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PWD DAC Linear Power supply

#1

I would like to get some insights regarding using a linear power supply with the PWD MK2 DAC. Does anybody have tried it before? and any ideas would be appreciated.

Regards,

#2

if it is possible what would be the voltage and amp values that we should take into account?

#3

Also should add that i am using power plant premier. So should it be necessarry to take this road?

#4
alpyoruk said

I would like to get some insights regarding using a linear power supply with the PWD MK2 DAC. Does anybody have tried it before? and any ideas would be appreciated.

Regards,


The PWD already has a linear supply.
#5

Like Ted said. If you look inside a PWD you will see two good-sized toroidal transformers. They don’t using switching power supplies.

#6

Thanks a lot for the answer. So please correct me if I am wrong products like Black lightning (redwineaudio) should only benefit in the case when a product is using a switching supply (such as a normal PC being used as a media server for a hi-gi system)…

I am using my own Toshiba minibook as a media server for my Perfect Wave MK2 DAC. Both units are connected through the bridge via a Audioquest Vodka Ethernet cable (made a huge difference over Cat7, Cat6 and Cat5e cables which I extensively tested, the bass got tighter and tighter with individual instruments got more focus (and thus became smaller more life like sizes) with better Ethernet cables.

What I discovered was when the Toshiba laptop was sounding slightly better when driven unplugged to its adapter (thus running directly through its batteries).

  • Rather than using a network switch, building a private intranet via a direct connection by Ethernet from Toshiba to Perfect Wave was the best sounding case (tried a couple of switches at different price intervals).

Summing up I guess if a laptop when unplugged to its external adapter (which I think are of switching type) is not effected of switching bad impacts cause it directly runs on DC from its batteries so for a music server and critical listening if one uses an ow build PC, it should better be a laptop which can directly supply clean energy from its batteries. Am I thinking correct?

Is it possible to use a linear external power supply (which U can directly adjust voltage and amps) for Perfect Wave DAC? Would it be any better than the stock linear power supply? (considered that it is a good product) or can we conclude that the stock is already a very good one and such an attempt is useless? (or maybe impossible practically (forgive my lack of knowledge on this field))

#7

A linear supply for your laptop can help a little if running off of batteries is too impractical.

Turning off your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth features of your laptop may help - if you haven’t already.

All products are built to a price point - you can clearly build a better supply if you spend enough money. PS Audio products already use bigger transformers than many products and the PWD already has a separate transformer for the audio card from the rest of the cards.

#8

Hi TED;

Thanks a lot for Ur answers. I got the point. I am already using with wireless and bluetooth off. Made a couple of tests with alternate laptops and found them to be different in sound (though the rest configuration, direct connection to network bridge and everything is the same).

What I would like to try is that I would like to build a music server out of an industrial PC (such as Advantech or Matrix) which uses an external battery based power supply (they are default fed by external adapters). Do U have any experience with such a setup where an industrial PCis being used as a media server? Do U have an idea about any sonic benefits?

Including; I found the SSD drives to be sounding better than rotating drives and currently using SSDs for both system partation and the music partitions.

Thanks in advance, Looking forward to hearing DSD DAC :) (yet to recieve it in our country)

#9

Howdy

We’ve reached the end of my practical experience with the PWD: I don’t have a PWD and things are a little different with the DirectStream.

I’m not surprised that SSD are quieter, tho the reason may be that it doesn’t have to move heads fast (which take spikes of power) rather than the mere fact that a hard disk is spinning.

A industrial PC can have more space, need less fans (or no fan) and be passively cooled. Having no running video can be good for multiple reasons. The list goes on…

-Ted

#10

TED;

I have one point that I am curious about. Regarding your suggestion of turning off the wireless, bluetooth of a laptop which is being used as a music server, is it due to the fact that the unit will be consuming less power or is it because of the waves of both the wireless and bluetooth adapter causing some kind of a negative impact on the signals?

If the answer is related with decreasing the load on the laptop’s power supply, then your suggestion regarding not running a video about again decreasing power load or etc?

So if all goes to decreasing as much possible as power load on the controller than a music server should be all about having the least possible power consuming devices on board which are up to the task?

I think most people which are using DACS such as PWD or DSSD through the bridge (or even from its USB inputs) want to get a glimpse on the variables that impacg the music server’s performance. Even the same SSD connected to a different laptop have minor sound changes (sometimes instruments get more focus, sometimes the highs are a little bit more open…etc)

Thanks a lot,

#11

Many audio systems are a bit sensitive to EMI and RFI. The wireless signals have the potential to interfere in almost any component of your system. At times this can be heard as a subtle haze over the sound. If you don’t hear a difference don’t worry about it.

Also network drivers in PCs are notorious for having interrupts to the processor that take large varying amounts of time, some times even causing audio dropouts if the buffers in the software that’s handling your audio aren’t big enough.

The power supply demand of devices isn’t as much an issue as varying power supply demand. A perfect non varying load doesn’t produce any interference, when the variance is at audio frequencies it may cause various components to hum, or whistle. When it’s at ultrasonic or RF frequencies those may cause jitter on clocks or otherwise get modulated into the audio band via non-linearities in your system.

The video in computers can interfere in a few ways - they often cause RFI at many frequencies, in most systems the video interrupts on the processor busses are higher priority than the audio interrupts, and can therefore cause jitter or even, at times, audio dropouts.

Put most simply, everything matters. Most of the time not to a degree to worry about. I can’t hear the difference when I have my laptop Wi-Fi on, but the music is just a little less real to me. Some guests I’ve had over can instantly tell when I turn the Wi-Fi on or off. I don’t care about the differences compared to the convenience of using these services, others do.

#12

Thanks a lot it cleared things up.

Regards i appreciate Ur answers and Ur time.