I’ve been spending some time reading about power supplies because… well, as much as I hate to say it, power supplies have an effect on sound. Now I won’t dive into that here but I wanted to share this guy. I wish more reviewers were like this. He has a very clear way of communicating sonic properties and clearly is able to present his findings in a logical way with good methodology.
His ability to pass on pertinent or meaningful details about the power supplies reminds me a lot of how @M0N went about the DACoff non review review.
TLDR: power supplies to power audio components will impact the sound of that component.
Really been impressed with the hypsos since I got it, basically my 2 main aftermarket/non mfg psu are the hypsos (very balanced overall with a fairly transparent ish sound so it just elevates setups without tilting them in one specific direction , super versatile) and illuminati v3 (more richly colored and more powerful sounding, great for adding more body, energy, and size/scale without skimping on the micro and nuance) both are great for different reasons, depends on what they are going to power for what I’d choose. I used to have a sean Jacobs dc3 and that was a beast as well (very nuanced yet controlling, most organic sounding). Also have a few other miscellaneous options lying around but out of those I only mainly use a fidelizer nikola2 from time to time (well rounded like the hypsos but more forgiving and less technical, and a bit more rounded and sweetened)
Generally I’ve found most external aftermarket PSU upgrades I’ve tried worthwhile, although there are cases where it either doesn’t make sense or whatever you are powering doesn’t respond well. One of those things where you decide after you have the rest of your setup in check imo. Internal psu improvements generally also similarly never hurt to have. I’m pretty convinced that the higher you move up, regardless of internal or external, the PSU becomes an extremely key thing to focus on and improve, so don’t mind paying more for a better once since it will probably benefit you more than you expect
@dB_Cooper could this be moved and turned into a dedicated external psu thread? think that might be fun
I want to add that the thought process about power supplies has been a relatively new thing for me. I’ve got linear power supplies and iFi wall warts and iFi elite power supplies coming out of my ass… So I “knew” they’re important.
My shock however was how much improvement a high tier audiophile power supply can bring to an audio component that is already using a general purpose LPS or iFi wall wart.
I bought a used Mojo Illuminati which after speaking to Ben is still the mac daddy PS from Mojo with the V3 bringing some improvements still. However the V1 has three channel output with the ability to switch between 5, 7, 9 and 12v. 9v being a particularly sketchy voltage to find in power supplies. I’ll be writing some thoughts about the Illuminati in the coming week or two.
@M0N are power cables for psu’s highly recommended(in my case with a powerplant) and/or make as much of a difference as on a dac,amp, streamer etc does?
From my experience I don’t think power cable changes were diminished with external psu to a significant degree, assuming the cable going from the psu into the unit isn’t garbage
I kind of got paranoid and purchased one of those ifi psu for an external USB hub I use for the auralic streamer. I heard plugging in drives (assuming it’s not internal) directly to streamers can introduce noise since it’s drawing power from the psu of the streamer. Auralic recommends this as well.
Was there any difference? Honestly, I got lazy and never tried it w/o a psu (the g1 takes a long time to warm up). Lol
A good psu is a good psu regardless of design, I do think people get too stuck up on if something’s linear or switching or what topology something has and too into the specs and decide sound that way. Only way to know what’s good and what’s not is to listen
Many modern test-instruments that rely on extremely clean power often have a switching input stage with linear regulation following it.
What strikes me as odd with nearly all audio/HiFi PSUs is the complete lack of standard EMI filters. Capacitor forests and similar are common (and somewhat pointless), just no normal filter setups.
In the end it’s better sound that we’re chasing. Some people are willing to spend $100k on a pair of speakers because they sound better. Spending money on a better PSU is no different if it makes things sound better so why shouldn’t the sky be the limit there as well.
Unfortunately we’re also part of a hobby with folks willing to spend money on clay with sparkly crushed stones because it makes things sound better.
I know it’s constantly joked about, but to be honest I’ve never known (or let alone seen in person) a single person actually buy into stuff. I know they exist, but I just bet it’s such a marginally small amount of people that aren’t even vocal themselves, only just clowned on which informs more people of their existence
There are wack jobs and scam artists in every corner of life, I feel like the audio community greatly overemphasizes that small group though, sets a bad image for everyone
