Super3 - a supercapacitor LPS, by Farad Power Supplies
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Different function, network bridge is the receiving part - you can stream using dCS Mosaic - in order to use Roon, you need a Roon core.
Nucleus is one. In that case the network bridge is the Roon endpoint.
Ah OK. Understood. So it is for playing local files or do you also use Roon core to decode the streams from your music streaming service like Tidal or Qobuz?
Both Mosaic and Roon are streaming interfaces, you can use both to stream local content as well as Tidal and Qobuz.
The big difference is in the user interface, where Roon is much friendlier.
Hi guys just finished this week with my farad los setup for the chord dave, darad made a new true negative lps and we made a monitoring pcb for the because the farads startup sequence is different per voltage. I already added a kind of first out of the box review on headfi and chord face book. Should i also drop that few pages and some pictures in here?
Regarding the methods used to measure noise
the the three areas should very low below .5 amps closer to .1 amps meaning it’s ideal this shows it’s actual noise floor At idle
next midway to its max rating
third it’s max for a short time even just below if you feel better but it must be used for a 5 mins or more. This yields how it acts ina heated state
the injected noise is a good idea to use on all 3 I post above.
I have used many lps units over the years
I can concur the farad line up is solid of the best
Paul s units also very good
larry s stuff is good but subpar compared to these two. he has maker his stuff better. I like him but things change and no one gets told not cool lol. i use farads for best results there own line of cables I use too. Level 3 is fine.
a note on any of the cables used be it
dc or power and fuses. has anyone ever shown an actual test to show actual results one can see
it can be on dc cables this I know. While I can’t say I can hear farads stuff on any device. Dacs it’s a given
network switch’s too.
now I’m steamers it’s complex most all use an dc to dc atx and this is where it gets dicy. but it does get improved no doubt. beyond digital sources too
but I feel if the psu was made well we should not need to do anything
mytek I get but chord stuff not at there prices shame on them
the the three areas should very low below .5 amps closer to .1 amps meaning it’s ideal this shows it’s actual noise floor At idle
next midway to its max rating
third it’s max for a short time even just below if you feel better but it must be used for a 5 mins or more. This yields how it acts ina heated state
the injected noise is a good idea to use on all 3 I post above.
I have used many lps units over the years
I can concur the farad line up is solid of the best
Paul s units also very good
larry s stuff is good but subpar compared to these two. he has maker his stuff better. I like him but things change and no one gets told not cool lol. i use farads for best results there own line of cables I use too. Level 3 is fine.
a note on any of the cables used be it
dc or power and fuses. has anyone ever shown an actual test to show actual results one can see
it can be on dc cables this I know. While I can’t say I can hear farads stuff on any device. Dacs it’s a given
network switch’s too.
now I’m steamers it’s complex most all use an dc to dc atx and this is where it gets dicy. but it does get improved no doubt. beyond digital sources too
but I feel if the psu was made well we should not need to do anything
mytek I get but chord stuff not at there prices shame on them
Farad super3 setup for the Chord Dave
After reading a lot on the forums about upgrading the LPS (linear power supply) of the Chord Dave and the results people are getting by adding a Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs DC4 power supply, I was eager to get one on my own set. I already had a Farad Super3 on the Mscaler and because farad is also Dutch I contacted Mattijs the owner of Farad if he was interested in doing a project of making an affordable lps for the Dave. In the past he had this question often but I explained my own background as electronics engineer and willing to use my new Dave as test object and make some parts for the project. About around the same time he was asked to do a kind of similar lps for another DAC brand with a positive and negative power supply. So now two parties were asking him and having some ideas already in his head he agreed, notice!!! this was only approx 2 month ago.
After a brainstorming session he told me passionately about his ideas and what he thought should be on such a system for a high end DAC. Mattijs has some experience on audio design as being a founder of Pink Faun. The first key feature that was an absolute must was designing a true negative powersupply. So not pairing two positive supplies where the positive of one is attached to the negative of the other and so creating a minus when using a floating ground or rail as it is called. A true negative power supply is completely opposite build so eg. npn transistors, capacitors are the other way around - same with the diode bridge and the negative based regulators etc.. will not go into the details but the end result is a lps were all the common grounds can be attached to each other one does not have to be floating. So all rf noise can be killed at the source and not at the end of the chain. Also floating ground can be submitted to different loads from the upper and lower side voltages and this could cause a shifting or jittering ground level.
Secondly Mattijs and i are convinced that every DC voltage the Dave gets should have a separate casing and transformer so no cross contamination can occur and every lps is filtered on its own internally and externally eg. Powercord, casing, wiring etc.. Using farads stock components would also save a lot of development and testing time. These power supplies have proven themself in and out of the audio world. He designed his true negative supply in no time having the idea for a long time already, he only had to design a new pcb and had this made in his production facility in no time.
The third key feature we figured that it should have was a safety device for enabling the power to the Dave. Each voltage +-15V and +5V, three in total will come to the Dave in different timing. A -15 will start up in approx 7sec and the 5V in 1 sec. We don't know if the Dave can handle this and what happens if you are on holiday and one power supply fails and it will only get 2 out of three voltages.
The fourth but not the most un-important one, it should be affordable. I cannot give prices because they are not mine to give but you can do a little bit of the math yourself as we are using three stock farad power supplies if you add the one for the Mscaler 4 in total so thats approx 2400,- in VAT on 4 stock lps’s add the wiring and monitoring print and the aluminum inlet with plugs and maybe powercords you can guess were the basic version will start. On a later stage I will test upgrades such as fuses, rhodium inlets, but only after setting a baseline with the stock components. (While i am typing this i am listening to my ultimate playlist and are flabbergasted every few moments)
Using 4 Farad Super3 power supplies you will not have a big footprint, the supplies can be stacked or laid out flat next to each other. A lot of configurations are possible and as I have learned in this audio world everyone has a different approach on how they setup their gear and this way everybody can be happy. I have seen people building racks for just there farads.
So mattijs designed a monitoring print for inside of the Dave. The space was used were the original power supply was. This print will only pass through the three DC voltages simultaneously if all are present, a so called AND function in digital terms and a fail save if people would switch the lines. This way the dave is always safe, not a bad thing for a DAC that costs 11.400,- euro in the EU. He uses a microprocessor on this board that later on can be tweaked or reprogrammed if necessary. While mattijs was designing the lps i was doing some cnc work for the power inlet of the dave.
It still amazes me from two viewpoints how the stock $32 costing medical switched power supply of the dave still sounds so good and also that chord does not upgrade this by making a choral stand with an external power supply, how hard can it be? And people, the difference is not subtle it's huge - how much better the Dave gets by doing this i will almost call it Dave 2.
The advantage of above system is that customers pretty much can install this system themselves with a degree of safety that nothing can be blown up by doing something wrong or if/when components fail in the future. Everything can fail as we all know, the Chord as can be read on forums are also failing now and then and repaired by Chord, that's life when using electronics, shit happens. But this way it feels much better and to be honest the start up sequence is also pretty cool to watch. All separate lps’s LED start to blink red and when ready go over into a nice blue and after a fraction of a sec the dave comes alive (sorry thats my ocd kicking in).
Last week Mattijs called me that the monitor print was ready and tested. So he gave me a DIY kit of all separate components for me to install into the dave and test if it works. The first trail I do will be with stock farad super3 power supplies the only upgrade that is made are the dc lines - these are silver. The past has proven that these cables work the best between the super3 and Dave. For the power cords I had to go on Mattijs' experience and the feedback from his customers so i used TCS021 furutech cable this is slightly thinner version than the advised TCS031 version. I wanted to use one AC power connecter to 3 AC euro inlets this saves alot of space in the power block. The connectors used are also furutech and the gold versions around $30 a piece.
I soldered currently Daves own internally dc cord of its own power supply as the gold plated pins of the new connector are in back-order. I think in the future for my own setup will solder everything and will not use any connector but that's custom and not for now.
After testing everything without connected the dc to the Dave, it all worked in one go. Next I made everything fit and flipped the switch and after the startup sequence the Dave came nicely alive. I installed everything in my setup and the magic started.
I will repeat my first impressions I applied to Mattijs at 2 in the middle of the night “every instrument and voice has got its own space now, bass has much more texture and attack and depth and with vocals it is as if they are separate entities in front of you…” and than some words i will not repeat online, next notes I sent were “the fatigue that was always a bit there are just GONE the snares and trumpets tjeessss mattijs i am back to listening again bye”
This morning after listing for a few hours and thinking what to say about the change it makes out of the box and how to describe it best for now i think it's as if the sound and coloration of my gear/setup is vanished and just the music is left. Btw excuse me for my English i am not native English but Dutch and just typing as i am thinking. Our opinions above are also just mine and in my own setup. I owned almost all modern Chord dacs including all lps tweaks. In my setup i use an Aurender N10 as streamer a new Chord Dave and Mscaler connected with the high fidelity storm bnc cables. Amplifier is a Nelson Pass class A connected to the new Usher TD-10 speakers who are internally upgraded. I also have dedicated power on one phase from the powerbox just for my audio gear. As headset i use the Focal Utopia. In the upcoming week i will do some serious listening and will come back on my finding on this magical upgrade.
The last thing alot of us dont realize is that every analoge output signal is created between the voltage that is created by the power supply so basicly a big part of the systems sound is determend by that power supply itsself or the absense of noise on the supplied power.
After reading a lot on the forums about upgrading the LPS (linear power supply) of the Chord Dave and the results people are getting by adding a Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs DC4 power supply, I was eager to get one on my own set. I already had a Farad Super3 on the Mscaler and because farad is also Dutch I contacted Mattijs the owner of Farad if he was interested in doing a project of making an affordable lps for the Dave. In the past he had this question often but I explained my own background as electronics engineer and willing to use my new Dave as test object and make some parts for the project. About around the same time he was asked to do a kind of similar lps for another DAC brand with a positive and negative power supply. So now two parties were asking him and having some ideas already in his head he agreed, notice!!! this was only approx 2 month ago.
After a brainstorming session he told me passionately about his ideas and what he thought should be on such a system for a high end DAC. Mattijs has some experience on audio design as being a founder of Pink Faun. The first key feature that was an absolute must was designing a true negative powersupply. So not pairing two positive supplies where the positive of one is attached to the negative of the other and so creating a minus when using a floating ground or rail as it is called. A true negative power supply is completely opposite build so eg. npn transistors, capacitors are the other way around - same with the diode bridge and the negative based regulators etc.. will not go into the details but the end result is a lps were all the common grounds can be attached to each other one does not have to be floating. So all rf noise can be killed at the source and not at the end of the chain. Also floating ground can be submitted to different loads from the upper and lower side voltages and this could cause a shifting or jittering ground level.
Secondly Mattijs and i are convinced that every DC voltage the Dave gets should have a separate casing and transformer so no cross contamination can occur and every lps is filtered on its own internally and externally eg. Powercord, casing, wiring etc.. Using farads stock components would also save a lot of development and testing time. These power supplies have proven themself in and out of the audio world. He designed his true negative supply in no time having the idea for a long time already, he only had to design a new pcb and had this made in his production facility in no time.
The third key feature we figured that it should have was a safety device for enabling the power to the Dave. Each voltage +-15V and +5V, three in total will come to the Dave in different timing. A -15 will start up in approx 7sec and the 5V in 1 sec. We don't know if the Dave can handle this and what happens if you are on holiday and one power supply fails and it will only get 2 out of three voltages.
The fourth but not the most un-important one, it should be affordable. I cannot give prices because they are not mine to give but you can do a little bit of the math yourself as we are using three stock farad power supplies if you add the one for the Mscaler 4 in total so thats approx 2400,- in VAT on 4 stock lps’s add the wiring and monitoring print and the aluminum inlet with plugs and maybe powercords you can guess were the basic version will start. On a later stage I will test upgrades such as fuses, rhodium inlets, but only after setting a baseline with the stock components. (While i am typing this i am listening to my ultimate playlist and are flabbergasted every few moments)
Using 4 Farad Super3 power supplies you will not have a big footprint, the supplies can be stacked or laid out flat next to each other. A lot of configurations are possible and as I have learned in this audio world everyone has a different approach on how they setup their gear and this way everybody can be happy. I have seen people building racks for just there farads.
So mattijs designed a monitoring print for inside of the Dave. The space was used were the original power supply was. This print will only pass through the three DC voltages simultaneously if all are present, a so called AND function in digital terms and a fail save if people would switch the lines. This way the dave is always safe, not a bad thing for a DAC that costs 11.400,- euro in the EU. He uses a microprocessor on this board that later on can be tweaked or reprogrammed if necessary. While mattijs was designing the lps i was doing some cnc work for the power inlet of the dave.
It still amazes me from two viewpoints how the stock $32 costing medical switched power supply of the dave still sounds so good and also that chord does not upgrade this by making a choral stand with an external power supply, how hard can it be? And people, the difference is not subtle it's huge - how much better the Dave gets by doing this i will almost call it Dave 2.
The advantage of above system is that customers pretty much can install this system themselves with a degree of safety that nothing can be blown up by doing something wrong or if/when components fail in the future. Everything can fail as we all know, the Chord as can be read on forums are also failing now and then and repaired by Chord, that's life when using electronics, shit happens. But this way it feels much better and to be honest the start up sequence is also pretty cool to watch. All separate lps’s LED start to blink red and when ready go over into a nice blue and after a fraction of a sec the dave comes alive (sorry thats my ocd kicking in).
Last week Mattijs called me that the monitor print was ready and tested. So he gave me a DIY kit of all separate components for me to install into the dave and test if it works. The first trail I do will be with stock farad super3 power supplies the only upgrade that is made are the dc lines - these are silver. The past has proven that these cables work the best between the super3 and Dave. For the power cords I had to go on Mattijs' experience and the feedback from his customers so i used TCS021 furutech cable this is slightly thinner version than the advised TCS031 version. I wanted to use one AC power connecter to 3 AC euro inlets this saves alot of space in the power block. The connectors used are also furutech and the gold versions around $30 a piece.
I soldered currently Daves own internally dc cord of its own power supply as the gold plated pins of the new connector are in back-order. I think in the future for my own setup will solder everything and will not use any connector but that's custom and not for now.
After testing everything without connected the dc to the Dave, it all worked in one go. Next I made everything fit and flipped the switch and after the startup sequence the Dave came nicely alive. I installed everything in my setup and the magic started.
I will repeat my first impressions I applied to Mattijs at 2 in the middle of the night “every instrument and voice has got its own space now, bass has much more texture and attack and depth and with vocals it is as if they are separate entities in front of you…” and than some words i will not repeat online, next notes I sent were “the fatigue that was always a bit there are just GONE the snares and trumpets tjeessss mattijs i am back to listening again bye”
This morning after listing for a few hours and thinking what to say about the change it makes out of the box and how to describe it best for now i think it's as if the sound and coloration of my gear/setup is vanished and just the music is left. Btw excuse me for my English i am not native English but Dutch and just typing as i am thinking. Our opinions above are also just mine and in my own setup. I owned almost all modern Chord dacs including all lps tweaks. In my setup i use an Aurender N10 as streamer a new Chord Dave and Mscaler connected with the high fidelity storm bnc cables. Amplifier is a Nelson Pass class A connected to the new Usher TD-10 speakers who are internally upgraded. I also have dedicated power on one phase from the powerbox just for my audio gear. As headset i use the Focal Utopia. In the upcoming week i will do some serious listening and will come back on my finding on this magical upgrade.
The last thing alot of us dont realize is that every analoge output signal is created between the voltage that is created by the power supply so basicly a big part of the systems sound is determend by that power supply itsself or the absense of noise on the supplied power.
Thanks, i will try to give updates on how it goed from here but few days up and running now and keep taking notes. Parts for expanding production are ordered he told me and when we figured all out it will soon be avialable with farad online as a set to buy with all included and install manual. For the guys that dont dare an option to install will also be there.
I know this went above most heads here this happens with crickets
but I have to say the chord does design a good power supply and I know a price point must be met. it’s a shame how designs get done and then the accounts come in to kill it
I think ps audio has this happen to them atleat on older products. i will spread your good work
I have a few other non dac needs worth a try by them. they clearly have an upper hand on ultra high end lps needs
so happy to see a post based on real can be seen measurements.
Do you or your buds have a plan for a dc atx at this level. there is very little devices to use.
Better main Board on board regulators can help. but to get closer to this separate voltages is the way to go.
larry and if you know the name Has improved but better be Done
in fact behind a real main board that can be designEd for our purpose is we need
but I have to say the chord does design a good power supply and I know a price point must be met. it’s a shame how designs get done and then the accounts come in to kill it
I think ps audio has this happen to them atleat on older products. i will spread your good work
I have a few other non dac needs worth a try by them. they clearly have an upper hand on ultra high end lps needs
so happy to see a post based on real can be seen measurements.
Do you or your buds have a plan for a dc atx at this level. there is very little devices to use.
Better main Board on board regulators can help. but to get closer to this separate voltages is the way to go.
larry and if you know the name Has improved but better be Done
in fact behind a real main board that can be designEd for our purpose is we need
I understand that price points have to be met. But Rob Watts has said repeatedly that linear supplies will degrade the performance of his DACs relative to the power supplies they provide. That certainly is true with many cheap supplies, but it’s most certainly false with supplies like the Farad. In recognition of the fact they cut costs on the power supply, why not at least acknowledge that there could easily be power supplies that beat what they provided?
As far as the claim that they do design good power supplies - maybe that’s true for their analog gear but I see little evidence of this with their digital gear.
Hi. Reviving this thread. Hope it’s ok for me to ask this question.
Has anyone compared the the Plixir elite BDc with farad for powering the Sotm switch ? Which one would you say is better ?
Has anyone compared the the Plixir elite BDc with farad for powering the Sotm switch ? Which one would you say is better ?
I own both LPSs (one of each, but not two of each), and found synergy in a particular combo/sequence which worked best in my system, through some trial/error experimentation:
Super3 - a supercapacitor LPS, by Farad Power Supplies
2020--Feb AM: Hi QD, how's the Farad 3 coming along? I am now thinking if I should get the Farad 3 or the Plixir Elite. Any advise? The Plixir with 2 outlets at 2amps is going for $830 Singapore Dollars and the Farad 3 with the full upgrade is $930 but with a single output. Thank you. Me...
www.whatsbestforum.com
Super3 - a supercapacitor LPS, by Farad Power Supplies
2020--Feb AM: Hi QD, how's the Farad 3 coming along? I am now thinking if I should get the Farad 3 or the Plixir Elite. Any advise? The Plixir with 2 outlets at 2amps is going for $830 Singapore Dollars and the Farad 3 with the full upgrade is $930 but with a single output. Thank you. Me...
www.whatsbestforum.com
Last edited:
i don’t own the Sotm switch, but I own both the Plixir Elite BPS and the Farad Super 3 with their respective upgraded AC and DC power cords for powering my Roon Nucleus. In my system and to my ears, I prefer the sound of the Farad a little more than my Plixir Elite. In my system, the Farad possesses a more relaxed presentation and it’s midrange is also less aggressive than that of the Plixir.
When Synergistic Research released the Purple Fuse, the Farad Super 3 really pulled ahead of the Plixir sonically when I replaced the SR Orange Fuse which came with my Farad with the SR Purple fuse. The Plixir Elite doesn’t contain a fuse and subsequently can’t be fine tuned with aftermarket fuses like the Farad.
Either of these LPS sound better than the stock SMPS which comes with the Roon Nucleus, and in my opinion, the money spent on in either of these LPS is well worth the investment; at least powering a Roon Nucleus. Just my 2 cents
I use my Super3 plugged in my Niagara 3000 but with a Furutech PC.
My Super3 is feeding my Roon Rock NUC.
Check the reviews on Farad's website. My memory is foggy but I recall one that looked at both the Farad and another from Keces.
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