Simplest Linear PSU?

@charles1dad @lewm

smps have two problems as i understand it

1) they can produce an output that has nasty digital switching noise, if the output is poorly or is not at all filtered to deliver a pure dc output

2) smps are also notorious for putting noise back into the ac line, which in turn can affect other components on the house circuit

there are industrial and medical grade smps units that address both these issues as they are engineered and built with this in mind - smps units for portable medical and lab/scientific instruments

for hifi, my understanding that ifi of the uk makes several relatively inexpensive upgrade power supplies that are still of the smps variety (not classic transformer driven linear ps’s) but with onboard filtration/noise management

i power 2 with active noise cancellation

i power x (higher version)

there is also this very pricey one which according to its marketing script has both ps technologies on board...

Why would anybody but a piece of equipment with a substandard power supply? Instead of pissing money away on outboard power supplies try buying equipment with decent power supplies to begin with.

@jjss49 

Thank you for the additional input.

Charles

@itsjustme That is right - complex things like R2R require SMD and because of that, they can sound pretty bad even if they improve some aspects things. I compared the Mola Mola Tambaqui ($13k) over a $2k AKM-based DAC I modded with as many high end discreet components and the Mola Mola objectively couldn't portray most instruments fully - a ton of information was simply missing, and exhibited the typical SMD "sound" to me which is a false sense of bass on every sound and brittle highs that appear as dynamics but are missing the musical information. The components eat away at transparency, period. They are simply not designed for audio - they are designed to be mass produced cheaply and fulfill non-audio engineer criteria. Nothing like that belongs in audio gear, IMO. Not even a chassis.

Anyway, yes it all depends on what discreet components you choose, only a couple people are manufacturing top end ones. On the other hand, sometimes its unavoidable like you said. I love Weiss op-amps, they do have SMD but they are the best sounding option that I know of when op-amps are needed.

I'm very open minded with audio, thats how I spent years modding and arriving at this conclusion. But I will try anything once.

@mijostyn Its for a recording studio not audiophile den, so its unavoidable with certain creative tools.