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New HDPLEX 200W LPS


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The new HDPLEX 200W LPS has started shipping to people who preordered one, so we should soon have some feedback about the current model.

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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41 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Hi Frederic:

It is customary here at CA for members of the trade (dealers and manufacturers) to list their industry affiliation in their signature and/or next to their user name.

Thanks,

—Alex C.

 

Check first link in signature

Designer of the 432 EVO music server and Linux specialist

Discoverer of the independent open source sox based mqa playback method with optional one cycle postringing.

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On 9/29/2018 at 6:05 PM, oneguy said:

Why is the ripple voltage so high at 1 millivolt when a sigma11 LPS is around 10 microvolts. Is there something I am missing?

Hello oneguy,

 

In general a ripple voltage of +/- 1mV for a (non-audio) linear power supply is not so bad at all. The LT3045 family however is capable of showing ripple and noise figures of < 10uV in real-live design.

 

The relatively "high" ripple of HDPlex is caused by the pre-regulation circuits, market in red. These are switching DC/DC converters and are necessary to achieve an adjustable voltage from 15V to 3.3V @ 2A.

 

In a full blow linear power supply design the LT3045 regulators would need to dissipate about 24W (=6W per LT3045) extra in heat, when the power supply is set from 15V @ 2A to 3.3V @ 2A. Unnecessary to mention that this is from a technical point of view simply not possible without proper heatsink(s).

 

Regards,

Karin

 

   

HD plex switching DC-DC pre-regulator.jpg

 


Sbooster, enjoy more music.........

 

Meet us at the Montréal Audio Fest 23-28 March 2018

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2 hours ago, Karin said:

Hello oneguy,

 

In general a ripple voltage of +/- 1mV for a (non-audio) linear power supply is not so bad at all. The LT3045 family however is capable of showing ripple and noise figures of < 10uV in real-live design.

 

The relatively "high" ripple of HDPlex is caused by the pre-regulation circuits, market in red. These are switching DC/DC converters and are necessary to achieve an adjustable voltage from 15V to 3.3V @ 2A.

 

In a full blow linear power supply design the LT3045 regulators would need to dissipate about 24W (=6W per LT3045) extra in heat, when the power supply is set from 15V @ 2A to 3.3V @ 2A. Unnecessary to mention that this is from a technical point of view simply not possible without proper heatsink(s).

 

Regards,

Karin

 

   

HD plex switching DC-DC pre-regulator.jpg

Karin,

 

Thank you for the reply. 6w of heat per LT3045 in that for factor would be a lot to dissipate in that form factor. Damn engineering trade offs!

 

-oneguy 

 

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Got mine yesterday.  Installed it in my rack to eliminate the SMPS powering my ZyXel Ethernet switch & Roon Rock NUC.  Quite a noticeable bump up in SQ.  The switch has the SOtM clock mod.  SOtM trio to the Kii Control/Kii Three speakers.  The best sound yet in my sound room.  Of course I also rearranged most of the cables in my rack at the same time so not sure how much of the improvement is the HDPlex and/or the cable management.  I use to have one of the original HDPlex 100W non adjustable units without the over-voltage/over-current protection but got rid of it after it burned out my Uptone LPS 1.  This new unit seems to be of better quality.  I highly recommend it for getting rid of those noisy SMPS.

2 channel : full Innuos suite / Black Cat USB cables / Kii Three BXT

Desktop : Innuos PulseMINI / Roon ROCK / SaBaj A20d amp-DAC / DCA E3 headphones

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3 hours ago, FredericV said:

With the information presented, it's clear the HDPLEX is not a true linear PSU.

 

I thought we only had Linear Regulated Power Supply, Switching Power Supply and a few hybrids. Can you explain why the HDPLEX is not a true linear PSU?

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21 minutes ago, Summit said:

 

I thought we only had Linear Regulated Power Supply, Switching Power Supply and a few hybrids. Can you explain why the HDPLEX is not a true linear PSU?

 

Here is a link to linear audio, Jan Didden, a longtime acknowledged expert in linear power supplies : https://linearaudio.nl/silentswitcher

 

The hybrid approach, and I should say the Uptone LPS is a somewhat similar approach.

 

The approach to use the LT3045 following a SMPS is a very solid one and recommended by the manufacturer.

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm evaluating the new HDPLEX 200W LPS.  

 

My NUC7PJYH (10W TDP) running AudioLinux runs great on an adjustable rail set to 15W with no BIOS optimization required to manage power requirements.  The only peripherals are a USB flash drive and a USB cable to my Berkeley Alpha USB.  It's a standalone box streaming Qobuz using LMS/Squeezelite over wireless.

 

I'm also using the 19V fixed rail on my Asus RT-AC3100 router in place of the supplied SMPS.  Note that each rail has its own ground.  

 

So far I'm very happy with the sound quality.  I'll be testing this LPS in more use cases.  I plan to try it together with the HDPLEX 400W DC-ATX for the 24-pin motherboard connection of my i7-6700K Windows 10 server.

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/1/2019 at 10:37 PM, rickca said:

I'm evaluating the new HDPLEX 200W LPS.  

 

So far I'm very happy with the sound quality.  I'll be testing this LPS in more use cases.  I plan to try it together with the HDPLEX 400W DC-ATX for the 24-pin motherboard connection of my i7-6700K Windows 10 server.

@rickca can you please share your thoughts about the hdplex 200w after using it for more than a week? I’m curious because it has gotten my interest but what’s holding me down is the “midfi” reputation that some people give this versatile and affortable power supply.

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3 hours ago, Lebouwsky said:

@rickca can you please share your thoughts about the hdplex 200w after using it for more than a week? I’m curious because it has gotten my interest but what’s holding me down is the “midfi” reputation that some people give this versatile and affortable power supply.

Who says the new 200W LPS is midfi?  It isn't a Paul Hynex SR4, but that costs about $425 for a single adjustable rail.  I bought my SR4 with a DC3FSXLR silver cable that cost $115.  And that isn't even high end compared to the SR7. But I'm not going to want an SR4 or an LPS-1.2 for every device.

 

I really haven't done enough listening yet.  My time for audio has been pretty limited recently.  I've spent quite some time recabling the Windows 10 i7-6700K server I built 3 years ago to try the HDPLEX 400W DC-ATX.  Mostly I've just been figuring out the best way to use the HDPLEX 200W LPS in my system, so I've done some testing on both my server and my NUC7PJYH/AudioLinux endpoint.  For the endpoint, I've settled on using my SR4.  

 

 

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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13 hours ago, rickca said:

Who says the new 200W LPS is midfi?  It isn't a Paul Hynex SR4, but that costs about $425 for a single adjustable rail.  I bought my SR4 with a DC3FSXLR silver cable that cost $115.  And that isn't even high end compared to the SR7. But I'm not going to want an SR4 or an LPS-1.2 for every device.

 

I really haven't done enough listening yet.  My time for audio has been pretty limited recently.  I've spent quite some time recabling the Windows 10 i7-6700K server I built 3 years ago to try the HDPLEX 400W DC-ATX.  Mostly I've just been figuring out the best way to use the HDPLEX 200W LPS in my system, so I've done some testing on both my server and my NUC7PJYH/AudioLinux endpoint.  For the endpoint, I've settled on using my SR4.  

 

 

 

It would be nice to know several things, when you have the time to try them:

  • what is the SQ of an LT30451 rail of the HDPlex 200 vs. the SR-4 vs. any other "audiophile" PSUs you may have (LPS-1.2?)
  • what is the SQ difference between the fixed (non LT30451) 12V rail and the LT30451 rail set at 12V? 

The above 2 comparisons will give us a sense of where new HDPlex 200 stands in the pecking order, both its regular rail vs. its LT30451 rail.

 

Finally, it will be good to know how the HDPlex 19V rail driving the 400W DC-ATX adapter compares to your current ATX power supply.

 

That concludes your homework assignment. :) Anything extra from the above will be awarded extra credit.

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4 hours ago, bobfa said:

I will also take that homework assignment!  My HDPLEX 200 should be here tomorrow.  IT will be powering my NAS and my Roon Server.    

Looking forward to it, your step by step approach in other topics is really helpful and constructive.

 

Would it make sence to invest in hdplex’s dc-atx converter if my motherboard (supermicro X10SBA) accepts 12v input by 4 pin molex? It seems the voltage regulators in this converter are of high quality.

 

BTW Larry is willing to adjust the voltage of the 2 fixed dc outputs to personal preferences of the hdplex200w for free, which is a very nice service I believe. 

 

For the record, I never said it’s midfi, this improved lps deserves a fair chance to have a place in the upper ranges of linear power supplies. I’ve asked a few contributive members personally for their opinion and they’re all positive. It’s just that I’m not that privileged to “try” a new power supply now and then, I have to spend it wisely.

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3 hours ago, Lebouwsky said:

It’s just that I’m not that privileged to “try” a new power supply now and then, I have to spend it wisely.

I totally get it.  I just prefer not to comment on sound quality until I'm confident in my assessment.  

 

I finally got my dual power supply configuration working on my i7-6700K Windows 10 machine.  The motherboard is powered by the HDPLEX 200W LPS 19V rail/400W HiFi DC-ATX.  I'm only using the 24-pin from the DC-ATX. 

 

The 8-pin EPS12V on the motherboard (CPU) is powered by a Seasonic X650 SMPS.  The Seasonic also powers the 8-pin connector on my video card (MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G).  So it's doing the heavy lifting (91W TDP CPU and 120W TDP video card).

 

I also use an adjustable rail of the HDPLEX 200W set to 7.5V to power an Uptone Audio ISO REGEN.

 

My initial impression is that the system breathes more freely with better PRAT.  It sounds more like music.

 

 

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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I think the performance potential of the HDPLEX 200W LPS is constrained by the DC cables supplied with the unit.  They look pretty much garden variety.  At this price point, you can't afford to include 4 expensive DC leads.  Larry said he is considering offering better quality cables.

 

I bought a $115 silver cable from Paul Hynes with my SR4.  So it isn't fair to compare it to the HDPLEX unless I get some cables of comparable quality for it.

 

Hopefully someone can confirm that the HDPLEX sounds even better with upgraded DC cables.  

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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