Taming Tribbles?

[davide256]

I'm curious what other folks view as necessary gear for their "tribble" collection of wall warts, power "bricks", and transformers used to power the gadgets in a streaming solution.

My collection now includes  4 wall warts, 2 bricks to power little boxes like FMC's, Synology NAS, external SDXC card readers, backup drive, and Schitt Eitr. All very messily

connected to a surge protector strip of dubious parentage. Should I be feeling any electrical "hypochondria" about this? If so, whats your thoughts and approach

to electrically tame these tribbles?

 

[Don Hills]

Schiit's "Floor Wart"  works if you have a Schiit stack. All wart powered Schiit boxes use low voltage AC. The Floor Wart is a single large transformer with multiple windings of different voltages. You still have the problem of the fanout of leads to all the boxes. For mix'n'match systems, I'd like to see a bus system.

A single unit providing (say) 24 volts.

A small converter behind each unit to be powered, to convert the 24 volts to whatever is required by the unit, along with the right plug tip. Each converter would be daisy-chained to the next in line. 

There are still problems with this of course, for example boxes that use low voltage AC. It would be challenging to put a DC to AC converter in a small form factor. There are also the people who don't want SMPS technology near their equipment, but they can knit their own hair shirts.

[davide256]

Yea, I think the Schitt Eitr is the only "tribble" on my strip that uses an AC out wallwart . The rest are all DC out wall warts/bricks.

[Ralf11]

 

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, davide256 said:

Yea, I think the Schitt Eitr is the only "tribble" on my strip that uses an AC out wallwart . The rest are all DC out wall warts/bricks.

 

 If they are of recent vintage, all of the DC out wall warts are likely to use an internal SMPS.

 Earthing the 0 volts/case of the powered device may improve the SQ from these devices, or reduce their degrading effect on other devices.

There is a thread devoted to this in the Uptone Forum area with E.E. John Swenson offering some very helpful advice and explanations.

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/37034-smps-and-grounding/

 

[Les Habitants]

1 hour ago, sandyk said:

Earthing the 0 volts/case of the powered device may improve the SQ from these devices, or reduce their degrading effect on other devices.

There is a thread devoted to this in the Uptone Forum area with E.E. John Swenson offering some very helpful advice and explanations.

 

+1 on this, I've found this JSGT shunt to be effective in systems where SMPS wall warts are a necessary evil.

In Ham Radio circles there is a solution for attenuating so-called SMPS "backwash", by Array Solutions.

Their AC-7 filter is designed to allow SMPS use in the very noise sensitive/critical long distance radio receiver environment without destroying the reception.

[sandyk]

12 minutes ago, Les Habitants said:

 

+1 on this, I've found this JSGT shunt to be effective in systems where SMPS wall warts are a necessary evil.

The world of Ham Radio also offers a solution for attenuating so-called SMPS "backwash", by Array Solutions. Their AC-7 filter is designed to allow SMPS use in the very noise sensitive/critical front end radio receiver environment without destroying the reception.

 

I am using the attached kit in line with my computer. Due to necessity, I have to use an internal antenna in close proximity to my PC, with a very Low Noise MHA in line for DTV. 

I also added a VDR across the input, mounted under the PCB.

Alex

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3900W-EMI-18A-High-Frequency-Power-Filter-Board-DIY-Kits-F-Speaker-Amplifier-/322591319359?hash=item4b1bf0e53f

[davide256]

Appreciate the replies. @sandyk While not all things work, my general experience lately has been that power supplies "leak" things into audio components and  that as the noise floor drops on your active analog components, the "leakage" interferes with further improvement. Will give John Swenson's grounding suggestion a try on the DC wall warts,.  @Les Habitants will try the AC-7 suggestion  also,  just got the Eitr so  need some settle in  time before I  try to compare filtered vs unfiltered.

[sandyk]

7 hours ago, davide256 said:

Appreciate the replies. @sandyk While not all things work, my general experience lately has been that power supplies "leak" things into audio components and  that as the noise floor drops on your active analog components, the "leakage" interferes with further improvement. Will give John Swenson's grounding suggestion a try on the DC wall warts,.  @Les Habitants will try the AC-7 suggestion  also,  just got the Eitr so  need some settle in  time before I  try to compare filtered vs unfiltered.

 David

 Agreed about PSU leakage.

Even a nearby DTV can affect audio. Some poorly designed controllers for LED lighting can also cause problems.

With my DIY Preamp I even switch the "earth" side of it's inputs through as well to help reduce this problem.

Alex