The Paul Hynes SR7

[Superdad]

19 hours ago, rickca said:

Don't you think John Swenson could do it?  I think the only question is whether he and Alex want to do it.

 

19 hours ago, mozes said:

I think it is not John’s priority.

 

18 hours ago, Johnseye said:

What needs to be considered is whether you need something beyond an SR4 or sPS-500.  If so I think the next best thing is Sean Jacobs.

I'm sure there are US engineers who could do it, but it's a niche.  Maybe the right guy hasn't been approached yet.

 

Well I don't want to rule anything out yet gents.   Compared to the crazy-sophistication of our UltraCap supply, doing a more conventional supply would be a piece of cake.  It mostly is a matter of physical design and doing what makes the most sense.  

 

Right now, our choke-filtered JS-2, with two user-adjustable, 4-level outputs and current ranging from 5A/5V to 7A/12V covers a lot of applications.  And the deceptively simple choke design competes technically and sonically at the top levels--with the likes of Paul's fine units.

 

What I would like to understand is what sort of power supply niche you fellows are looking for someone to fill.  If there was consensus on how many rails, what output voltages, and how much current, then at least that would give us parameters to sketch and calculate size, cost, etc.

 

At the moment I can't tell if some of you are wanting a 10A supply or a 3-4A supply.  One rail or four.  

I mean looking at the Custom Hi-Fi Cables DC3 mentioned, I see a $725 single fixed output supply offering just 1.5 amps and no real details about the regulator circuits and a lot of talk about fancy electrolytic caps. (Though I am sure they are fine units, much better than all the generic stuff that comes out of China.)

 

Now I see the word "custom" has been mentioned a bunch.  The geekier among you like to be able to specify all sorts of fancy upgrades and extras.  For any busy audio manufacturer--small or large--that way lies madness and I'm not going there.  Look no further than Paul Hynes or--and I don't mean to put him in the same pot at all--Light Harmonic, each with a dozen different customization tweaks.  It is a road to ruin!  Right now we build about 230 JS-2s per year, and I can assure you that while it is a reasonably profitable product, the labor involved (which includes parts procurement, prep, build, test, etc.) is extensive.

 

So I would much rather figure out what exactly is desired and build one model that covers those bases.  As I see it, with just the JS-2 and the 1.1A UltraCap LPS-1.2 (now 5/7/9/12V), there are two segments we are not now covering:

The 3-4 amp range and the 3+ rail 8-12 amp range.  Those would be two very different beasts, with very different price points.

 

Please tell us what you are really looking for and also what your applications would be.  Small devices?  Big ATX computers?

 

Apologies for crashing in on a Paul Hynes thread (I think the world of him and wish him well).  But since UpTone was brought up and since I follow the LPS market closely to try to understand user needs, this seemed like a good place to ask the questions.

 

Thanks,

--Alex C.

 

 

 

 

[Superdad]

2 hours ago, Johnseye said:

I have some very specific ideas and will list them in the next day or so. I think we could narrow specs down to fulfill the majority of people's needs in a single model considering the LPS-1. 2 already fills an area of need. 

 

We'll look forward to that.

 

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I think the best place to do this would be in the UpTone forum or at least a new thread with a better title. 

 

Quite right, thanks.

 

2 hours ago, mozes said:

Hi Alex

I will wait for you to let us know where you would like us to post our feedback.

 

Any of you can start a thread in our forum I guess.

 

1 hour ago, auricgoldfinger said:

I agree and think licensing Paul's designs is a great idea.

 

As @jelt2359 described, a good portion of what everyone seems to like about Paul's unit is that they are "bespoke" builds, based on individual user selection of options,be they number of rails, output voltages, connectors, wiring, etc.  That's simply not a business I am interested in getting into at all.

As far as Paul's very fine discrete regulator design, it is hard for me to picture licensing of it to be economically viable--for Paul, for UpTone, or for the users, since profits need be factored in.  Besides, John Swenson and I are not convinced that absolute lowest noise is required for a high-current PS.  Very low output impedance and lack of kicked-back AC mains harmonics are also important and our simpler choke-filtered designed accomplishes that.