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How do Teddy Pardo PSUs compare to the UpTone Audio JS-2 and to Paul Hynes' SR5 and SR7 PSUs?


nbpf

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17 minutes ago, Kingpin said:

What details do you want?

long story short, it's a linear power supply feeded by a graphene lipo.


Some features:
12 bits voltage control
Fully automatic or manual charging circuit
Undervoltage protection
Overvoltage protection
Automatic sleep function
No switching components
Very low ripple/noisefloor
No 50Hz pickup

Measurements:
0-100kHz
ripple: 300nV
noisefloor: -130dBV

0-20kHz
ripple: 152nV
noisefloor: -137dBV

Figures and performance that power sources other than batteries find it very difficult indeed to deliver. 😁

 

 

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16 hours ago, Kingpin said:

It's powered by the graphene lipo which has a very very low impedance and coupled to 4 LT3045's ....😀

I have spent a long time on the Signature(and a few things before that) and in my experience (in my system, with my musical preferences) the regulated battery supply absolutely always beats the unregulated one.

 

And the better the regulator (I’m currently using New Class D, UWB 2 thanks to Dr.J 👍 which I find to be excellent) the better the sound.

 

I know there is a body of opinion which says regulating a battery just degrades performance because it adds noise, but I can only say (caveats as above) they must be using the wrong regs or something ... as they do all appear to sound different.

 

IME it helps unravel complex musical passages better, and improves timing significantly.

 

As an example, with Paul Simon’s ‘50 ways to leave your lover’ not only do you hear the Hi-Fi stuff better like the tambourine setting a beat throughout and the drum pitch, air and reverb tails, but you can more easily hear the female ‘backing singer’ clearly start to take the lead during the second chorus as the song builds and the male character asks to be reminded ‘about the 50 ways’. It’s this sort of thing (IMHO) that makes music meaningful, and not just Muzak ...

 

Similarly, I find adding Supercaps as a fast energy buffer between batteries and regs helps further, though again caps all seem to have their own sound and some experimenting to get best match with your system is required.

 

But whatever, this sort of approach takes performance of the Signature (and other components like my MiniDSP 22D Dirac device) a long way beyond what we generally experience with the standard power supplies! 👍😁

 

I can only applaud and encourage experimentation... the more the better 👍

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17 hours ago, Kingpin said:

What details do you want?

long story short, it's a linear power supply feeded by a graphene lipo.


Some features:
12 bits voltage control
Fully automatic or manual charging circuit
Undervoltage protection
Overvoltage protection
Automatic sleep function
No switching components
Very low ripple/noisefloor
No 50Hz pickup

Measurements:
0-100kHz
ripple: 300nV
noisefloor: -130dBV

0-20kHz
ripple: 152nV
noisefloor: -137dBV

 

Any thoughts on selling them?

[br]QNAP+ -> Allo DigiOne Signature -> RequisiteAudio D3rs ->  McIntosh C52 -> McIntosh MC-275 MK VI -> Harbeth 30.1's via Roon

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17 minutes ago, rn701 said:

Found the Galvmoro with Aphex+ cable to be miles superior to the Pardo. Blacker background, more dimensional soundstage, translucent bass and dynamic atmospherics. 

Blind tested? No lying now... 

Stereo

[Genelec 1032C x 2 + 7360 x 2] <== [MC3+USB x 3 <-- REF10 SE120] <== [AERIS G2] <== [EtherRegen x 3]
Chain switchable to [Genelec 8331 x 2 + 7350]


Surround

[Genelec 1032C x 3 + 8431 x 2  + 7360 x 2] <== [MiniDSP U-DIO8] <== [Mac Mini] 

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/17/2018 at 7:31 PM, nbpf said:

I have moved from powering the DigiOne Signature with the ifi iPower 5V/2.5A (dirty side) and with the UpTone Audio LPS-1.2 (clean side, the LPS-1.2 powered through its own wall wart) to powering the same DigiOne Signature with the JS-2 about one month ago.

 

During this month, the JS-2 has been powering both the dirty side of the Signature and the LPS-1.2 that powers the clean side of the Signature. The JS-2 and the LPS-1.2 are connected to the dirty and to the clean sides of the Signature with the UpTone Audio cables that came with the JS-2 and through the Allo barrel to USB C cable adapters.

 

The first impression when replacing the iPower with the JS-2 was that the overall presentation was more natural and smooth but also also a bit less engaging. Basses, resolution and perhaps timing were better with the JS-2, but the iPower had more drive and presence. 

 

In the beginning I also had problems with undervoltage exceptions of the RPi that hosts the Digione Signature. These exceptions also occurred with the iPower and eventually disappeared after I reassembled the Signature. But in the beginning I thought the JS-2 might be the culprit and thus started measuring the voltages of the JS-2, iPower, LPS-1.2, etc. As it turned out, the JS-2 delivers 11.80V and 4.92V when set at 12V and 5V respectively. The iPower delivers 5.12V. Thus, there is a difference of about 4% in the voltage provided by the two power supplies to the dirty side. Whether this can have an impact on the sound quality, I do not know.

 

Last week I received the GhentAudio cables (Canare 4S6) with USB C terminations that I had ordered to get rid of the Allo adapters and directly connect the JS-2 and the LPS-1.2 to the Signature. Replacing the original JS-2 cables and the Allo adapters with the GhentAudio cables had an impact on the sound quality: drive and presence are back, perhaps even more than with the iPower. Bass, resolution and timing are at least as good as with the UpTone Audio cables + Allo adapters.

 

Of course switching cables and power supplies implies rebooting the system and does not allow detailed side-by-side comparisons. Thus, please take my observations with a grain of salt. I freely find it very difficult to draw definite conclusions for this kind of comparisons.

 

Interesting to read and thanks for the information! I was planning to replace my two Ifi iPowers, feeding my Chord Qutest DAC & ultraRendu, with the Uptone JS-2, but it seems to be not worthwhile for the money 💰 involved, or did you change your opinion in the meantime?

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20 hours ago, nbpf said:

I haven't changed my setup over the last year, the JS-2 is still powering the LPS-1.2 and the RPi side of the DigiOne Signature and the LPS-1.2 powers its clean side. I have meanwhile compared this setup with an ultraRendu + Mutec MC-3+ Smart Clock USB (with the ultraRendu powered by the JS-2) without being able to say that one sounded obviously better than the other. I do not know if I would be able to confirm the impressions reported in the post you quote today, perhaps I should try. I do not regret having bought the JS-2: it is a very versatile PSU and its build quality and design are great. In hindsight, I could perhaps have avoided buying the LPS-1.2 and instead used the JS-2 to power both the RPi and the clean side of the DigiOne Signature. I do not know how the Qutest and the ultraRendu react to different PSUs. If you can afford the JS-2, I would certainly recommend it. It is an expensive but rewarding device. If you are located in the US or in the UK, you might be able to borrow a unit for a home demo. In this case, please let us know your findings. Best, nbpf    

Thanks, I really like the versatility of the JS-2 very much too. There are others too, nowadays, but not as versatile. For example the Syntaxx, very well reviewed by Hans Beekhuijzen. I’m located in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and on my age I have to deal with Corona first, so enough time to study and think about alternatives. Best wishes too!

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  • 1 month later...

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