New HDPLEX 200W LPS

[rickca]

11 minutes ago, frederick184 said:

Yes, and it does, but there were two sets in my box.  I knew I was going to need them so Larry threw a couple extra in.  

Aha!  OK now I get it.  Are you running your i7-6700K full blast (91W TDP) but with turbo disabled, or have you done something in BIOS to further reduce the power requirements?  

 

I will still order a proper cable from Ghent since using the HDPLEX cables in this manner is a bit of a hack.

[lmitche]

11 minutes ago, rickca said:

Aha!  OK now I get it.  Are you running your i7-6700K full blast (91W TDP) but with turbo disabled, or have you done something in BIOS to further reduce the power requirements?  

Yes, I have done something to reduce power requirements. 😉

 

Warning - this configuration will not work for a general purpose machine and could be dangerous as power demand can easily exceed the current capacity of the 200 watt supply.

[rickca]

6 minutes ago, lmitche said:

The case with DC connectors is terrific.

Yes now that you don't have a bare board to deal with I consider this solution much better for non-DIY guys like me.

[frederick184]

18 minutes ago, rickca said:

Aha!  OK now I get it.  Are you running your i7-6700K full blast (91W TDP) but with turbo disabled, or have you done something in BIOS to further reduce the power requirements?  

 

I will still order a proper cable from Ghent since using the HDPLEX cables in this manner is a bit of a hack.

I may replace all of the HDPLEX supplied cables as well, as they are not the greatest.  

 

Colin

[tboooe]

23 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Yes the dxpwr with 15 volts in with a pre regulator at 13.5 and regulator at 12 volts.

dumb question...what is the purpose of a pre-regulator?  I was a bit confused by this option on the ordering page.

 

[elan120]

55 minutes ago, tboooe said:

dumb question...what is the purpose of a pre-regulator?  I was a bit confused by this option on the ordering page.

 

A pre-regulator is a circuit that performs preliminary voltage regulation before feeding its output to the final regulator.  This is used to improve the characteristics of the overall regulation circuitry.  This is relevant for both linear and switching pre-regulators.

 

Switching pre-regulators are often used to reduce the power dissipation of the following linear regulator, thus increasing the overall efficiency of the regulation circuitry while retaining the precision of the linear regulator.

 

Linear pre-regulators are often used to improve the regulation characteristics of the overall circuitry, since the following linear regulator has to regulate a voltage which has already been processed by the pre-regulator, so it will have lower ripple.  Linear pre-regulation can also be used to reduce the power dissipated in the final regulator, implementing a power sharing setup between regulator and pre-regulator in order to keep their temperature low.

 

 

 

[tboooe]

Hi guys, please excuse me if this is a ridiculous question but I am a bit confused about the idea of adding a separate LT3045 power supply after the HDPlex to further refine the output.  The basis for this approach is that the 4 LT3045s in the HDPlex are not able to meet the theoretical performance specs (ripple, noise, etc) so additional LT3045s are needed downstream?  Why can't just 1 LT3045 perform the job?  Is it because each one can only "improve" the power output by some percentage so adding more is required.  If so then at some point we reach the law of diminishing returns.  What dictates the number of LT3045 required to reach the theoretical spec?  Is it the quality of the input power?

 

Thank you in advance for helping me get my head wrapped around this.

[rickca]

6 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Hi guys, please excuse me if this is a ridiculous question but I am a bit confused about the idea of adding a separate LT3045 power supply after the HDPlex to further refine the output.  The basis for this approach is that the 4 LT3045s in the HDPlex are not able to meet the theoretical performance specs (ripple, noise, etc) so additional LT3045s are needed downstream?  Why can't just 1 LT3045 perform the job?  Is it because each one can only "improve" the power output by some percentage so adding more is required.  If so then at some point we reach the law of diminishing returns.  What dictates the number of LT3045 required to reach the theoretical spec?  Is it the quality of the input power?

 

Thank you in advance for helping me get my head wrapped around this.

Here's an interesting link that @lmitche sent me.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/310402-fs-ultra-low-noise-power-supply-lt3045-based-pcb-15.html

[tboooe]

On 4/29/2019 at 7:32 AM, rickca said:

Here's an interesting link that @lmitche sent me.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/310402-fs-ultra-low-noise-power-supply-lt3045-based-pcb-15.html

Thank you for this.  This is very educational.  I guess now, my question is what is the point of diminishing returns where adding another  LT3045 does not make any appreciable or audible difference?

[tboooe]

Ok I've had the HDPlex 200w lps for about a week now and I can say without a doubt that it has changed my system in a good way.  I am using the LT3045 outputs to power my end point and switch.  My wireless bridge is powered by one of the fixed ouputs at 12v.  Previously, all three of these components were powered by my HDPlex 400W ATX lps which continues to power my server.  Powering my end point with the LT3045 output provided the biggest improvement.  The most impactful and satisfying change is the music has more dimensionality.  Instead of being confined to a flat 2 dimensions, music now feels like it has depth to it, almost like a 3d audio effect.  The other major change is that everything sounds more clear and precise with a blacker background.  I am going to try adding one of the DXPWR modules for my end point to see if I can further improvement.  At least for me, this has been one of my most effective upgrades.  

[frederick184]

2 hours ago, tboooe said:

Ok I've had the HDPlex 200w lps for about a week now and I can say without a doubt that it has changed my system in a good way.  I am using the LT3045 outputs to power my end point and switch.  My wireless bridge is powered by one of the fixed ouputs at 12v.  Previously, all three of these components were powered by my HDPlex 400W ATX lps which continues to power my server.  Powering my end point with the LT3045 output provided the biggest improvement.  The most impactful and satisfying change is the music has more dimensionality.  Instead of being confined to a flat 2 dimensions, music now feels like it has depth to it, almost like a 3d audio effect.  The other major change is that everything sounds more clear and precise with a blacker background.  I am going to try adding one of the DXPWR modules for my end point to see if I can further improvement.  At least for me, this has been one of my most effective upgrades.  

Thanks for the update.  I got very similar results, though I'm using it to power my server via the DC-ATX 400w power supply.  Additionally, I'm powering my external Startech USB 3.1 enclosure via an MPaudio LT3045 based power supply and my Startech USB 3.1 card via a DXPWR power supply.  Both of those added to the 3D audio effect you described.  

 

Next for me is a Paul Hynes SR4 for my NUC endpoint to replace the LPS 1.2.  My order is part of the April build, so fingers crossed.

 

Colin

[rickca]

36 minutes ago, frederick184 said:

Next for me is a Paul Hynes SR4 for my NUC endpoint to replace the LPS 1.2.

As good as the LPS-1.2 is, you will be very pleasantly surprised by the SR4.

[frederick184]

1 hour ago, rickca said:

As good as the LPS-1.2 is, you will be very pleasantly surprised by the SR4.

Thanks, Rick.  Yes, I've heard some great things about this power supply.  Hopefully, Paul's plumbing issues won't delay it for too long.

 

Colin

[dctom]

I have an HDplex on the way. Which output would be best for my NUC 7i7DNBE ?

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, dctom said:

I have an HDplex on the way. Which output would be best for my NUC 7i7DNBE ?

To my ears the 19 volt fixed output sounds better then the lt3045 output set at 15 volts.

[tboooe]

6 hours ago, lmitche said:

To my ears the 19 volt fixed output sounds better then the lt3045 output set at 15 volts.

NUC can also be run at 12v too right?

[Superdad]

17 minutes ago, tboooe said:

NUC can also be run at 12v too right?

 

Sure.  And a great many NUC and Roon Nucleus users do so.

[lmitche]

31 minutes ago, tboooe said:

NUC can also be run at 12v too right?

Yes, and if you can try an lps1.2 set at 12 volts. Musicality is off the charts listening to NUCs powered with an lps1.2! Either of the fixed Hdplex 200 outputs make good energizing sources for an Lps1.2.

[tboooe]

3 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Yes, and if you can try an lps1.2 set at 12 volts. Musicality is off the charts listening to NUCs powered with an lps1.2!

That's exactly what I am planning to do shortly!

[dctom]

11 hours ago, lmitche said:

Yes, and if you can try an lps1.2 set at 12 volts. Musicality is off the charts listening to NUCs powered with an lps1.2! Either of the fixed Hdplex 200 outputs make good energizing sources for an Lps1.2.

 thanks for the replies.

Does the lps1.2 have enough power to run a NUC? looking at the spec it seems to only provide 1.1 amps.

[lmitche]

An lps1.2 can be used to reliably power either a Celeron, Pentium or i7 NUC depending on the size and number of memory sticks and processor frequency and other bios settings.

 

This is easier done with some nuc models then others. The i7 models can be particularly difficult to setup with an lps1.2.

[Lebouwsky]

On 1/20/2019 at 7:38 PM, Lebouwsky said:

This weekend I pulled the trigger and ordered the hdplex 200w. Instead of a 12 and 19v fixed output I’ve asked Larry to install 2 fixed at 12v and 2 variable outputs. My plan is to use 3 rails to power the motherboard’s atx without the dc to atx converter. It needs 12, 5, 3.5v for atx plug and the 4th 12v output to separately power the cpu. Last but not least a rather complex cable like @LTG2010 suggested (thanks again for that).

 

My X10SBA motherboard is now powered by one 12v output of the Sotm sps500 using a 4 pin molex connector. The Sotm usb card is powered externally at 7v by a Teradak 30 linear power supply

 

I will first test it with just 1 rail of the hdplex to power the motherboard with the 12v molex and all it’s internal voltage regulators. This way I can compare the hdplex with the sps500

 

Second step will be powering the mb with all 4 rails of the hdplex without the sps500 and bypassing the voltage regulators.

 

Third I will change one of the 4 hdplex’s rails by the sps500 to power the cpu and see if this makes a lot of difference.

 

If not I will go back to the 4 rails of the hdplex and use the sps500 to power the Sotm Usb card externally.

 

I even might sell the sps500 if the difference is small and buy a second hdplex to power ssd, Sotm sclk clock and Sotm usb card. This way I still have a rail spair for something else, who knows what.

 

I think it will take a few weeks to get all parts and another few weeks to test. 

 

The modified Hdplex 200w has finaly arrived. The build feels very solid and internal inspection didn’t result in any flaws.

 

The custom made atx cable from Ghent had arrived in januari already and was waiting eagerly to be tested, though it will have to wait a little bit longer (see picture)

 

I tested the “regular” 12v output on an old media streamer which only handles 12v and it worked. Then I tested the modified 12v, which originally was 19v. Larry from hdplex modified it, because I need 2 x 12v outputs, one for CPU and one for atx. The other 2 adjustable outputs will be set at 3.3 and 5v for the atx conversion. The midified 12v worked on the media streamer as well.

 

The next step was to power a celeron itx pc running Windows 10 by one of the 12v outputs. It uses an dc to atx converter. This pc looks a lot like my dedicated music server, though the latter is much more advanced and tweaked. This test is running flawlessly now (see picture). 

 

The next step will be running the spare celeron pc, but this time with the full atx conversion, using all 4 ouputs from the 200w. This will be a long test of at least 4 days in a safe environment to see how stable it will be using Jriver upsampling flac to 24/192. 

 

After this test I will use one 12v rail to power my entire supermicro x10sba based music server. This way I can compare the hdplex with the sotm sps500 on which it is running now. After that I will install the full atx on the music server and see what kind of an improvement it will bring.

 

If all goes well I’ll might sell the sps500 and buy a second hdplex 200w to power ssd, sotm usb card, sotm clock and in the future a jcat network card.

 

For the record, I use a one box, low profile windows server 2016 machine. No dsd, no Xeon or Intel core, no audiolinux or what so ever and plan to stay on this boat for at least the next few years.

 

So far, HDplex and Ghent Audio have bin really supportive and a charm to work with. Last but not least, thank you @LTG2010for your support so far, could not have done it without you. 

[henke]

I recieved the new version of the hdplex 200W power on wednesday. It got the upgraded heatsink on the rectifiers and also some changes to the IEC input board and also the XLR output board and also a pair of components on the mainboard. I was a bit worried that this might change the sound for the worse, but I must say I'm at happy with the supply and even think it maybe performs a little bit better than the old version. It seems to have a little more detail and maybe little more air and dynamics and directness to the sound in my system. But when I installed the new hdplex I fixed the positions of the cables better than before, so it might have changed the sound for the better (it has happened before).

 

Before I switched over to the new hdplex 200W I had the CPU on an sotm sps-500 and the matrix element h USB pcie card on an paul hynes sr4 and an 400w hdplex atx supply on the 19V output of an old hdplex 200W and an ssd on an adjustable rail of the same hdplex.

 

Now I have the CPU on the 12V out of the new hdplex and the pcie USB card and ssd on both of the adjustable rails and the 400W on the 19V. So all is on the new hdplex. Compared to the sps-500 and sr4 in the system the music now is more natural, it just has this raw dynamic power and I noticed that some hash in the  treble has also disapeared, to call the treble more natural is a good word. It is just more calm and musical to my ears with the same level of details that I can hear. I think this might have to do with that the sps-500 is a switching supply and therefore introducing some noise in the system and also it does not have the same power to give to the CPU.   

 I have not experimented with the sr4 in any combinations with only the new or old hdplex,  but just that the 2 of 4 rails of the hdplex 200W at $485 beats an 2 single rail combination that costs around $1000 is quite a feat. So now the the quality issues are fixed that I can see and my business with hdplex got fixed to my satisfaction, I am sincerley happy  and feel confident about the supply!

[rickca]

7 minutes ago, henke said:

I am sincerley happy  and feel confident about the supply!

What CPU/motherboard are you powering with the HDPLEX 200W LPS/400W DC-ATX combo?

[henke]

Its a i7 6700k @2.4GHz 0.72V around 20W full load and its on an asus z170m-plus taking around 10-15W full load.