LPSU choices, new contender.....

[sandyk]

44 minutes ago, mansr said:

I'm not discrediting the product. He's doing that all by himself.

Going by the lack of detailed specifications anywhere, I doubt that he even has equipment capable of making anything other than basic measurements such as measuring DC voltages to a reasonable precision, which any high quality DMM can do. With the DC power supplies he doesn't even supply output noise specifications.

 It's all short on detail and long on hype.

 I don't doubt that the products work, but see no reason to believe they are more than just basic implementations which will do the job with non critical applications

 With the TT voltage regulator, it would be interesting to see how well it retains the set voltage under varying load conditions and temperature variations.

[sandyk]

7 minutes ago, RickyV said:

I wanted to say "have you seen the Paul Hynes website?". But he is currently putting up a new website, maybe with specs this time.

 

I have previously seen quite a bit of detail about some of Paul's products including the topology, as well as how damn fast some of the opamps he uses in the voltage regulators are. I have previously used a Paul Hynes 3.3V voltage regulator in my DIY DAC and it is clearly lower noise than a generic 3.3V voltage regulator such as a LM3940T-3.3.

[sandyk]

9 hours ago, RickyV said:

It was about the lack of detailed specifications on the website. 

 

And is a output noise voltage of 150uV low noise?

It is  less than that of a typical LM317 etc. that many have used without problems for many years, and is still more than good enough for many applications these days. The main advantages of devices like this were their very fast slew rate, which gave them ripple rejection capabilities to MUCH higher frequencies than the generic voltage regulators.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Neverfinished0 said:

I thank this member for his acknowledgement of some products he has purchased and has used with his equipment - although he seems to have received some flack from the indigineous long term member experts who have not used or seen the item in question - shame.

 

  Unfortunately,  you are highly unlikely to gain a marked increase in sales without additional performance information made available on your website .Even many ebay vendors give basic specifications of their products which makes it easier for prospective buyers to make some kind of informed choice, although a product hand  made by a professional such as yourself, and fully tested would be preferred by many people, even if it cost more.

 Very few would expect you to make detailed photographs available, but a brief description of the topology used,  and where they differ from cheap Asian generic products , especially with power supplies would help.

[sandyk]

6 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

By the way - in the States, what *is* "the local counter" for a hobbyist now that Radio Shack is gone?

 

 Was Radio Shack ever a REAL contender for anything other than mundane parts ?

[sandyk]

7 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Don't be dissin' the Shack man!  

 

 Perhaps they were a little better than the Radio Shack stores we had in Sydney a while back ?

They did originally have a quality low capacitance shielded cable for amplifier internal wiring here though.

[sandyk]

6 minutes ago, activist38 said:

take a look at this one: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/56127-lpsu-choices-new-contender/?do=findComment&comment=947698

 

...could this be libellous perhaps?

 

e are all quaking in our boots Doc (?)  !

[sandyk]

Just now, sandyk said:

 

We are all quaking in our boots Doc (?)  !

 

[sandyk]

30 minutes ago, marce said:

Nothing is perfect in this world apart from an Audiophiles hearing...😀

 

Why did you feel the need to spoil an otherwise excellent reply with such a smart arse  shot at the vast majority of Audiophile Style  members ?

[sandyk]

5 minutes ago, marce said:

Just testing the general sense of humour on this site, 

Still nil😁

 

 

Does this apply to you ?  

[sandyk]

7 hours ago, marce said:

I am beginning to think that to many audiophiles are becoming grumpy old men...

 

 Perhaps it's due to the way that some qualified members keep treating them as idiots whose observations aren't worth the screen space they take up ? 

Sarcasm appears to be a stock in trade of several qualified members who post mainly in the General area of the forum.

[sandyk]

4 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

I have to say I really don't see thermal noise as a problem for audiophile use.

 

Even the types of resistors used in a Preamplifier's Attenuator matters, and the values of the resistors used in the input stage of a Preamplifier/Amplifier matters too. 

 

https://www.analogictips.com/tips-electrical-noise-reduction-faq/

[sandyk]

16 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

how many dB down is Johnson noise?  Sandy - show your Qualification Certificate and you can handle that one...

 

 

 I refuse to play your silly games.

 For the members who are genuinely interested, the attached shows why the type of resistors used in Input attenuators does matter.

 Goldmund is not the only manufacturer to take advantage of more recent lower noise resistors, with DACT doing the same, and not just for ease of manufacture and cost reasons.

http://www.goldpt.com/attenuator_types.html

[sandyk]

7 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Oh I know. But the other fellow was talking specifically about battery supplies, so I thought I ought to talk about that as well.

 

A high quality battery supply (LiPo etc.) is normally better at preserving a neutral sounding presentation,
 but the main problem is that the voltage reduces slowly with use, and then may vary considerably under different load conditions, even generating audible noise.
Most devices however, require a stable input voltage for the highest consistent performance.
 The only way around this is to use voltage regulation. Unfortunately, the type of voltage regulator used ,
 and the necessary capacitors used with it for stability reasons mainly, usually imparts some kind of audible footprint.

 This is more important with the Analogue area than the Digital areas that Marce mainly  plays around in where you can  use well established HF bypass techniques etc.

[sandyk]

10 minutes ago, marce said:

I do worry about capacitors not directly in the signal path having an effect on the analogue output, if I did a board where that happened it would be considered a failure... 

 But what are you using in  your own Audio system, not instrumentation etc.?

[sandyk]

9 hours ago, marce said:

It is a generalisation, how do capacitors in the PSU have an effect on the resultant analogue output, and if they do it will be measurable...

 I was asking what actual equipment you are using in your own Audio system.

Still using something like a SBT ,without even a decent Linear PSU such as designed by John Swenson and used by numerous DIY Audio members ?

 

[sandyk]

4 minutes ago, jabbr said:

 

Careful ... one could call your non networked system primitive if you want to go down that road. Are you using a real upsampling server or still listening to CDs? 

 

Id be very careful about getting high and mighty with whatever other people listen to. 

When will some of you understand that not everybody needs Muzac piped through the house with millions of tracks accessible by using an iPhone or whatever.

Many members simply want high quality Audio, including high res LPCM and DSD  sourced from a Computer without the need to drag out actual CDs or LPs etc.

 

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, kumakuma said:

 

That isn't the main reason why many members here have networked systems.

 

I never said it was. The shot was aimed at me, and I simply made it clear that I (along with many other members) only need easily accessible high quality audio without the need to use physical media. The fact that in my case at least, it ALSO sounds way better than simply playing physical media is an added bonus !

 

 Neither do I accept that just because you are a highly qualified E.E. that designs multi layer PCBs etc. means that your own home Audio system will necessarily sound as good as, or better than that of many other non electronically qualified members. 

[sandyk]

35 minutes ago, Jud said:

Didn't see him claim it did.

 

 Jud

 Marc keeps telling us how qualified he is in the area he works in, and I don't dispute his expertise in that area,

however it does not mean that this knowledge automatically transfers added benefits to normal consumer Audio products that were also designed by competent E.E.s to a level often limited by cost factors .

 Marrying the Digital area to the Analogue Audio area is more of a " black art" where very few designers excel, and many use textbook implementations from the Semiconductor Applications Engineers. 

 You only need to look at Rajiv's thread to realise that your typical products from competent E.E. designers are often capable of further marked improvements. 

 

Alex

[sandyk]

30 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Didn't see him claim it did.

 

I know you've got plenty of LPSU/DIY knowledge. It would be nice for me personally and I'm sure others to get some tips regarding what components one might expect to see in a quality LPSU, if we're thinking of purchasing one.

 

 Why not also ask members like John Swenson that question, as he has proven  expertise in that area ?

You could always start a thread and ask for contributions from both qualified and DIY members

[sandyk]

32 minutes ago, jabbr said:

So no I don’t wrap my speaker cables around toroids etc because it’s just not necessary.

 FFS !

 I don't need to do that either, as I have long past moved on from using " Gain Clone"chips like the LM3886 which were all the rage many ago and still apparently favoured by at least one high profile member.

 I was just pointing out the RF level of some nearby Analogue TV transmitters back then. They even had to ban  a few people living nearby from aiming high gain Yagi antennas up at the transmitting towers, which were according to folk lore, then able to light up some Neon Tubes.

 BTW, I don't use LPSUs on memory banks, or special internal cables either. There is nothing technically wrong with regulating the existing internal +12V supply down to a clean and isolated +5V for SSD power as many members have verified. 

 John Swenson has even demonstrated that radiated RF/EMI from PWM control of fans causes audible degradation.

Yet you seem to believe that you can correct everything after the horse has bolted !

 

[sandyk]

28 minutes ago, jabbr said:

 

Yes, as long as the bits remain identical, any sort of noise on the digital line can be corrected. I don’t care to argue this point, particularly with anecdotes about what someone else heard 30 years ago.

 

The fact that music is now distributed over the Internet dies nothing to reduce the quality of such music (files) in any way. I’m not going to respond to any anecdotal experiences of what people may claim to have heard otherwise.

 

As you say you are not a qualified engineer.

 

Reports are NOT Anecdotal when they are verified by an E.E. with vastly more experience than you have, by way of 6 separate, and correctly performed, so called "Gold Standard"  DBTs.

Even the S/W used to convert an original 24/192 .aiff file to a .wav file matters as Barry Diament  can verify after trialling 4 different versions of S/W for the May 1st release of his new 24/192 album '"Kay Sa." 

 Yes, all 4 versions of S/W sounded a little different.

 

No , I am not a qualified engineer, and glad of it , as unlike some, I don't need to trust everything I read in dusty old Text books.

[sandyk]

43 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

Nothing for a change !

 Further to my previous post, Barry has since re-encoded all of his previous 5 Hi Res albums using this new S/W for those who wish to have the albums in .wav format instead of the original .aiff format.

 

Incidentally, you can listen to excerpts from this new album on the SoundKeeper Formats Comparison page and compare 24/192 against RBCD

http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com/format.htm
 

 

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Jud said:

 

Already have a number of replies by him. He was an early popularizer of El Cheapo, then moved on to ultracap supplies, shunting noise from SMPSs to ground, and of course the supplies that bear his initials.  I also used info he provided on this forum and others to avoid transformer ringing when I built a DAC.

Hi Jud

An  example of good design from John Swenson is attached, however it is not ultra low noise, but is eminently suitable for many applications. It uses a Snubber across the transformer secondary winding to reduce ringing, and Schottky diodes for rectification.

In my 15W class A Amplifier ,I like the Cree  C3D06060A  (Data Sheet attached) 

As Alex C previously said, an R-Core transformer is a good choice, doesn't buzz., and it also has a relatively low capacitance to mains earth.

 However , if used in a USB PSU do not connect the shield wire (if provided) to mains earth for best results.

A choke input filter is good if you have the space. Even smaller value suitably rated 470uH chokes can help with transformer buzzing problems in amplifiers, but they will reduce the supply voltage a little, so take this into account.

 If using low noise voltage regulators such as the LT3045, for most neutral sounding results fit a typical value electrolytic filter capacitor in parallel at it's input, like when it is being used after a bridge rectifier. 2,200uF to 4,700uF are usually suitable values.

In general, if you like a slightly warmer presentation such as with Vacuum tubes and some FET amplifiers, this electrolytic could be an Elna for Audio type for example.

If you like a slightly warmer presentation AND a detailed top end you could use something like an Elna for Audio 2,200uF in parallel with a Panasonic FC 2,200uF, which is a very good all round capacitor for use at that location. 

 I don't like very Low ESR filter capacitors as they may cause a " hardening" of the sound.

When using voltage regulators such as the LM317 and LT1085 do not use tantalum capacitors in the " Adjust" location, or very low ESR capacitors at their output.  

 

 Other people will of course have different ideas on this subject !

 

Regards

Alex

CREE C3D06060A.pdf

[sandyk]

10 hours ago, jabbr said:

He is forced to put down an opposing authority, because otherwise his argument can’t stand on its frail leg.

 

 

 That's laughable coming from somebody who claims that he can cure all digital audio's ills without needing to improve the source device, and refuses to accept what he calls "anecdotal "evidence from others, no matter how many report the same thing, even the results of DBTs , when that is exactly what he expects others to do when he makes his unsubstantiated claims without even any confirming reports from others or verification by way of DBT.