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I knew I shouldn’t have thrown my Electrical Engineering text book in the campus pond!

My apologies in advance for the length of this post.  Feel free to skip it but I feel a little background is needed for perspective. 45 years ago in my 2nd year as a Civil Engineering major, i took the mandatory introduction to Electrical Engineering course (the same one taken by Electrical Engineering majors). Suffice it to say, the class that covered from this is current to these are MOSFETs, JFETS, FPGAs absolutely kicked my butt. I prepared myself and my parents for the inevitable F.  I even skipped the final so i could prepare for my other finals. So when my semester grades arrived I had my mom open them. She, dad, and i broke into cheers when we saw that i received a D!   It was at that moment that I promised I would never risk anyone’s safety and would stay away from electronics. Upon returning to campus for the next semester, i sealed the deal by throwing my EE text book in the campus center pond.
Fast forward 45 years and here i am neck deep in the hobby i love trying to figure out the potential benefits of adding linear power supplies to either my streamer (Lumin D2) or digital music server (Roon Nucleus) or both. I just bought a RME ADI-2 FS DAC (to take over DAC functions from the Lumin) and for the first time i heard a step function improvement in sound quality in my system. I’ve made many tweaks/equipment upgrades over the years which have each make incremental improvements, but this was a wow with ear-to-ear-grin improvement! As i get older, the still curious engineer and researcher in me likes to read audiophile books like “The Complete Guide to High-End Audio“ by Robert Harley, magazines like The Absolute Sound and Stereophile, and forums such as here on AG to understand how and why a tweak or upgrade could affect the music of my integrated system. So, long story short, if i had known I’d be going down this awesome but at times frustrating audiophile rabbit hole, i would not have thrown the text book in the pond and i would have repeated that EE course so i would truly understand the miracle that is electronics and be a better educated hunter for the next upgrade to my system. I need that knowledge to understand and leverage all of the information that is out there on LPS; a way to separate the marketing/bias and be able to analyze & predict LPS cause and effect in my particular system. So, if you’ve come this far, in addition to the digital pieces already mentioned, my analog front end is a Linn Sondek LP12 with Linn K3 cartridge playing through a Vincent PHO-701 phono pre. Both digital and analog front ends play through a Primaluna Dialog HP Integrated amp into Goldenear Triton 3 speakers (which will be my last significant upgrade improvement investment…thinking of Joseph Audio Perspective 2’s).  I listen mostly to Various Jazz sub-genres.
 Thank you if you’ve gotten this far.  If you have any insights or recommendations regarding the addition of LPS to either Streamer or server, or both, i would love to hear from you. 
ezstreams
testrun
242 posts
 
Reading your post I felt like I was reading about myself.  I had the same challenge while getting my Industrial Engineering degree back in '79.  I live in NC and know Taylor at Goldprint pretty well.  He is a great person as is Jeff Joseph.  I own first generation Perspectives and have talked to Jeff about cables, amps and upgrading.  Jeff, as well as Taylor, are assets to the industry.  I'm about to take delivery of a Lumin T2 and have the same question about LPS.  I'm planning to spend some time living with the T2 before I do anything. I'm starting to believe room dynamics / interaction come into play making the impact of tweaks room dependent.

On a side note - MC - I also have Townshend Podiums on the way for my Perspectives.  I've convinced myself to go the speaker isolation direction before adding another tweaks.  
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,906 posts
 
Nothing in this thing is accurate or meaningful.  Maybe “SWPS” (whatever they are) were perfected years ago, but definitely not the case with SMPS.  Please take your garbage back to Reddit — it doesn’t fly here.
I don't think he reads any replies unless every sentences end in an exclamation mark!



yage
401 posts
 
There’s no good reason to swap out a power supply if it’s functioning properly. As for linear power supplies vs. switching power supplies, I suggest reading the following link:

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/152143111-audio-myth-switching-power-supplies-are...


This can help you figure out whether it’s something to tweak or leave alone.
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
I didn't throw away the text book.

A poorly implemented LPS may be worse than a well implemented SMPS.

Power supplies have phase and impedance properties. The audio circuitry is simply a regulator for the power supply. Changing the power supply will make things different, not necessarily better.

"Some of my work involved tuning the power supply. It may come as a surprise to learn that you can change tonality without even touching the signal path, because the signal originates from the power supply. The impedance curve of the N11's power supply is absolutely homogenous from DC to 200kHz, which creates a very balanced sound. I also tuned the resistors for the voltage gain, using a mix of carbon and metal resistors to create a neutral balance. There are a lot of preamps that claim to be 'neutral' or 'in balance,' but there are different shades of 'neutral.' If you have a tube preamp, for example, 'neutral' is at a different level than solid-state; it's not better or worse, but it is different. It took a lot of work to find the tonal balance I like a lot that measures well, with low noise, and fits very well in the Noble Line."
from  MBL Noble Line N11 line preamplifier | Stereophile.com

Many Tweekers have zero clue of what they are doing and most of the their improvements are simply changes. Posters with 10,000+ posts fall into that category.   Sadly, HiFi is riddled with charlatans. Most of the improvements can be explained from readily measurable phenomena.

Ignore ALL FanBoy specific recommendations as they all only apply to a specific system in a specific room. And likely 9/10ths of the time, make another system worse.
hshifi
572 posts
 
Hello,
I have heard a significant difference by adding a LPS. The SBooster is really good. If it doesn’t make a difference then why would Pass put its power supplies in separate chassis. SPS are there for profit or at the minimum to keep costs down. The MYTEK Liberty has a unique option to use a regular power cord that feeds into SPS or a DC input so you can add your own LPS. It makes a big difference. Plus, When you power off the SBooster that green light stays on for a while. This is telling me that this has power to spare. There is a reason why we love class A sound over class D. Continuous raw power. It’s the best for sound. We just hate you can fry an egg on it and it costs a lot to run and buy. Class D has come a looong way! There is a reason why Jeff Rowland still uses A/B in his $17,000 amp vs class D in his $6500 amp. It just sounds better. It’s the same reason why Vinyl is better sounding ( with the right gear and pressings). It sounds better! It is true analog HiRez. I would rather have a naturally aspirated engine over a turbo of the same HP. The bad thing is down the road I feel there will be no more naturally aspirated engines or class A-A/B components. I just hooked up an old Sony preamp to my amp. It is unbelievable. Yes, you can heat up your room in the winter with it but it is way better than my current Emotiva USP 1 which I believe is class H. My end goal is Ayre separates. Until then I will have to compromise. I do want to get a LPS kit for my Node 2i. Several of you have said it is well worth it. 
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