not endorsed, yet is advertised as a "Beresford Dac Ultra PSU", giving the impression it is a Beresford product. Is that legal? Should someone say something?

[amdismal]

I'm a little perplexed at the moment. I recently got a linear PSU for my Caiman, to see if it would make any difference. I adjusted it for 15V, plugged it in - and the Caiman didn't work properly - all the input lights turned on. I quickly turned it off.

I then checked the Caiman PSU, and saw that it was giving out 12V, not 15V. Odd.

Were there two versions of the Caiman?

[Ikemen]

The earliest Caimans, one of which I purchased, came with a tiny PSU that was 12V. I upgraded this by purchasing the newer, larger 15V SMPS, which has "Beresford Caiman" printed on the front.

So no, I believe there is only one Caiman, but two PSUs sold in its history.

[Alex_UK]

The earliest Caimans, one of which I purchased, came with a tiny PSU that was 12V. I upgraded this by purchasing the newer, larger 15V SMPS, which has "Beresford Caiman" printed on the front.

So no, I believe there is only one Caiman, but two PSUs sold in its history.

I think that is correct - initial Caimans were sold with the 12v PSU, but an upgrade to the 15v one was offered on here and presumably on Stan's site to early adopters who wanted to upgrade, and all further Caimans were then supplied with the 15v PSU. So I don't believe your problem is directly related to 15v - maybe something else is awry? (Polarity?)

[StanleyB]

I'm a little perplexed at the moment. I recently got a linear PSU for my Caiman, to see if it would make any difference. I adjusted it for 15V, plugged it in - and the Caiman didn't work properly - all the input lights turned on. I quickly turned it off.

I then checked the Caiman PSU, and saw that it was giving out 12V, not 15V.

Is the DAC working fine with the 12V power supply?

[MartinT]

I'm a little perplexed at the moment. I recently got a linear PSU for my Caiman, to see if it would make any difference. I adjusted it for 15V, plugged it in - and the Caiman didn't work properly - all the input lights turned on. I quickly turned it off.

Sometimes the Caiman powers up with all lights showing. Could you select an input by clicking one of the source buttons? Does it then work? If so, it's fine

[Puffin]

All the lights come up on mine on power-up, but there sure ain't anyone home

[StanleyB]

If you are using a power supply that is not one of mine you might find that all the lights come on whne you first power the DAC up. You have to press one of the input selector buttons before the DAC gives you any sound. In some cases you might have to press several of the buttons, before pressing the actual one that you have a signal connected to.

[amdismal]

Thanks guys, I will try all these things! It works perfectly with the 12V PSU it came with. I have checked the polarity, so presumably am in the 'can't do any damage' zone, so will leave it a bit longer and randomly press buttons.

Stan - why does it have this behaviour with non-Beresford PSUs? Is there something about the power delivery that is unique to your PSUs? I would have thought that power is power, just that some has lower ripple.

And what voltage should I feed it for best results? While the PSU is adjustable, it's a soldering job and I don't have all the right resistors (I had to wire loads together in series and parallel to get the right resistance for 12V!), so it's a bit of a palaver to try blind testing, to say the least!