Smart power supplies for turntable

cindyment makes a great point about off center drilling. It is rampant and clearly audible. If you take a test record and widen out the center hole just 1 mm and play a 100 Hz tone you will clearly hear the pitch change. If you focus on a fixed visual reference in line with the finger lift of the tonearm you will see it wander back and forth on at least 50% of the records you play. If you can see it chances are you can hear it on sustained notes. This does not mean that turntables should not be accurate but this requirement has to be put into perspective. Just a 0.5 mm displacement will produce more wow than any modern audiophile turntable that is not defective. What is even more disturbing is there is not a pressing plant alive that can reliably drill a centered hole!  The hole that centers the grooves (stamper) is punched after a cursor is visually lined up on the runout groove. The standard for this is within 0.2 mm. This requires a lot of care on the part of the operator and a machine that is properly calibrated and maintained. 

Clearaudio does not make shabby turntables and the stock power supply probably does all the filtering and regulation required for acceptable performance. Spending even more money on an outboard power supply is not likely to make an audible difference that can be heard reliably. Your brain will think it heard it only because you spent money. Don't feel bad. My brain does the same thing.

I am the OP for the earlier thread mentioned above for the Clearaudio Smart Power 12V supply.  I eventually bought Clearaudio's very expensive power supply.  I wouldn't stake my life on it but I believe I am getting a little quieter signal out of my Performance DC Wood TT with the Smart Power 12V than I did with the pitiful looking little switching wall wart supply which came with the turntable.

Thx to @cindyment for describing issues not well addressed on Clearaudio’s website or in their documentation. I am not interested in spending $1200 for their battery power supply unless I can try it and return if there is little or no improvement or if there are better, more cost effective alternatives. I know the voltage in my house bounces around unpredictably. Even had an electrician attach a device to my panel to graph the voltage over 24 hours. The graph was relatively stable for periods of time and then would show a precipitous drop to around 113v and then move around over time, trending back to 120v. Trying to time my turntable use with voltage variations to find out if I can hear a difference is almost a fool’s errand. Seems to be time of day oriented to only some extent - summer air conditioning season when people come home from work, but other times seemingly random. I will see if I can audition a regenerator at the time of year when voltage is most likely to vary to find out if I notice any improvement to the table’s sound quality. 
 

Thx to all for your responses. 

I used a VPI frequency generator on my VPI for many years and I believe it to have been a sonic improvement even though my power was very stable. My very best experiences with audio have never come with an eye to reducing cost or saving money. Nothing wrong with that, but $1,200 to enhance the sound with technology often proved is not the path to great sound. 
 

Some of the best sound I have heard Is battery generated.. audio circuits most common… my Aurender Streamer now, I would be pretty unhesitatingly ing trying a battery source. You have occasionally leap to verify you have tried. 

$1200?!

Be careful with the advice so far, I would just about bet the only other one that speaks from experience is kingharold, and he "wouldn’t stake his life" on there being any difference at all. $1200 in my book should be "Yes indeed obviously better now let me list the ways." Everyone else, would love to see them chime in again only this time letting us know what experience it is based on. (Would LOVE to see the guy admit his platter is 1mm off center!🤣🤣🤣)

I’ve run the same motor off AC, battery, and battery connected to and disconnected from charger. Heard distinctly the difference in each case- AC good, battery better, disconnected best of all. This was with a lead acid motorcycle battery on a Teres motor. Roughly equivalent, if not superior, to your CA. Solid experience in other words.

Battery power on my Teres brought a more relaxed nuanced and detailed sound to the music. Dynamics weren’t so much greater but were rendered with a lot more subtle shadings making them more lifelike. No one thing stands out as being different, yet the whole effect is to draw you more into the music. None of this speed stability BS. If people actually tried and heard it they would know. The errors people are talking about - 1mm - are just absurd. By the time you can hear it clearly enough to identify as a speed problem you are already beyond lost. Vintage 35 year old $350 Technics are better than this.

Since your CA is already designed to run on their optional 12VDC supply this means all you have to do is get a 12V lithium battery and charger and wire it up with a switch. Flip the switch to disconnect the charger when playing, flip it back again go charge when done. I was looking into these for my Soundsmith Strain gauge before deciding to go with Rens Heijnis and there are really good lithium battery rigs made for electric bicycles that are compact and already set up with wires and charging circuit. Couple hundred bucks and should be a piece of cake to adapt. Run your rig for days on a charge.