Noiseless PSU's

[Warren Beck]

Good afternoon.

In what are you using the power-supplies? Lets take a look at your use, the devices requirements, and what is currently being used by your devices. Batteries will be the most quiet possible PERIOD. But a properly designed regulated supply should be just fine as well. A little old-school but if I may suggest in avoiding switch-mode power-supplies in audio. Yes they oscillate above supposedly detectable high-frequencies, but if the sides ever go out of phase - you can have issues.

Please give us some details, and we will see what we can do to assist.

[timstoel]

I also recommend a good linear supply over a switcher unless its a well designed switcher properly applied. For wall wart replacement, I really like the Godlyke Power All power supply. I used those to replace the bricks on my Novation Bass Station and Drum Station and suddenly they were silent, none of the noise these units were infamous for. The Godlyke PSU is a switcher, but a very, very well designed unit with very, very low noise for the price point. I really recommend it.

*Disclaimer: My company is a dealer for this product, but we sell it because we believe in it. *

Tim

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by Warren Beck

Good afternoon.

In what are you using the power-supplies? Lets take a look at your use, the devices requirements, and what is currently being used by your devices. Batteries will be the most quiet possible PERIOD. But a properly designed regulated supply should be just fine as well. A little old-school but if I may suggest in avoiding switch-mode power-supplies in audio. Yes they oscillate above supposedly detectable high-frequencies, but if the sides ever go out of phase - you can have issues.

Please give us some details, and we will see what we can do to assist.

Hi Warren

Thanks, that is much appreciated I'll get the details when I get in tonight.

Cheers

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by Warren Beck

Good afternoon.

In what are you using the power-supplies? Lets take a look at your use, the devices requirements, and what is currently being used by your devices. Batteries will be the most quiet possible PERIOD. But a properly designed regulated supply should be just fine as well. A little old-school but if I may suggest in avoiding switch-mode power-supplies in audio. Yes they oscillate above supposedly detectable high-frequencies, but if the sides ever go out of phase - you can have issues.

Please give us some details, and we will see what we can do to assist.

Hi

Right first one up would be my psu for my eventide modfactor. It's an Eventide branded AC adapter wall wart outputting 9v with a positive pin. I'm based in the UK. This one is really quite noisy but obviously fine with batteries.

I could go just get an expensive equivalent but its not guaranteed to solve the problem.

Any advice would be great, ill start identifying the other culprits in my noise chain.

Cheers

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by timstoel

I also recommend a good linear supply over a switcher unless its a well designed switcher properly applied. For wall wart replacement, I really like the Godlyke Power All power supply. I used those to replace the bricks on my Novation Bass Station and Drum Station and suddenly they were silent, none of the noise these units were infamous for. The Godlyke PSU is a switcher, but a very, very well designed unit with very, very low noise for the price point. I really recommend it.

*Disclaimer: My company is a dealer for this product, but we sell it because we believe in it. *

Tim

Ok great, definitely worth looking into, thanks.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by timstoel

I also recommend a good linear supply over a switcher unless its a well designed switcher properly applied. For wall wart replacement, I really like the Godlyke Power All power supply. I used those to replace the bricks on my Novation Bass Station and Drum Station and suddenly they were silent, none of the noise these units were infamous for. The Godlyke PSU is a switcher, but a very, very well designed unit with very, very low noise for the price point. I really recommend it.

*Disclaimer: My company is a dealer for this product, but we sell it because we believe in it. *

Tim

Looks like this could work for my eventide, will get one to try as it looks like it could cover all my pedals

I have a few more that ill identify tonight

Thanks!

[dualflip]

If you have several units with the same voltages (regadless of polarity) i recommend that you get a linear power supply, and then just connect it to each individual equipment with its corresponding polarity.

Power One or Condor PSUs are great, and they are considerably cheap, although youll need some sort of chassis to install it.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by dualflip

If you have several units with the same voltages (regadless of polarity) i recommend that you get a linear power supply, and then just connect it to each individual equipment with its corresponding polarity.

Power One or Condor PSUs are great, and they are considerably cheap, although youll need some sort of chassis to install it.

Unfortunately i have varying voltages from 9 - 18 but think the godlyke 11 pedal psu will work for those that are on 9v.

So it can drive dc and ac gear simulteneously?

[timstoel]

It only produces DC. They now have some DC to DC converters available for 12V and 18V. They also have reverse polarity adapters and many other cables to make the system more useful.

[dubmunkey]

Ah think im demonstrating my ignorance here.

My modfactor psu says its an ac adaptor yet the godlyke is said to be compatible with all factor pedals?

[Warren Beck]

Hi.

A wall-wart or line bump type power-supply are decent, typically do not generate much heat (most times are switch-mode), and allow the manufacturer to circumvent CSA, UL, VDE, etc.. safety codes.

You are looking for a 9 volt supply? What are you powering? For what it is worth - I am coming out with my own distortion pedal this year. I test it with external supplies that supply 6v up to 12v and both the AES voltage standard of tip = + and sleeve = -, and the Japanese reverse of that. The pedals work just fine. BUT in your application you may not have the diodes in place (in the circuit) put there by the manufacturer to limit the voltage (just like in audio limiters with percussion). So again what are you powering??

Oh and another trick you can do - is buy a linear supply off of ebay or somewhere, and adjust the regulator to give you the required voltage. I did this in high-school for my guitar pedal board. Way over-kill but clean, quiet and no heat. Terribly heavy....

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by Warren Beck

Hi.

A wall-wart or line bump type power-supply are decent, typically do not generate much heat (most times are switch-mode), and allow the manufacturer to circumvent CSA, UL, VDE, etc.. safety codes.

You are looking for a 9 volt supply? What are you powering? For what it is worth - I am coming out with my own distortion pedal this year. I test it with external supplies that supply 6v up to 12v and both the AES voltage standard of tip = + and sleeve = -, and the Japanese reverse of that. The pedals work just fine. BUT in your application you may not have the diodes in place (in the circuit) put there by the manufacturer to limit the voltage (just like in audio limiters with percussion). So again what are you powering??

Oh and another trick you can do - is buy a linear supply off of ebay or somewhere, and adjust the regulator to give you the required voltage. I did this in high-school for my guitar pedal board. Way over-kill but clean, quiet and no heat. Terribly heavy....

What would you recommend specifically?

I'd like to run my peavey classic 30, sansamp di,
pedals and monitors from a clean power source as these are the parts of my chain i cant eradicate noise from

Is it worth getting a supply for each voltage level i need? Or can they work where they serve multiple things with different voltage reqs?

[Matt Syson]

Hi
You should get a supply for each 'level' (9, 12,18 whatever) but you should CHECK that all units have the same polarity of ground if you wish to have 1 supply feeding to more than 1 unit. If for example one has a 9 volt negative ground and you make it share with one wanting 9 volt positive ground, you stand a good chance of shorting your supply out.
Any supplies that say DC to DC conversion will be a 'switchmode' design so possibly giving a noise issue if they do not have adequate filtering.
Matt S
PS to test which polarity of ground any unit is, use a multimeter set to Ohms and measure from the sleeve of any audio jack, to each of the DC power socket pins. Usually one pin will measure 'zero' ohms with relation to the audio ground (usually the metal box too).

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by Matt Syson

Hi
You should get a supply for each 'level' (9, 12,18 whatever) but you should CHECK that all units have the same polarity of ground if you wish to have 1 supply feeding to more than 1 unit. If for example one has a 9 volt negative ground and you make it share with one wanting 9 volt positive ground, you stand a good chance of shorting your supply out.
Any supplies that say DC to DC conversion will be a 'switchmode' design so possibly giving a noise issue if they do not have adequate filtering.
Matt S
PS to test which polarity of ground any unit is, use a multimeter set to Ohms and measure from the sleeve of any audio jack, to each of the DC power socket pins. Usually one pin will measure 'zero' ohms with relation to the audio ground (usually the metal box too).

thanks Matt, this is really appreciated - are there any models in particular you'd recommend? I just don't know what I'm looking for. things are moving slow in fixing this as I'm finding new issues along the way but it's good because I'm learning

[Richard Crowley]

Originally Posted by Warren Beck

A wall-wart or line bump type power-supply ... allow the manufacturer to circumvent CSA, UL, VDE, etc.. safety codes.

No, not quite. Nothing is circumvented here. Using an external supply allows the manufacturer to concentrate on their specialty and rely on someone else who is an expert at power supplies (and getting all the necessary government approvals, etc for them).

[dualflip]

Originally Posted by rcrowley

No, not quite. Nothing is circumvented here. Using an external supply allows the manufacturer to concentrate on their specialty and rely on someone else who is an expert at power supplies (and getting all the necessary government approvals, etc for them).

Exactly, let the power companies do power