Smart power supplies for turntable

To clarify, I have a Clearaudio turntable with a 12v DC motor. Clearaudio indicates  that their DC power supply is voltage stabilized, yet they sell a separate 12v battery power supply. This suggests the stock power supply has some limitations. 

Every design has limitations, they just don't tell you about them. "Voltage stabilized" can mean all sorts of things. But there are guys with $50k UPS regenerators who still hear differences with time of day, running off AC vs regenerator, etc. None of this stuff is perfect. Not to the degree we can hear.

A battery is a chemical process. It has been a while you may not be old enough to remember but the old lead acid batteries would fizz out explosive gas when charging. Might even see the bubbles sometimes on some of them. Newer batteries work on different molecules but the idea is the same. None of them produces power as perfectly smooth and silent as we want.

Then the power has to go from where it's stored to where it's needed. At low voltage this gets real important real fast. What I'm getting at, there is no silver bullet. Just a whole bunch of things that can be done better or worse. Study enough of them, you might well be able to make a better battery supply than CA.

The good news is they already have a battery option for your motor. This means it will be real easy to convert to battery. Probably all you need to do is connect to where the option would connect. I would use lithium ion and make sure to use a charger that not only cuts off when playing records but that disconnects from AC as well. Without this feature RFI will ride right across the battery and this noise will detract from performance. Been there. Done that.

R. Daneel Olivaw

There was a fairly long thread about the Clearaudio optional battery supply, and the OP eventually bought it, for $1200, even after he received tons of advice on alternative approaches for fewer dollars.  You might want to check out that thread. IF you were to rig up your own battery supply so as to save money over the Clearaudio optional supply, then you would need to know some very specific info about the Clearaudio TT motor and the onboard components of its existing power supply that runs off wall AC, apparently.  See the older thread for that information.  Like sryeager mentioned above, an AC power regenerator would solve your problem and probably supply enough AC watts to take care of some of your other components, which must also be suffering if your line voltage gets down as low as 113V.  You can buy a used PS Audio P10, which makes around 1200W of pure 120VAC, for between $2000 and $2500.  I use a P15, the current version of the P10, really, on my basement audio system, and the results are superb. What's more, PS Audio takes good care of its customers.

@millercarbon I will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Just looking for a reasonable solution. 
 

@lewm I will look for the thread on the CA battery supply. Its relative cost to serve just one device is why I started this thread. The power regenerator seems like a better option given its ability to run multiple devices. 
 

Thx again for the advice. 

That's the spirit. I've done what you're contemplating, convert motor to battery supply. Many years ago, didn't know near what I do now. Also my AC was dedicated line, well above average. Battery was several feet away, long wires. Even so the battery was a worthwhile improvement. Later on I modified the motor pod to enclose the battery. Nowadays, better batteries, should be even better. 

Rens Heijnis in The Netherlands is modding my strain gauge to lithium battery, along with some other things. It is a sound approach and in your case a good candidate for DIY as well.

To clarify, I have a Clearaudio turntable with a 12v DC motor. Clearaudio indicates  that their DC power supply is voltage stabilized, yet they sell a separate 12v battery power supply. This suggests the stock power supply has some limitations. 

To me it suggests they can sell it and make money. Expectation of performance is almost as good of a consumer motivator as validated performance.

The operating range on the ClearAudio AC supply makes it sound like a switcher?  That is not inherently bad. It will mean it will handle your 113V or pretty much anything you throw at it without too much issue. Depending on how it is designed, the output voltage may be totally independent of the input, or slight variation.  The turntable also has active speed control based on a speed sensor, so that is ultimately setting the speed, and will also adjust up and down as needed.  I don't think you would see any variation in turntable speed if you tried to measure it. Not even a tiny bit. You would need a wow and flutter meter. Realistically, the bearing are causing more speed variation, not to mention non perfect placement of the record hole, etc. etc.

I would be far more concerned about just general "noise" which you seem to have addressed at some level. Maybe you can borrow a power regenerator and see if it meets your needs.