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Group Buy for full ATX Linear PSU from Teradak


Ben-M

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I'm planning to build a dedicated audio pc soon and I'm evaluating a Linear ATX PSU. Idea is to use a Asus motherboard, with intel i7 6700 and Nofan passive cooler, 8gb ram and a 120GB SSD. Do you think the Teradak 210 could be powerful enough?

 

Plenty.

 

Last think, this thread is huge and I can't pass one day to read it all, do you think that sound quality improvement from SMPS to Linear is worth the requested price?

 

Thank you!

 

Definitely worth it.

 

As to rest of the questions maybe somebody else will be able to give you some insight.

 

Cheers

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I've received an ATX-390 and have modified the Streamcom FC10 Alpha case to take the DC power cables. The PSU powers up (sees an amber light on the on-/off switch) and the motherboard has some lights on indicating that it is getting power. My issue is that starting the computer seems to trip the PSU with their being a click and then the computer stops booting - at the end of this process the PSU still has an amber light on and it's possible to repeat. I'm planning on stripping back the h/w on the machine but wanted to find out if anyone has specific experience and/or suggestions. Thanks in advance.

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  • 1 month later...
I've received an ATX-390 and have modified the Streamcom FC10 Alpha case to take the DC power cables. The PSU powers up (sees an amber light on the on-/off switch) and the motherboard has some lights on indicating that it is getting power. My issue is that starting the computer seems to trip the PSU with their being a click and then the computer stops booting - at the end of this process the PSU still has an amber light on and it's possible to repeat. I'm planning on stripping back the h/w on the machine but wanted to find out if anyone has specific experience and/or suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

 

Hi aps,

 

 

It happens to me two weeks ago. Mine is ATX-350, which i got from group buy, and has been working since Feb last year. I am a heavy user, i believe it has operated for more than 2500-3000 hours over one year. I always operate it in room temperature around 22-27 Celcius and humidity 30%-55%. Also i got Furutech power filter to feed this Teradak Power Supply. Not so sure that i missed something that would make this power supply broken. I do not want to believe that chinese stuff are cheap and bad in quality.... :(

 

I tried two different computer but no luck. What i know is, clicking sound is a safety failure when your power supply is malfunction.

 

Anyway, i send it to local (electronic) service center at the moment. I am still waiting what went wrong.... or if they can find it.

 

Any luck with your power supply?

 

 

Marcell

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So, I'm actually having a similar problem now, but I've isolated it to my motherboards and PSU incompatibility, not PSU malfunctioning, per say.

 

I have 2x Intel S1200V3RPL and apparently these are VERY sensitive to their connected PSU.

 

In the beginning I tried the Teradak PSUs, the green mobo lights turned on, the blue lights turned on, everything looked good, then I pushed the power button, it began to boot, sometimes the monitor gets on, but then all the LED status lights flicker, it shuts off, and the amber light stays on. However, if I left everything connected the mobo will begin beeping. This beeping is a code to help you identify the problem.

 

Beep codes:

1-5-4-2

1-5-4-4

 

They both correspond to initial Power good, then power delivery failure. I then swapped PSUs to as I have 2 Teradaks and 2 mobos, same result.

 

I bought a Corsair CX430 SMPS, tested it on a standard mobo with successful boot, then tested it on the Intel mobos. Same problem, same sequence, and same "beep codes". Tried on both mobos, same deal.

 

I've since contacted 2 other Intel S1200V3RP users who both reported similar initial problems. One switched to an Intel certified SMPS and got successful boot, the other switched to a DIY, battery based PSU and got successful boot. One of them also tested with a Corsair CX430 and failed to boot.

 

I'm now starting the journey of finding out what causes contribute to the Intel boards booting and then I will have to see how I can make my Teradak PSUs have that. On the other hand if that gets too tedious I may switch motherboards.

 

The road to audio "fun" is long.

 

Marcell's situation is a bit different in that it used to successfully run, but the symptoms are sounding similar.

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Problems your experiencing Ben were very common in the past. Most of them would fall under "cold boot" term. They were usually down to bad design of mobo... the easiest solution was to get rid of problematic MB. Cold boot issues might come also from incompatibilities of RAM, MB and PSU so sometimes the issues could be fixed by just replacing RAM for different.

 

Now your problems AD 2016 might be of totally different nature but from your description it certainly looks like cold boot problems.

 

Maybe it will help you somehow.

 

Good luck

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Marcell's situation is a bit different in that it used to successfully run, but the symptoms are sounding similar.

 

 

Hi Ben-M, nice to hear from you again. I hope you are doing well this past year.

 

My Teradak has continuous mechanical clicking sound over (around) 1 second interval. From the forums that i searched, that is something electrocute inside and safety failure kicks in, it's like continuous on-off cycle and it repeats forever. The first time it happens was when my comp suddenly turn off while it was running. Since then, i can't turn it on back again.

 

Previously Teradak PSU was working very well with both my old comp (Core 2 Duo, DDR2, Gigabyte MB) and my new comp (Core i5 6600, DDR4, Asus MB). But now it won't work with both comp. Of course i already tried everything that i could including trying different RAM slot, different GPUs, flashing and upgrading BIOS, strip down all Hard drives.... i don't think they were faulty since they are working well with my Corsair AX860i.

 

In your case i believe it was not compatible with Intel server board. But i think mine is broken :( :(

 

Diagnose from service center i brought was, this little white thing like dynamo (or whatever it is) on the left was faulty. They somehow managed to bring it to life once but all SATA and Molex connectors were not functioning.... then few minutes later it dies again and back with those clicking sounds. I told them to stop trying, if it's broken then it will need replacement parts.... no magic can heal that. I also don't know what kind of magic trick they did in the first place to bring it to life again. I think i will bring it to another service center to see if the diagnose is the same.

 

IMG-20160402-WA0001.jpg

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Diagnose from service center i brought was, this little white thing like dynamo (or whatever it is) on the left was faulty.

 

That dynamo thingy is an R-core transformer. In my unit it is a dual 9V 1.66A output one so finding a replacement should not be too hard. If it is just the transformer failing then it should be a simple fix.

 

Have you tried contacting Teradak to see if they can supply a replacement part?

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Hi Ben-M, nice to hear from you again. I hope you are doing well this past year.

 

My Teradak has continuous mechanical clicking sound over (around) 1 second interval. From the forums that i searched, that is something electrocute inside and safety failure kicks in, it's like continuous on-off cycle and it repeats forever. The first time it happens was when my comp suddenly turn off while it was running. Since then, i can't turn it on back again.

 

Previously Teradak PSU was working very well with both my old comp (Core 2 Duo, DDR2, Gigabyte MB) and my new comp (Core i5 6600, DDR4, Asus MB). But now it won't work with both comp. Of course i already tried everything that i could including trying different RAM slot, different GPUs, flashing and upgrading BIOS, strip down all Hard drives.... i don't think they were faulty since they are working well with my Corsair AX860i.

 

In your case i believe it was not compatible with Intel server board. But i think mine is broken :( :(

 

Diagnose from service center i brought was, this little white thing like dynamo (or whatever it is) on the left was faulty. They somehow managed to bring it to life once but all SATA and Molex connectors were not functioning.... then few minutes later it dies again and back with those clicking sounds. I told them to stop trying, if it's broken then it will need replacement parts.... no magic can heal that. I also don't know what kind of magic trick they did in the first place to bring it to life again. I think i will bring it to another service center to see if the diagnose is the same.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25121[/ATTACH]

 

Yeah, though it's not for a great reason, It's good to hear from you guys again :-)

 

And yes, I would also take it to another service centre to get it checked out. I just have a strange feeling about the R-core having died on you. Maybe it did, but I'd have someone else look at it. ANd couldn't you also test the R-core with a DMM (digital multi meter)?

 

And for me, I'm in talks with Teradak now and we're trying to work through the issue. So far is does seem like the S1200V3RP family of boards do have some higher than ATX spec requirements. We'll see how progress goes, but I may have to send my boards and ATX-350s back to them. Haha, might give me an excuse to switch over to those giant R-cores like they offer in their new Linear ATX PSUs...

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Yeah, though it's not for a great reason, It's good to hear from you guys again :-)

 

And yes, I would also take it to another service centre to get it checked out. I just have a strange feeling about the R-core having died on you. Maybe it did, but I'd have someone else look at it. ANd couldn't you also test the R-core with a DMM (digital multi meter)?

 

And for me, I'm in talks with Teradak now and we're trying to work through the issue. So far is does seem like the S1200V3RP family of boards do have some higher than ATX spec requirements. We'll see how progress goes, but I may have to send my boards and ATX-350s back to them. Haha, might give me an excuse to switch over to those giant R-cores like they offer in their new Linear ATX PSUs...

 

 

 

Hi JL, Hi Ben,

 

 

I did successfully contacted Michael through Hotmail. I wrote a long email and he replied only with few sentences lol. Probably due to his limited English. But he did attach a power point doc on how to check things with power supply. I think Ben also got one :)

 

Anyway, i brought my Teradak PSU to another service center and i also gave them the doc last Saturday morning. My message to them was to diagnose and tell me the faulty part, so that i can order a new one. But on the same day, in the evening they called me that it is already fix and running well. They changed the faulty part without my approval or negotiating the price first. It gave me a quite a shock!!! I don't know whether to be happy or not.... I haven't got time to go back there yet, hopefully this coming Saturday.

 

They explained on the phone that from R-Core transformer, it goes to separate electronic boards that consist with bunch of capacitors. Each board for a specific voltage. So two boards got problems are the 3V and 5V...... since they were electrocuted, the safety failure kicks in and causing the continuous mechanical sounds. Thus it can not turn on the PC.

 

My wild guess at the moment is not the capacitors, probably something smaller, diodes or... i don't know. Right now i am concern with what kind of spare part they changed? If they change it with a crappy one, the sound quality would be effected :(

 

Two possible (wild guess) things that i can think of what cause my Teradak to be broken are:

 

1) 3V and 5V line are broken. Those lines are use in SATA/Molex line. I am using 3 mechanical HDD and 2 SSD, don't ask why (LOL). I just manage to reduced it to 1 SSD and 2 Mechanical HDD in the last two months, i will reduce it further more. Anyway, it means that i am stressing out the 3V and 5V line too much. Mine is ATX-350, i don't know if it is too much to handle so many Hard Drives.

 

2) I always unplug the power cord to Teradak PSU after usage. This cause a 'cold start' on the PC. It means that when i turn on my PC it will on for 1-2 Seconds, then its off for 1-2 seconds, then it will finally on for good. This sequence is normal to prevent the PC to be 'shock' at the first time boot. Does your PC do this as well??

 

What do you guys think?

 

I will inform you guys again after i got back my Teradak PSU.

 

 

PS: A new giant R-core Transformer sounds interesting, we are always looking for an upgrade path don't we? lol

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I leave my Teradak on 24/7. Zero issues from the day 1.

 

Yeah, that's the real answer. If you've got digital equipment it's better to leave it plugged in and turned on 24/7. Power up and power down are more likely to cause stress that hurts your gear than just leaving it on.

 

A side benefit to this is that your system is always up and ready for music :-D

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They explained on the phone that from R-Core transformer, it goes to separate electronic boards that consist with bunch of capacitors. Each board for a specific voltage. So two boards got problems are the 3V and 5V...... since they were electrocuted, the safety failure kicks in and causing the continuous mechanical sounds. Thus it can not turn on the PC.

 

My wild guess at the moment is not the capacitors, probably something smaller, diodes or... i don't know. Right now i am concern with what kind of spare part they changed? If they change it with a crappy one, the sound quality would be effected :(

 

 

It's good to have it fixed.

 

If the R-core transformer have a primary-secondary short, for example, the high voltage will probably take out the regulator chip. Luckily it has this protection circuit which disconnects the AC input when any of the output voltages is above given limits. Otherwise it could fry the PC which will be expensive.

 

Unless your shop used absolutely junk parts I wouldn't worry too much about the replaced parts as the original ones are just standard quality parts.

 

I turn on/off my unit per listening session and so far no issues (touch wood).

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Can any one chime in HDPlex vs Teradak LPS?. I am more inclined to the former as the service may be better?

Thanks

Qnap NAS (LPS) >UA ETHER REGEN (BG7TBL Master Clock) > Grimm MU1 > Mola Mola Tambaqui /Meridian 808.3> Wavac EC300B >Tannoy Canterbury SE

 

HP Rig ++ >Woo WES/ > Stax SR-009, Audeze LCD2

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Can any one chime in HDPlex vs Teradak LPS?. I am more inclined to the former as the service may be better?

Thanks

 

Larry (from Hdplex) service has been lightening fast. I am very impressed and you won't be disappointed. I think both of them uses almost the same quality parts, so I wouldn't think they differ a lot.

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Cheers Dev. Some parts like Torroid vs R Core...etc are still there. Like you noted, service from Larry may be the main difference?

Qnap NAS (LPS) >UA ETHER REGEN (BG7TBL Master Clock) > Grimm MU1 > Mola Mola Tambaqui /Meridian 808.3> Wavac EC300B >Tannoy Canterbury SE

 

HP Rig ++ >Woo WES/ > Stax SR-009, Audeze LCD2

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It's good to have it fixed.

 

If the R-core transformer have a primary-secondary short, forMystery

example, the high voltage will probably take out the regulator chip. Luckily it has this protection circuit which disconnects the AC input when any of the output voltages is above given limits. Otherwise it could fry the PC which will be expensive.

 

Unless your shop used absolutely junk parts I wouldn't worry too much about the replaced parts as the original ones are just standard quality parts.

 

I turn on/off my unit per listening session and so far no issues (touch wood).

 

 

 

Hi JL,

 

 

This what i get from the service center. Apparently a small capacitor got busted. It is use for voltage regulator if i am not mistaken. I didn't get much explanation because apparently they got angry when i ask why they charged me so much for a small fix. The job is done but it is also a ripped off. I haven't try it yet to see if the sound change after it was fixed.

 

It is still a mystery why it got busted. Is it a wrong usage? Bad voltage in my house? Is it supposed to be 20uf or 2 x 10uf rather than a single 10uf?

 

 

20160416_121743.jpg

 

 

 

Zerung,

 

 

I think Teradak is comparable to 300W Linear HDPlex. Not the Nanoatx solution from HDPlex. Of course it will sound differently, one is better and one is not. I don't know which one is better but it is hard to imagine that the difference is night and day unless your system is 10k-20k USD or even more.....

 

Both PSU use R-Core transformer. Unless one use a crappy transformer and crappy capacitors, then the difference will be a lot.

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It is still a mystery why it got busted. Is it a wrong usage? Bad voltage in my house? Is it supposed to be 20uf or 2 x 10uf rather than a single 10uf?

 

Normal 10uF electrolytic capacitors rarely fail, but they may have used a 10uF tantalum capacitor at that location, which occasionally go short circuit, although they are generally more reliable these days.

 

How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file.

PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020

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  • 2 months later...
How do you upgrade the AC inlet on the teradak psu? It seems the wires are soldered on to the ac inlet. Is it safe to do?

 

Unplug the unit from the wall, give it a day for all the capacitance to drain, plan out what you're going to do, warm up your soldering iron, take a picture of the location, write on the wires what they do, desolder them, uninstall the old IEC inlet, install the new one, put the wires in the right place, confirm with the picture, solder them in. Then confirm continuity with your DMM.

 

If all passed, plug it in and fire up your new IEC'd PSU. Safe and sound.

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Personally, my trials continue with fighting with my mobo(suspected, but the fight is becaseu I don't know) and trying to navigate why my system won't start. I'll be buying new mobos in the next month or 2, then testing them out. I'm going with SuperMicro this time as they seem to be much more compatible boards than the Intel ones. My Intel ones will be repurposed in a home server for the time being.

 

Besides that, during a round trip to Teradak for trouble shooting I was able to get the new R-core transformers installed. Thankfully I'm living in China, so the shipping and timing wasn't prohibitive, otherwise this isn't really an optional.

 

Anyway, I took some pics so that you guys could see what changed. I'm not sure, but I kind of liked the internals on the first one better. Haha, if that means anything...

 

20160703_152410.jpg

20160703_152203.jpg

20160703_152208.jpg

20160703_152214.jpg

20160703_152222.jpg

20160703_152257.jpg

20160703_152305.jpg

20160703_152317.jpg

20160703_152332.jpg

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Hi JL,

 

 

This what i get from the service center. Apparently a small capacitor got busted. It is use for voltage regulator if i am not mistaken. I didn't get much explanation because apparently they got angry when i ask why they charged me so much for a small fix. The job is done but it is also a ripped off. I haven't try it yet to see if the sound change after it was fixed.

 

It is still a mystery why it got busted. Is it a wrong usage? Bad voltage in my house? Is it supposed to be 20uf or 2 x 10uf rather than a single 10uf?

 

 

Hi Marcell,

 

Sorry I didn't saw your post until now. Anyway, as sandyk mentioned cap rarely fail unless it is over-voltage. I don't know what the voltage rating is for that cap but unless it is too close to the actual voltage being use, variations in the household voltage normally won't cause it to fail.

 

Since your unit is now fixed I say just forget it and enjoy!

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Personally, my trials continue with fighting with my mobo(suspected, but the fight is becaseu I don't know) and trying to navigate why my system won't start. I'll be buying new mobos in the next month or 2, then testing them out. I'm going with SuperMicro this time as they seem to be much more compatible boards than the Intel ones. My Intel ones will be repurposed in a home server for the time being.

 

Besides that, during a round trip to Teradak for trouble shooting I was able to get the new R-core transformers installed. Thankfully I'm living in China, so the shipping and timing wasn't prohibitive, otherwise this isn't really an optional.

 

Anyway, I took some pics so that you guys could see what changed. I'm not sure, but I kind of liked the internals on the first one better. Haha, if that means anything...

 

Hi Ben-M,

 

Nice shiny R-core transformer!

 

Sorry to hear about your continued struggle with your mobo. My first mobo also doesn't work properly - it won't shutdown using the external power button. No amount of BIOS fiddling can cure that. Eventually I replaced it with another mobo and all is well.

 

Hope you get it resolved soon.

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hi Ben,

 

 

It looks very nice. Does it produce a better sound? We are waiting for your review :)

 

 

Personally, my trials continue with fighting with my mobo(suspected, but the fight is becaseu I don't know) and trying to navigate why my system won't start. I'll be buying new mobos in the next month or 2, then testing them out. I'm going with SuperMicro this time as they seem to be much more compatible boards than the Intel ones. My Intel ones will be repurposed in a home server for the time being.

 

Besides that, during a round trip to Teradak for trouble shooting I was able to get the new R-core transformers installed. Thankfully I'm living in China, so the shipping and timing wasn't prohibitive, otherwise this isn't really an optional.

 

Anyway, I took some pics so that you guys could see what changed. I'm not sure, but I kind of liked the internals on the first one better. Haha, if that means anything...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27436[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27437[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27438[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27439[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27440[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27441[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27442[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27443[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27444[/ATTACH]

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  • 3 months later...

I did successfully contacted Michael through Hotmail. I wrote a long email and he replied only with few sentences lol. Probably due to his limited English. But he did attach a power point doc on how to check things with power supply. I think Ben also got one

 

Hi Ben/Marcell

 

Unfortunately, one of my Teradaks (270W) is also displaying the same symptoms as Marcell's. Starts continuously clicking every couple of seconds after I try turning on the PC. I have kept my unit on continuously 24/7 since I have received it. No problems until now. My other unit is still going. Fingers crossed does not develop the same problem.

 

I have a favour to ask. Can either of you (Ben/Marcell) share with me a copy of that PowerPoint doc you receive from Michael of Teradak so that I can bring my unit to a repair shop?

 

I have been so happy with these units. I hope it is a quick and simple (cheap!) Fix as well with my unit

 

Thanks in advance

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  • 1 month later...

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