Oggo´s power supply shoot-out (using the example of an Uptone EtherRegen)

[skyline]

On 2/10/2022 at 12:05 AM, artofaudio said:

Great review! I currently own a JS-2 powering a U1 Mini.  Has anyone tried the purple fuse in the JS-2 or a U1 Mini.  I may try this first before I decide on the top 2 power supplies in this shootout.

 

I have a JS-2 for my U1 mini.

 

I have owned QSA fuses, but ended up returning them.

 

I will try an SR purple fuse on JS-2 soon.

[artofaudio]

I ordered a Farad Super 3 with the purple fuse, silver cable & Furutech option for my Etheregen and it sounds fantastic.  The purple fuse is on the way for the JS-2.  Why did you return the QSA fuses?

[skyline]

On 2/26/2022 at 10:44 PM, artofaudio said:

I ordered a Farad Super 3 with the purple fuse, silver cable & Furutech option for my Etheregen and it sounds fantastic.  The purple fuse is on the way for the JS-2.  Why did you return the QSA fuses?

 

I will say in general, many after market fuses initially have a “spectacular sound”. But over time, you may find they are too bright and tiresome.

 

I’m listening to the SR Purple right now and I’m considering going back to stock.

[Johnnydev]

I have the exact opposite opinion. the orange and purple fuses will only sound better over time!

 

[artofaudio]

The sound of my purple fuses in the JS-2 were all over the place for the first week.  Now everything has settled down.  A very nice addition.  Everything sounds better.

[tubewin]

On 2/10/2022 at 12:05 AM, artofaudio said:

Great review! I currently own a JS-2 powering a U1 Mini.  Has anyone tried the purple fuse in the JS-2 or a U1 Mini.  I may try this first before I decide on the top 2 power supplies in this shootout.

I have a SR purple fuse in both of my power supplies (one being the JS-2) and my power plant 3. The JS-2 is powering a JCAT XE usb card. In my opinion, the mid range gets taken back very slightly, while the stage seems to get bigger and more detail retrieval . While there is a difference, whether or not you would consider it better is going to be based off your preference for how forward/dense you want your midrange to be. For example, I purchased a SR purple fuse for my Holo may as well, but quickly put back the red nano fuse to balance it out. It was just sounding a little too thin with 4 SR purple fuses in my system. I purchased a second hypsos for my etherregen. I would have been happy with a second JS-2 (I really really like to tonality it imparts in my system) but decided to get a more flexible power supply, just in case. So, if your system sounds too thick/congested, I would get a SR purple fuse, if it's thin to begin with, I wouldn't.

[artofaudio]

I tried it in my JS-2 and it was a mixed bag at first.  However, everything now sounds great.  

[Johnnydev]

8 hours ago, tubewin said:

I have a SR purple fuse in both of my power supplies (one being the JS-2) and my power plant 3. The JS-2 is powering a JCAT XE usb card. In my opinion, the mid range gets taken back very slightly, while the stage seems to get bigger and more detail retrieval . While there is a difference, whether or not you would consider it better is going to be based off your preference for how forward/dense you want your midrange to be. For example, I purchased a SR purple fuse for my Holo may as well, but quickly put back the red nano fuse to balance it out. It was just sounding a little too thin with 4 SR purple fuses in my system. I purchased a second hypsos for my etherregen. I would have been happy with a second JS-2 (I really really like to tonality it imparts in my system) but decided to get a more flexible power supply, just in case. So, if your system sounds too thick/congested, I would get a SR purple fuse, if it's thin to begin with, I wouldn't.

Did you tried them for more then a month?

that gives a great difference

[tubewin]

14 minutes ago, Johnnydev said:

Did you tried them for more then a month?

that gives a great difference

Well, I received the JS-2 on the 25th of January and had a SR purple fuse on hand waiting to be put in the js-2. So it's been installed for a bit more than 30 days, as well as one in the power plant. The biggest effect was on my dac, but I missed the holo house sound so I put back the red nano that came with the may kte.

[skyline]

On 3/17/2022 at 3:53 AM, tubewin said:

I purchased a SR purple fuse for my Holo may as well,It was just sounding a little too thin with 4 SR purple fuses in my system. 

 

I have owned SR purple, QSA fuses, and Beeswax.

 

After market fuses tend to have a hollowness/thinness.

 

The Beeswax is the only I’ve owned that has a nice dimension to it.

[R1200CL]

Wonder if these are any good:

https://shenzhenaudio.com/collections/gustard/products/gustard-hifi-replacement-fuse-nano-alloy-high-end-fuse-compatible-with-u16-c16-x16-a18-630ma-gustard-upgrade-fuse

[mitch751]

18 hours ago, R1200CL said:

Wonder if these are any good:

https://shenzhenaudio.com/collections/gustard/products/gustard-hifi-replacement-fuse-nano-alloy-high-end-fuse-compatible-with-u16-c16-x16-a18-630ma-gustard-upgrade-fuse

I tried Littelfuse 285 series and very happy with it ...... https://au.mouser.com/c/?q=fuse 285&m=Littelfuse

[lsantista]

fuses apart, do you guys with both the farad and JS-2 in this topic have a preference of one over the other for the ER?

I would initially be using them to power the ER and an ultrarendu. If choosing to go with the JS-2 I could get one available locally this week.  If I was to go for a couple of Farads my final cost would be very similar to the JS-2, but I'd had to wait 2 months more and trouble my brother to bring them from Europe to me

Yes getting the JS-2 now and the Farads later is on the cards but not preferable.

BTW this is mostly for a Stax headphone setup, though I may later use it on a stereo 

[artofaudio]

Isantista,

 

I don’t have a preference as I cannot compare them head to head.  The Farad is on my ER but the connector will not fit my Lumin U1 Mini.  It’s not worth the trouble for me to take the Lumin apart and buy a new DC connector for the Lumin.  Even though I may do that at some point.  The JS-2 is more versatile and adjustable, and more attractive.  The Farad is smaller and would stack very well if you have several.  I thought I read somewhere that using the ER with the JS-2 is not optimal because of the moat.  I would reach out to Alex Crespi to make sure.  

[lsantista]

Thanks. If Im not mistaken, it is not optimal to power both the ER and an external clock with both JS’s outputs. Not clear if there should be a problem with powering both the ER and a streamer it’s conected to.

im probably going with a few Farad 3s for my headphone setup

[Liam]

@Oggo Very informative reviews. Thank you. What would be interesting is if you tried a iFi DC iPurifier 2 at the ER input using the stock psu versus the others alone, and to see if the DC iPurifier improved the others or not.

[artofaudio]

I just swapped the JS-2 LPS for the Farad Super 3 on the Lumin U1 Mini.  Both of the LPS’s have upgraded Purple fuses and upgraded DC cords.  They could not sound more different!   The Farad makes the U1 Mini should a lot fuller but the highs and midrange are further back, whereas the JS-2 everything is still full but more forward.  1-3rd row for the JS-2 vs row 10-15 for the Farad.  It’s too early to tell which one I like better.  

 

The Farad tames the bright uglies on certain recordings for sure and the JS-2 just tells it like it is.   I keep listening all week to see if anything changes.  

[Qstik]

On 7/23/2022 at 8:11 AM, Liam said:

What would be interesting is if you tried a iFi DC iPurifier 2 at the ER input using the stock psu versus the others alone, and to see if the DC iPurifier improved the others or not.

I had been using a very early production Uptone LPS-1.2, which died on me recently, to power my EtherRegen at 12v.  I then replaced it with an iFi SilentPower iPower2 at 12v/1.8a.  My initial impression surprised me - the iFi sounded much better right off the bat than I remember my LPS-1.2 ever did!  I now believe that my LPS-1.2 must have slowly degraded over time, such that I didn't realize it was happening.  In addition, I didn't understand why the subjective volume level of my system seemed to fluctuate from week to week for some time.  However, at the same voltage rating of 12v, using the iFi iPower2 is now playing louder by about 3dB - i.e., I turned the preamp level down by that amount to get the same subjective volume.  I got the iFi as an inexpensive placeholder while I decided which new LPS to get.  I already have a Hypsos with an SR Orange fuse powering my Pi2AES streamer at 30v with excellent results.  The iFi is working so well, I will take my time whether to get another Hypsos or not.

[audiobomber]

3 hours ago, Qstik said:

I had been using a very early production Uptone LPS-1.2, which died on me recently, to power my EtherRegen at 12v.  I then replaced it with an iFi SilentPower iPower2 at 12v/1.8a.  My initial impression surprised me - the iFi sounded much better right off the bat than I remember my LPS-1.2 ever did!  I now believe that my LPS-1.2 must have slowly degraded over time, such that I didn't realize it was happening.  In addition, I didn't understand why the subjective volume level of my system seemed to fluctuate from week to week for some time.  However, at the same voltage rating of 12v, using the iFi iPower2 is now playing louder by about 3dB - i.e., I turned the preamp level down by that amount to get the same subjective volume.  I got the iFi as an inexpensive placeholder while I decided which new LPS to get.  I already have a Hypsos with an SR Orange fuse powering my Pi2AES streamer at 30v with excellent results.  The iFi is working so well, I will take my time whether to get another Hypsos or not.

Are you using the ER ground with the iPower? 

[Qstik]

33 minutes ago, audiobomber said:

Are you using the ER ground with the iPower? 

No, I'm not.  Should I?

[Superdad]

4 minutes ago, Qstik said:

No, I'm not.  Should I?

 

The iPower is an ungrounded supply (just 2 pins to the wall). If you are using more than one of the EtherREGEN's 'A' side RJ45 ports then it would be advisable to utilize the Ground screw of the EtherREGEN. All those ports have the center-taps of their transformers (an usually-high 12 cores per port) tied to the ground plane--to shunt to ground high-source-impedance leakage (traveling in on the Ethernet cables from other gear). But it needs a path to earth ground.  This is to minimize port-to-port leakage interaction.

 

The UpTone-branded 36W AC>DC adapter that came with your EtherREGEN (same at the one used as "energizing"/charging supply for UltraCap LPS-1.2) is internally "ground-shunted"--meaning the outer barrel of its DC output cable is common to its AC IEC input ground pin--so as long as you are plugging it into an earth-grounded AC outlet the grounding of the 'A' side is taken care of and there is no need to use the Ground screw.  

But for floated output supplies (your iPower, our UltraCap units, and many other 3rd-party linear supplies) it is a consideration. 

 

Again, this is only if you are utilizing more than one of the 'A' side ports. Nothing makes it across the EtherREGEN's active-differential-isolation moat to the 'B' port.

BTW, all the above is covered on page 8 of the EtherREGEN User Guide. 

 

P.S. The iFi iPower SMPS units are known to have exceedingly high leakage (that's AC currents traveling over DC connection; more than any other SMPS we have measured), so the above is especially relevant if you are using that brand to power your EtherREGEN.

[audiobomber]

2 hours ago, Qstik said:

No, I'm not.  Should I?

Definitely! 😋

[Qstik]

3 hours ago, Superdad said:

Again, this is only if you are utilizing more than one of the 'A' side ports. Nothing makes it across the EtherREGEN's active-differential-isolation moat to the 'B' port.

I only have one A-side connection to my EtherREGEN - directly from my router, so I guess I am OK?

 

I'm searching the net to see if I can find any new measurements of iFi leakage currents.  I try not to make generalizations based on measurements of older generations of equipment.  I am as cynical as the next guy about over-hyped Chinese Hi-Fi equipment, but my ears are telling me something else in my current case.

[Superdad]

57 minutes ago, Qstik said:

I only have one A-side connection to my EtherREGEN - directly from my router, so I guess I am OK?

 

Yes, with just one RJ45 connection to the 'A' side there is no need to ground the EtherREGEN. 

[audiobomber]

13 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Yes, with just one RJ45 connection to the 'A' side there is no need to ground the EtherREGEN. 

 That does not appear to agree with the advice from @JohnSwenson?