UpTone JS-2 Power Supply Listening Impressions

[MasterWarzombie]

https://audiobacon.net/2021/08/06/the-worlds-best-audiophile-linear-power-supplies/?fbclid=IwAR0E-isoa3YUL1ac0PGP8UNn-fTSWSgdqkDBnA3kM_rf9lOXGy7mz_j3bD4

[mtcs]

Does anyone happen to know the sustained and max power consumption (in watts) for the JS-2? Thanks.

[JohnSwenson]

7 minutes ago, mtcs said:

Does anyone happen to know the sustained and max power consumption (in watts) for the JS-2? Thanks.

By max do you mean short term? If yes what time frame are you interested in? By power consumption do you mean the power drawn through the AC line cable, or the amount of heat dissipated in the heat sinks? These can be quite different. The output voltage dramatically affects these numbers, so is there a specific voltage you are interested in?

 

John S.

[mtcs]

18 minutes ago, JohnSwenson said:

By max do you mean short term? If yes what time frame are you interested in? By power consumption do you mean the power drawn through the AC line cable, or the amount of heat dissipated in the heat sinks? These can be quite different. The output voltage dramatically affects these numbers, so is there a specific voltage you are interested in?

 

John S.

I'm considering an AC power regenerator for my system and I need ti size it appropriately. So, I think I need the power through the AC cable. I currently output 12v on both rails, if that is what you mean. By max I do mean short term.

[Superdad]

31 minutes ago, mtcs said:

Does anyone happen to know the sustained and max power consumption (in watts) for the JS-2? Thanks.

At idle, with nothing connected to either of its outputs, a JS-2 (powered by 120VAC) draws 14 watts.  

[That is because there is a "no-load" load circuit which keeps a small load on the supply to keep the raw DC voltage to the main board at about 21V--thus protecting the main filter caps from over voltage under no-load situation. Depending upon output voltage setting, that circuit stops being in play once the load on an output is about 0.8A.]

 

I have all the other wattage figures for under load, but as John indicated, it all depends upon output voltage setting and current draw. For example, driving a continuous load of 6.8A at 9V, the JS-2 draws 1.23A AC, and 159WAC. But at 12VDC (say at its max of 7.4A DC) it is more efficient.

 

By the way, JS-2 power factor is 0.93.  All other no-choke filtered linear power supplies will return a PF of about 0.48.  We are conducting over nearly 100% of the AC waveform and thus not kicking any line frequency harmonics back into the wall or distorting the mains waveform. 

[Superdad]

7 minutes ago, mtcs said:

I'm considering an AC power regenerator for my system and I need ti size it appropriately. So, I think I need the power through the AC cable. I currently output 12v on both rails, if that is what you mean. By max I do mean short term.

 

Well without knowing the current draw (either continuous or peak) of those 12V devices it is impossible to tell you the AC wattage. But if you budgeted 150W for the JS-2 you will have plenty of headroom.

Hope that helps.

[mtcs]

4 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Well without knowing the current draw (either continuous or peak) of those 12V devices it is impossible to tell you the AC wattage. But if you budgeted 150W for the JS-2 you will have plenty of headroom.

Hope that helps.

That's what I needed, thanks.

[BlueSkyy]

Just placed my order for the JS-2 to power my iFi PRO iDSD and PRO iCAN combo!  I am as excited as I was as a ten year old on Christmas Eve hoping that Santa would bring me the American Flyer electric train that I saw in my mom's Sears catalog!

[MasterWarzombie]

For my part, I am still delighted with my Uptone JS2. There are linear power supplies that one wishes not exposed. The uptone is so pretty (and it sounds good too) that we must highlight it on his hi-fi cabinet

[BlueSkyy]

I received my JS-2 as promised two days after it was shipped on Sept 7.  I really appreciated the way that Superdad communicated with me during my purchase experience and actually did ship as promised rather than a lot of my recent experiences where the vendor said the item was "shipped" but, rather, only finding out that the shipping label had been generated and the post office waited to receive the item a week or two later.  Thanks Alex and I appreciate they way you run your business!

 

Packing from the outer shipping box to the blue inner box and packing that actually cradles this bit of audio jewelry was exemplary.  As was mentioned above, it is beautiful piece of kit and, as such, it has been awarded a shelf of its own above my iFi PRO iCAN and iDSD and matches the color of those two units nicely.  Had I my druthers, I would have desired a JS-2 in black to match most of the other pieces in my rack but am still quite happy with the look of the JS-2 and the nice little LED that is the "p" in UpTone.  Again, I would have preferred a blue LED but amber is just fine as well.

 

My initial impressions are that this is money well spent and has made me a real believer in the benefits of a choke input filtered linear power supply over switching power supplies.  With the iFi stack, I've moved from the original iPower Plus to the iPower Elite to the JS-2.  The iPower Elite was quite a step up from the OEM provided power supplies particularly because it revealed much more low level micro detail due probably to the exceedingly low noise level of less than a microvolt.  The JS-2 was not only the iPower Elite's equal in revealing low level micro detail, it also opened up the soundstage of most of my recordings noticeably expanding the horizontal well outside the visual cues provided by the speaker locations but also in the vertical dimension as well.  Because I drive the inputs of my main mono amps directly from the balanced output of the PRO iDSD bypassing the pre/pro in my system and the subwoofer as well, I have been forced to use a bit of equalization as provided by JRiver MC.  Well, with the JS-2 providing the foundational power for the audio, I also found out that I actually had to reduce the level of bass that I was comfortable listening which is to say that the JS-2 provides more bass slam or impact particularly on pieces with double bass or very low organ notes in them.

 

I am not certain if there is an accepted or recommended break in period for the JS-2 but I will be listening over the coming weeks to see if there is.  I intend to keep it powered up 24/7/365 unless the manufacturer recommends against this for some reason but, because it runs relatively cool keeping the PRO iCAN headphone amp powered down with only the PRO iDSD running, I see no reason to have to power it down after every listening session.

 

Well done, Alex, and thanks for what you are doing for the audio/computer aficionados out here!

[Superdad]

On 9/12/2021 at 4:40 AM, BlueSkyy said:

Thanks Alex and I appreciate they way you run your business!

Thank you for your very kind words Joe.

I run a lean and tight ship over here--with so much focus on providing professional service to our clients that it often keeps me from attending to mundane accounting and product planning matters. That, combined with constant high demand for our current products is the reason new product releases are so infrequent.  But we are working to change that... 

 

On 9/12/2021 at 4:40 AM, BlueSkyy said:

The JS-2 was not only the iPower Elite's equal in revealing low level micro detail, it also opened up the soundstage of most of my recordings noticeably expanding the horizontal well outside the visual cues provided by the speaker locations but also in the vertical dimension as well.

Nice. 

On 9/12/2021 at 4:40 AM, BlueSkyy said:

Well, with the JS-2 providing the foundational power for the audio, I also found out that I actually had to reduce the level of bass that I was comfortable listening which is to say that the JS-2 provides more bass slam or impact particularly on pieces with double bass or very low organ notes in them.

Very nice! 

 

On 9/12/2021 at 4:40 AM, BlueSkyy said:

 I intend to keep it powered up 24/7/365 unless the manufacturer recommends against this for some reason but, because it runs relatively cool keeping the PRO iCAN headphone amp powered down with only the PRO iDSD running, I see no reason to have to power it down after every listening session.

24/7/365 is totally fine for the JS-2. It will last nearly forever.

 

On 9/12/2021 at 4:40 AM, BlueSkyy said:

Well done, Alex, and thanks for what you are doing for the audio/computer aficionados out here!

Hey man, appreciative clients like you are what make this all worthwhile! 

Thanks again,

Alex C.

[krelldog]

SuperDad....Your JS-2 is on my next upgrade list.

 

I would use it with my EtherRegen, but between my router and my NAS..

 

Which of these two would you recommend I use the JS-2 with ?

 

Thanks

[Superdad]

21 hours ago, krelldog said:

SuperDad....Your JS-2 is on my next upgrade list.

 

Well that's cool!  We just finished building another 13 units (today through Friday are test/burn-in days) and there are two from this batch not yet spoken for.  So if you want one just drop us a line.  Or wait until the next batch in November. We are building all the time (seems JS-2s are the only product we are not yet having trouble getting parts for...).

 

21 hours ago, krelldog said:

I would use it with my EtherRegen, but between my router and my NAS..

 

Which of these two would you recommend I use the JS-2 with ?

 

Well if using a JS-2 for the EtherREGEN (that's power to the 'A' side domain; 'B' side gets its power through isolating converter)--and assuming you are running standard A>B out across the moat--then the other output should be used for something on the upstream 'A' side in order to preserve the EtherREGEN's special active differential isolation.

 

Obviously both your router and NAS are upstream thus are candidates.  But what--if anything--is your music server on the 'A' side? Is it your NAS? Or might you have some other device even more worthy of a JS-2 output? 

So it is hard to make a recommendation without knowing your complete system. And even then I doubt I'd be able to say for sure for which device powering from a JS-2 would yield the greatest sonic benefit.  The fun is in the experimentation! 

[krelldog]

Alex...Thanks for your response.

 

My setup is pretty simple:  Auralic Aries 2.1 on the B-side    

 

A-side- Spectrum Router and  Synology NAS

 

BTW- My music server is the Synology (A side)

[Superdad]

59 minutes ago, krelldog said:

My setup is pretty simple:  Auralic Aries 2.1 on the B-side    

 

A-side- Spectrum Router and  Synology NAS

 

BTW- My music server is the Synology (A side)

 

I'd probably try to use the JS-2 for the Synology NAS which you use as music server.  Which is the exact model of Synology?

[krelldog]

Synology DS 720+

 

2 Bay

[Superdad]

23 minutes ago, krelldog said:

Synology DS 720+

 

2 Bay

Sure, the JS-2 can handle the current requirement of a DS720+ (and EtherREGEN at the same time on second output rail). But you'll have to go to Ghent for a cable with the 4-pin connector for the NAS. This one: https://www.ghentaudio.com/part/dc39.html   Be sure to specify with 5.5mm x 2.5mm at the power supply end.

[TwinPeak]

Uptone JS-2 #2 arrived on Tuesday. Connected solo to recently acquired Sonore opticalRendu, that replaced an ultraRendu. My first JS-2 deliver power to Mac Mini (with MMK) and Sonore opticalModule Deluxe. In between the two Sonore optical units sits two Uptone etherRegen's. And this combination sounds f.... good - delivering very clean signals to my Denafrips Pontus II DAC. Huge upgrade in sound quality on all parameters - Wow! 😀

 

[Superdad]

3 hours ago, TwinPeak said:

In between the two Sonore optical units sits two Uptone etherRegen's. And this combination sounds f.... good - delivering very clean signals to my Denafrips Pontus II DAC. Huge upgrade in sound quality on all parameters - Wow! 

Nice setup Tom! Very symmetrical! 
 

I just showed your system photo to my wife and told her how you first contacted UpTone a couple of years ago and we’re a bit skeptical that power supplies, etc. would make much of a difference in your system. Then you started slowly, first with just the MMK for you Mac mini as I recall, then ISO REGEN for USB, first JS-2 unit, an so on. Of course this was all of your own accord—I never pushed or promoted to you. And look at you now, a full-on fanboy! 

 

Thanks for all your support and enthusiasm. Glad you are happily warming your corner of Norway with a pile of neatly arranged UpTone boxes…

[Hsheffer]

Hi Js-2 community. 
I would like to ask if I can power up Sotm SCLK-OCX10 I intend to purchase with my good old JS-2?

Specs of this Sotm device are 12V with max 2A

[R1200CL]

@Hsheffer

Yes you can. 
 

From Uptone website:

 

Dual-output, choke-filtered linear power supply with four user-selectable DC output voltages.  

Two independently adjustable, separately regulated outputs; Voltage choices are user set from the back panel: 5V, 7V, 9V, or 12V.  

Guaranteed current capability is 5 amps continuous from either output at any voltage setting.  

(Up to 7.0 amps split between outputs, depending upon DC voltage combination; Instantaneous capability of up to 10A).

[jas]

The JS-2 replaced a good sounding Keces P3, but, as I learned after 2 weeks of using the JS-2, the differences between them were distinct enough that I was forced (!) to listen deep into the night more than once to try to get a measure of just how big those differences were. 

Now in week three, I am noticing even more filling out of the music--on 60's music I feel that I was pulled back into that era, as opposed to a song that "sounds like 60's music". My wife snaps her fingers and sings a few bars when the music is right and lately she's been breaking into dance--so yeah, the differences have made the music right. 

I bought Alex's new DC power chord with the JS-2 and have used it to power the eR1 in the "back end of the system". (eR2 takes the fiber from the eR1 and outputs copper to the uR.) The other rail powers an ISP router with Ghent 4s8 DC power chord. Yep, these uses underutilize the JS-2--I know it and am fine with it. Systems change--one day it may be put to fuller use.

To me, the system tells me about every little change I make, i.e. vibration, contact cleaning, etc, across the board, but I will say that base extension is now where it is supposed to be and is especially impressive--my primary goal for buying the unit in the first place. So, I am a happy camper. Fantastic improvements and thank you Alex and John! 

[PYP]

15 hours ago, jas said:

My wife snaps her fingers and sings a few bars when the music is right and lately she's been breaking into dance--so yeah, the differences have made the music right. 

 

 

Likewise.  My system also includes a JS-2 and two eRs.   After adding the second eR, something strange happened.   Previously, my wife often thought I listened at excessive volume levels.  One day, while in another room, I heard the system cranked up to a volume I would use, so I went to investigate.   There was a strange woman dancing, REALLY dancing.  And I thought:  who is this strange woman and what did she do with my wife?

 

Who said this hobby isn't exciting?  😉

[R1200CL]

So, there may be a new slogan for Uptone. Our products make your partner sing and dance. You native speaking english, may frame it better. And add some funny options. 
 

 

[PYP]

35 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

So, there may be a new slogan for Uptone. Our products make your partner sing and dance. You native speaking english, may frame it better. And add some funny options. 

well, in the hyperbole of social media click-bate, perhaps something like:  Uptone:  Your partner - reimagined!  With appropriate images, of course.  

 

Agree that selling relationships, in addition to gear, is a growth field for UpTone.  But the customer support might be full of minefields.  It does make me think of Cartalk, when the hosts would jump on the opportunity to tell a wife/partner that, yes, indeed, the husband/partner was completely wrong about the car problem.