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Power supplies and cables - observations, considerations & commentary


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I found this earlier:

The microRendu by itself (DAC does not draw power from the bus) uses about 200mA at 7V. That comes out to 12.5 hours at the rated capacity. The current draw will increase slightly as the voltage goes down.

Anyone know what is the max power current draw on the microRendu? Thank you in advance.

 

I measured between 400 and 500 mA during boot at 7V, that was the max I have measured.

 

I have not tried every mode with all sample rates to see if the player mode goes above that, but every configuration I tried was around 200mA for playing music.

 

To these numbers you have to add whatever the DAC pulls from the bus.

 

John S.

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Is there any long term ill effect on micro Rendu if running the unit on 9Vdc? The recommended power supplies are mostly at 7V on sonore website.

I am running the device at 9V and it is a little bit hot to touch. Would it cause it to age and break down faster?

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Is there any long term ill effect on micro Rendu if running the unit on 9Vdc? The recommended power supplies are mostly at 7V on sonore website.

I am running the device at 9V and it is a little bit hot to touch. Would it cause it to age and break down faster?

 

I run mine on 9v but also have a small fan running on low and it stays cool.

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Is there any long term ill effect on micro Rendu if running the unit on 9Vdc? The recommended power supplies are mostly at 7V on sonore website.

I am running the device at 9V and it is a little bit hot to touch. Would it cause it to age and break down faster?

 

The issue is temperature. If the case gets too hot to hold a finger on it, it is TOO hot. If you can hold your finger on it, you are fine, leave it the way it is.

 

If it is too hot you have a couple options:

1) go with a lower voltage

2) get more air flow around it. The best passive air flow is to orient the microRendu vertically on its side, that way air flows up both sides, this helps a LOT in cooling it off.

 

John S.

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The issue is temperature. If the case gets too hot to hold a finger on it, it is TOO hot. If you can hold your finger on it, you are fine, leave it the way it is.

 

If it is too hot you have a couple options:

1) go with a lower voltage

2) get more air flow around it. The best passive air flow is to orient the microRendu vertically on its side, that way air flows up both sides, this helps a LOT in cooling it off.

 

John S.

 

Looks like a good market for audiophile hard adaptors with a 90 degree "twist" or "rotation." ;)

 

Anyone know if they exist? Mine is warm, not hot at 7v but I can see the advantage of turning it 90.

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The issue is temperature. If the case gets too hot to hold a finger on it, it is TOO hot. If you can hold your finger on it, you are fine, leave it the way it is.

 

If it is too hot you have a couple options:

1) go with a lower voltage

2) get more air flow around it. The best passive air flow is to orient the microRendu vertically on its side, that way air flows up both sides, this helps a LOT in cooling it off.

 

John S.

 

 

I'm grabbing one of these business card holders to use as a "stand" and get more air around the sides. At less than $3, I'd be hard pressed to think of a reason not to try it.

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Looks like a good market for audiophile hard adaptors with a 90 degree "twist" or "rotation." ;)

 

Anyone know if they exist? Mine is warm, not hot at 7v but I can see the advantage of turning it 90.

I'd get one if they existed.

 

Apart from the cooling thing they would be very useful for our DACs with not enough space to use the normal adaptor. In my case, the power cable doesn't allow me to use the adaptor to the uRendu and I am forced to use a USB cable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dammit. I recently learned something potentially expensive.

 

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a JS-2. I bought it mostly for its flexibility: since I've noted that gizmos in various combinations with varying DC voltage requirements have featured in audio setups here and then sometimes had to make way for different gizmos with different requirements, I thought the increased utility of a single power supply with two outputs which could be set independently for any of the four most popular DC voltages would probably be worth it, even at 2-1/2 times the price of my accustomed fixed-voltage linear supplies. (And of course, I heard the voice of Alton Brown in my head, railing against "unitaskers".) I figured the quality of results I should be able to expect was safely into the realm of "known-good", but unlikely to make a clear sonic difference versus another known-good linear.

 

Yeah.

 

I dropped the JS-2 into our bedroom system, using one of its rails set to 7V in place of a 7V/2A Teddy Pardo which had been feeding the microRendu there (microRendu acting as a Roon zone, feeding the USB input of a Schiit Gungnir Multibit). Just quickly making sure things worked okay.

 

The difference wasn't even subtle.

 

With the JS-2, music from this lashup went a significant distance in that direction we all crave from "there's a nice stereo playing" toward "there's music in the room", and moved from being more lightweight to having more body.

 

So... casually lumping commercial audiophile linear DC supplies into the category of "known-likely-good" is sadly a massive oversimplification, and this could get expensive. Dammit.

 

Differences in the quality of (in both cases 7V) DC power from two different linear power supplies as supplied to a digital-to-digital device in the signal path makes a significant difference in perceived tonal balance. Dammit.

 

Depending on when the expected Uptone supercap gizmo hits the market, maybe when I get to hear it it can save me from filling my house with very expensive JS-2s, but this is all dangerous to the wallet.

 

Great for sound! But dangerous for the wallet.

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Ok, now I'm curious on the difference between the JS-2 and Sonore SPSU. Although I'm pretty happy with my SOtM mBPS-d2s.

MacBook Pro + Roon > Airport Extreme > microRendu + mbps-d2s > Auralic Vega > McIntosh MC275 > Yamaha NS-2000

Wired with: High Fidelity CT-1 Enhanced RCA, Revelation Audio Labs, Fadel Art Coherence PC

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Ok, now I'm curious on the difference between the JS-2 and Sonore SPSU. Although I'm pretty happy with my SOtM mBPS-d2s.

 

Yeah, me too! Has anybody tried both of those high-flyers head-to-head powering a microRendu?

 

(Even though the Sonore SSPS is, ahem, a unitasker)

 

Here's me cheering on the march of the LPS-1 to production...

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Ok, not sure if this is the place, but I need some help troubleshooting. A new HDPlex LPS arrived to my home yesterday, but I'm having issues. One of its four outputs is variable, and I immediately used my multimeter to adjust the output to around 8V - it arrived at 9V. The output is variable from 5-19V.

 

I then plugged it into the microRendu. It powered up fine, and started playing fine. However, I'm getting quite a bit of noise - it's like I'm hearing the computer working - sounds like bursts of data noise, or something like that. This noise is present whether or not music is playing, and is easily audible from listening position.

 

Here's what I've tried:

 

1) Swapped back to the iFi IPower I've been using - noise went away, just like before HDPlex arrived

2) Changed the voltage output of the HDPlex down to 7V. Then back up to 9V. Same noises.

3) Tried with a USB cable that has no 5V connection - noise still there.

4) Removed Ethernet cable from microRendu - noise is still present, but there were fewer bursts, and the noise became a repetitive sound at about 1 second or less intervals.

5) Put a WfS Recovery between microRendu and DAC - powered by the HDPlex, with microRendu using iFi IPower. Noise went away.

 

I'm not sure what's going on here. Any help?

 

One thing I found very interesting was #4 above. The pattern of the bursts of noise changed significantly when the ethernet cable was removed. This is making me think that somehow I'm getting CPU noise from microRendu passing to the USB data outputs or ground. Could this be a grounding issue? I'm just using the stock DC cables that came with the HDPlex.

 

Any ideas?

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#4 actually is quite predictable since you have typical "Ethernet packet noise" as far as I understood. And when you've removed your LAN cable it reduced number of packets to 0 while mR still trying to ping the server (1 sec interval). But the question is why your mR pushes that noise over USB...

MacBook Pro + Roon > Airport Extreme > microRendu + mbps-d2s > Auralic Vega > McIntosh MC275 > Yamaha NS-2000

Wired with: High Fidelity CT-1 Enhanced RCA, Revelation Audio Labs, Fadel Art Coherence PC

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Can you verify that the red switch on the back of the power supply is set to the correct voltage for your area?

 

I am in contact with Larry. He has asked me to try a cheater plug for the AC incoming to the HDPlex this evening. The unit did arrive with the red switch saying 220V, and I switched it to 110V before powering up.

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Ok, not sure if this is the place, but I need some help troubleshooting. A new HDPlex LPS arrived to my home yesterday, but I'm having issues. One of its four outputs is variable, and I immediately used my multimeter to adjust the output to around 8V - it arrived at 9V. The output is variable from 5-19V.

 

I then plugged it into the microRendu. It powered up fine, and started playing fine. However, I'm getting quite a bit of noise - it's like I'm hearing the computer working - sounds like bursts of data noise, or something like that. This noise is present whether or not music is playing, and is easily audible from listening position.

 

Here's what I've tried:

 

1) Swapped back to the iFi IPower I've been using - noise went away, just like before HDPlex arrived

2) Changed the voltage output of the HDPlex down to 7V. Then back up to 9V. Same noises.

3) Tried with a USB cable that has no 5V connection - noise still there.

4) Removed Ethernet cable from microRendu - noise is still present, but there were fewer bursts, and the noise became a repetitive sound at about 1 second or less intervals.

5) Put a WfS Recovery between microRendu and DAC - powered by the HDPlex, with microRendu using iFi IPower. Noise went away.

 

I'm not sure what's going on here. Any help?

 

One thing I found very interesting was #4 above. The pattern of the bursts of noise changed significantly when the ethernet cable was removed. This is making me think that somehow I'm getting CPU noise from microRendu passing to the USB data outputs or ground. Could this be a grounding issue? I'm just using the stock DC cables that came with the HDPlex.

 

Any ideas?

 

This is definitely a ground loop issue of some sort. What will help a LOT is a diagram of your system, showing everything that has a wire of any sort in the audio system. For each device show whether it has a built in PS or an external PS and if the AC mains connection has a 2 pin or 3 pin connection. Please show all connections between boxes (interconnects, USB cables, Ethernet cables, power cables etc.) If the computer has any wire connected to the audio system please include the full connectivity of the computer system as well, especially switches, routers, external drives etc. Indicate if any of the Ethernet cables are shielded and have connected shields.

 

I know this is a lot of work, but it helps hugely in trying to debug such issues.

 

With this diagram you can show what you have changed and what you heard when you did that.

 

Thanks,

 

John S.

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