Cheap music server power tweak that is VERY good.

[chauphuong]

I took a 5V power supply (ifI iUSB) and took a USB cable and cut it, found the black and red power wires and attached them to the black and red SATA power leads. Then plugged it into the SSD. It is on 24/7, regardless of whether I reboot the pc, etc. When I try the Anker battery version I will not leave it on 24/7, of course.

A USB Cable has 1 black wire, while a SATA cable has 2 black wire. Could you please help in this regard? Tks

[chauphuong]

Tks. But what's your point here? Which one in 2 black wires of the SATA Cable should I connect black wire of USB cable to? Or any will do?

[chauphuong]

Hi mate, please read the 1st page of this topic. Also refer to the lines I quoted above. The story here is to use a USB battery pack to power OS SSD. Hence the black wires of USB cable and SATA one.

 

As written by ted_b:

 

I took a 5V power supply (ifI iUSB) and took a USB cable and cut it, found the black and red power wires and attached them to the black and red SATA power leads. Then plugged it into the SSD. It is on 24/7, regardless of whether I reboot the pc, etc. When I try the Anker battery version I will not leave it on 24/7, of course.

 

After all of those, do you have any more advice?

[chauphuong]

I hope that Ted can sort you out .

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sata+power+cable&biw=1097&bih=518&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjnlLT6qq7LAhVCHZQKHS8pCvgQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=tGKO-ZhL7rdNZM%3A

 

I did it, randomly choosing one of two black wires in the SATA cable, connecting it to the counterpart in USB cable, and OS SSD is now powered by a 10000 mah Xiaomi battery pack. I must say SQ has increased considerably in almost every way except for volume. At least my wife firmly shares with me the feeling. Thanks, that's what CA is for.

[chauphuong]

Hi

That is good news. In hindsight you could have used both those black wires in parallel in this case.

Unfortunately, I also agree with SimoneF that a powerpack is far from the quietest battery source available, although it does provide isolation from the internal power supply. It would is possible to obtain further small audible improvements if the powerpack's DC output was further filtered, but you would need to have some DIY experience.

Although maximum volume will not normally sound louder, you will now have the appearance of a greater dynamic range with some material. If you are also using an internal SSD for music storage, the same methods will further improve SQ.

Regards

Alex

Now my music is kept in a 2.5 inch portable HDD connected to the audio PC by a "normal" USB 3.0 cable. So I already plan an internal SSD for music storage but for me only a 2Tb or more would make sense to do so, and the cost for such is still quite high. Maybe a small 3.5 inch external HDD or NAS powered by LPSU can do any good in this regard? Accidentally I have at hand a 12V 2A LPSU which seem enough for a WD 4Tb, single disk MyCloud.

[chauphuong]

Does anyone know somewhere a linear PSU rated at 5V 2A with a USB connector?

 

By the way, currently I am powering OS SSD with a power bank as instructed by this topic and find it some useful to plug a Audioquest Jitterbug between the power bank and USB cable.

[chauphuong]

Thanks Rikhav. Are you sure the usb provide 2A current?

[chauphuong]

Sorry for the error

Actually it outputs only 1 A of current. But if you can power your hdds with some other source, the 1 A of curent will suffice for the raspberry pi

I have raspberry pi + Wi-Fi adapter + hifiberry digi + board and it works smoothly with the said terdak psu

But I don't want to power HDDs with other sources, hence 2V

[chauphuong]

Then you can try this PSU by teradak

 

DC-30W-SB3 DC (5V/3A) Power

 

It does not have USB connector so you will need to make a custom cable

Thanks a lot. But DIY seems hard for me.

[chauphuong]

Use a "stupid" power bank may help.

[chauphuong]

Just got to know that my DAC does not use 5v line from PC'usb, hence my Schiit Wyrd make no sense in usb "decrapifier". So I use Wyrd to power the OS SSD instead of a power bank (because Wyrd provides 0.5 A linear current). The result is considerable, bigger than things happen when I change a 200$ pair of interconnect cable to a 500 $ one in the same system.

[chauphuong]

Very interesting. So, 0.5A was enough for your SSD? Which SSD do you use as your OS SSD? Can you describe the SQ difference between using a battery pack and linear PSU like Wyrd? What battery pack did you try before using the Wyrd?

I think 0.5 A is more than enough. My SSD is a 128Gb Sandisk. The powerbank is in this link: Aliexpress.com : Buy 2015 New Original Xiaomi Power Bank 10000mAh Xiaomi Portable Battery For Xiaomi Mi4 Mi4i Mi Note Redmi Note Andriod Mobile Phone from Reliable battery powered toy vehicles suppliers on Hong Kong Goldway