How Noisy Is Your Digital

Kingrex

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
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I'm an electrician. I have been into improving audio power since I got back into audio about 7 years ago. For a long time I have heard people say, keep your computers out of your audio room. I don't disgree at all that SMPS , florescent light, unfiltered dimmers, motors, VFD etc create power line noise. They do.

But, what about all the Linear Power Supplies. To get a better sense of this I called my friend Ben at Mojo Audio. I have his Mystique V3 DAC and Deja Vu server. He should know how much noise the PS, clocks other high frequency devices polute the electrical infastructure. Boy did I get an earful.

Food for thought. The standard LPS out there is a doughnut transformer, a SS rectifier and some caps. These PS actually have issues. The biggest being power is 90 degree out of phase with voltage. That means after AC is rectified to DC, there are large peaks of the waveform to smooth out. It also seems this sort of PS does not do much to block noise created inside the unit from going back out and into all the other gear in your system.

Ben is pretty proud of his power supply. In the most simple form he is somehow introducing chokes into his PS in such a way that he brings power back in phase with voltage. This does 2 things. It halves rhe size of the rectified sine wave making the PS much more efficient. It also crested a much more robust firewall containing internal noise. It won't let chip noise and such back out of the server and dac and into your audio power.

I thought it all quite interesting as I study how best to shut down noise in our audio systems.
 
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Kingrex

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
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I have been rebuilding the power at a audiophiles house. Everyone was surprised how much reduction in noise came when I cleaned the panel up. Shocking. You just felt the room was much more calm and still. The bass was significantly improved.

A day later he called and said the pool was not working. After discovering the mess in the pump room and replacing burned up switches and correcting issues the past electrician created, we again noted a big change in his audio room. Specifically you no longer heard his pool pump motor hum in his listening space.

Pix are some of the crap I found at his house. Non is that uncommon for what I see on a daily basis. And this is the foundation of way to many audiophie power supplies.
 

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Mikem53

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Oct 1, 2020
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Manley labs hired Bruno Putzney, The gentlemen who designed the Hypex Class D modules, mola mola, To build a SMPS for their high end Pro audio gear which is used in many recording studios. EveAnna Manley says it’s far quieter, runs cooler, sounds better than any of their currently made in house Linear PS Or any that she has heard.
These have been used for some time in their Pro Audio gear Now.. Just sayin, these devices are becoming more prevalent in studios, etc..
They keep taking the switching frequencies up higher and out of audibility.. Many aspects Of the recording process are now using them.. Not sure how it affects the SQ of recordings if any, or playback once they start implementing them properly.. technology marches on...
 

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