Excellent Power Supply Solution


In case you haven’t noticed, it’s very hard to find a good, affordable DC power supply from a U.S. dealer. I wanted a 12 volt 3.5 amp model for a Netgear router.  The quality linear power supplies are considerably more expensive than the router. But, then I stumbled upon an interesting product from Waveform Lighting. They offer a $49 DC power supply for strip lighting purposes. The 12 volt model can handle up to 10 amps and 100 watts. I do not know the technical details on how it works, but the description states “very low ripple and noise.” It also has overload voltage protection. The DC cable is 16 AWG wire.  A nice feature is that you can attach an audio grade power cable with a C7 connector. I used a Shunyata Venom cord. 

The unit did add a noticeable increase in sound quality. A little more clarity, more lifelike vocals and less harshness  in the upper treble. If you have a 12 volt modem, router or switch, give the Waveform Lighting DC power supply a listen. Here is the link: https://store.waveformlighting.com/collections/power-supplies-and-dimmers/products/filmgrade-12v-24v...
boakey39
For reasons stated earlier in the thread, I don't buy into linear PSU for a router/networking device.  I do for anything outputting audible analog signals.  Being lazy at one point I had a power strip with all SMPS for various things plugged into an outlet shared with a Panamax filtering strip for my amp, DAC and preamp, and one day realized that things didn't sound as good as I thought it could.  I had received my shipment of equipment from storage after having recently moved and was in a rush to hear my gear again.  It took me a few moments to realize what I had done and when I did I moved that whole strip to another outlet a few yards away which don't run near each other at any point before the breaker box.  The sound improved quite a bit.  A smaller improvement was had by moving the power brick for my tiny PC to a filtered outlet on the Panamax.  I think that last one may have had something to do with USB and it transmitting power on the cable between the PC and the DAC. I think the lighting strip is a good solution if noise is an issue even after putting the devices on a separate outlet. Minimizing the noise on the AC circuit closest to the amplification is pretty important. 

@oldhvymec, I keep my DVR turned off.  It's a WAF thang that it's even in the rack.  Damn HDD can be heard when I have the house on quiet mode (air filters, and cat water bowls turned off).  I hate that you can't truly power off a cable DVR unit. I put a remote outlet on that thing so it turns on and off for the times that my wife might want to actually watch tv and can use voice command to turn it on otherwise.
The one thing that I wan to point out regarding power supplies, is that they are 2 way devices. They can in fact create noise which makes it back into the household AC which then gets picked up elsewhere.  Look at it this way:

  • Almost all of the noise in your AC line has been created by power supplies elsewhere.

For this reason, I think linear power supplies can be a good idea for digital devices, but so can having multiple power filters or isolated filter banks.

Try to keep all the cheap wall warts "outside" of your analog power circuits. I wrote about this somewhat here:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7333914575040594914/3933177263956486881

Best,

Erik
Oh the wonderful power of suggestion even self suggestion.

I will guarantee you one thing with complete confidence, this power supply will be anything but “very low ripple and noise.” from a purely electrical standpoint. It is meant for lighting. When they say ripple, they mean DC ripple for lighting so you don't get minor strobe effects. You can have pretty large ripple in lighting without strobe effects. When they say noise, they literally mean acoustic noise as most linear strips are dimmed with PWM and it makes many power supplies buzz.

What it won't be is less electrically noisy than most other things, those running it at a fraction of its rated power may result in less EMI than something ran at its rated power.

Caykol, noise on the AC lines in the 10's of MHz from a switch mode is not unheard of, nor is radiated EMI at RF frequencies, into the 10's and hundred of MHZ.
Why do you keep starting off post like this? REALLY, are you trying piss folks off?

You just can’t stop, can you?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Oh the wonderful power of suggestion even self suggestion.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ok audio2design will the dog gone thing work? Geez, you make my head hurt.. Is it a good deal or a bad deal? Have you looked to make sure?

I have a noisy power supply on my cable box, what’s the fix? I have to use a GL eliminator, ONLY friggin’ one out of everything in my house that uses those things. It makes noise through my speakers.
I understand there is a voltage difference, the cable company admits it, this is what they use to fix it...

Can this help, do you know it won’t help? I keep reading why stuff won’t don’t, couldn’t, and not possibly work, ALL the time, but you haven’t tried the stuff or read the information. Just Blanket it won’t work, and sighting WRONG ripple? Low ripple, there should be a number published what it can do, RIGHT? What’s the answer, NOT this is the wrong question?

Easy to say no... WHY on the other hand.. whole new world... It’s called being a mechanic... YUP.. I fix it, there has to be a fix for a bad or noisy PS.

How about try this (what ever it may be), it may work better, for your apps.
One of the 6 Eeyore’s. Oh No, I had to say no again, oh my.. LOL

Quit holding out on the goods, if you got an answer offer it up. If you don't, go find one... Simple...

Regards
oldhvy, stick to mechanics :-)

It’s a laptop power supply. Here, you can buy directly from the supplier:

https://sz-yhy.en.alibaba.com/product/1857822116-806101300/12_V_10a_12vdc_120w_Ac_dc_Laptop_Universa...

Model YHY-1201000 just like on the Waveform Lighting site. It is a two stage power supply so it has low flicker for lighting purposes. And yes, the pictures match exactly what is on Waveform Lighting site.  It even says only use for IT equipment purposes (not lighting)