My only experience with discrete regulators has to do with analog audio stages. I’ve used the Sparkos Labs discrete voltage regulators (which are ran in "Class A" and based on the same circuit in their op amps). The result is a faster and higher resolution sound to the audio. Smoother with less noise from the "A/C" line. I suspect they would improve digital sections too.
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The heat from the OPPOMOD power supply comes from both the power supply diodes mounted onto larger fin-based heatsinks in air and the voltage regulators mounted on an aluminum L-bracket. The L-bracket makes flat contact with the bottom of the Oppo case and distributes heat that way. The Sparkos discrete regulators I have used are direct swap-in replacements for the monolithic LM78xx/79xx and they will still generate heat, which means you need to bolt them to some sort of heat sink as well.
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The Clones Audio does have their power supply diodes bolted to a 1/4" thick piece of metal. However, it looks like their voltage regulators are floating in air, so i"m not sure what they are doing with this circuit. Maybe the discrete elements are circuits placed around the regulators to help them become more efficient (and possible generate less heat as a bi-product). I can’t be sure here without asking them directly (which you could do if you wanted).
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That being said, the new 203/205 models have switching power supplies that are about 2/3 the size of the older 103/105 models. I suspect they did not need as current since they dropped the FPGA chip that was required for Darbee and also dropped all streaming services from the firmware.
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The heat from the OPPOMOD power supply comes from both the power supply diodes mounted onto larger fin-based heatsinks in air and the voltage regulators mounted on an aluminum L-bracket. The L-bracket makes flat contact with the bottom of the Oppo case and distributes heat that way. The Sparkos discrete regulators I have used are direct swap-in replacements for the monolithic LM78xx/79xx and they will still generate heat, which means you need to bolt them to some sort of heat sink as well.
--
The Clones Audio does have their power supply diodes bolted to a 1/4" thick piece of metal. However, it looks like their voltage regulators are floating in air, so i"m not sure what they are doing with this circuit. Maybe the discrete elements are circuits placed around the regulators to help them become more efficient (and possible generate less heat as a bi-product). I can’t be sure here without asking them directly (which you could do if you wanted).
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That being said, the new 203/205 models have switching power supplies that are about 2/3 the size of the older 103/105 models. I suspect they did not need as current since they dropped the FPGA chip that was required for Darbee and also dropped all streaming services from the firmware.