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Linear Power supply - ATX or others

Started by Dev , Dec 30 2015 07:08 AM

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28 replies to this topic

#1 Dev

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Posted 30 December 2015 - 07:08 AM

Folks,

I am looking forward to upgrade my power supply for both the control and audio PC in a dual Jplay setup. I am currently using the HDPlex linear power supply with the PicoPSU on a Streacom FC10 chassis. PPA USB card is also powered by the 5v Hdplex lpsu.

Does anyone know how well the Teradak ATX linear power supply work against other linear power supply with picoPSU ? How much improvement can I expect on Teradak over the Hdplex ? Given that the Teradak ATX psu connector is not compatible with the FC10 power input cutaway in the back panel, I will probably have to drill holes and do some custom modification which is a hassle.

Any other suggestion to improve the power ? What about the Uptone JS-2 with pico ? Anybody compare JS-2 with HDplex ?

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#2 tboooe

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Posted 30 December 2015 - 04:53 PM

I recently changed my picopsu to an HD Plex 250W ATX DC psu and got an improvement in bass and details. It only costs about $80 so to me it was worth it to upgrade.

I will getting the HD Plex linear psu after the new year so I can compare it to my Keces. Unfortunately I have not had a chance to listen to the Teradak so I dont know if it will sound better than the HD Plex. Have you visited the Computer Audiophile forum where there is large thread on Teradak.

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#3 Dev

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Posted 30 December 2015 - 09:02 PM

I recently changed my picopsu to an HD Plex 250W ATX DC psu and got an improvement in bass and details. It only costs about $80 so to me it was worth it to upgrade.

I will getting the HD Plex linear psu after the new year so I can compare it to my Keces. Unfortunately I have not had a chance to listen to the Teradak so I dont know if it will sound better than the HD Plex. Have you visited the Computer Audiophile forum where there is large thread on Teradak.

I have the hdplex 250w in my control and pico in my audio pc. Yes, I did visit CA but I didn't find any direct comparison in this area. theoretically, an ATX linear psu should be quiet an improvement over the linear psu + pico. Two Teradak atx with shipping to US, will be close to $2k, so before I jump into the ship I just want to make sure that its worth

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#4 Cat

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Posted 04 March 2016 - 12:34 PM

Hi,

Does anyone knows how "sounds" the new HDPLEX 300W ATX Linear Power Supply (http://www.hd-plex.c...ATX-Output.html) compared to the other Hdplex power supply 100w psu?

And more generally, how good is this new ATX linear power supply compared to other ATX linear power supply (like teradak), and also compared to an ATX SMPS, like Corsair for example?

Thanks :-)

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#5 signature8

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Posted 20 May 2016 - 02:58 PM

I have the hdplex 250w in my control and pico in my audio pc. Yes, I did visit CA but I didn't find any direct comparison in this area. theoretically, an ATX linear psu should be quiet an improvement over the linear psu + pico. Two Teradak atx with shipping to US, will be close to $2k, so before I jump into the ship I just want to make sure that its worth

Dev: I am also trying to decide between HDPlex 300W ATX LPS vs Teradak 350 W ATX LPS. Two HDPlex can be had for about $1,500, whereas two Teradak would cost about $2,000 shipped to US. Did you find any comparison? Is Teradak worth the extra money?

In fact HDPlex provides you few more additional output ports. Let me know if you learnt anything more on this, and if you decided one way or another. Thanks.

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#6 Dev

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Posted 20 May 2016 - 07:12 PM

Dev: I am also trying to decide between HDPlex 300W ATX LPS vs Teradak 350 W ATX LPS. Two HDPlex can be had for about $1,500, whereas two Teradak would cost about $2,000 shipped to US. Did you find any comparison? Is Teradak worth the extra money?

In fact HDPlex provides you few more additional output ports. Let me know if you learnt anything more on this, and if you decided one way or another. Thanks.

No experience with Teradak but they are both made out of the same parts and can get as good as the parts allow. If I were to choose between the two, I would choose the HDplex because the support from Larry is phenomenal. Till date I have received blazing fast service and reply from Larry. If you are in the US, then choosing HDPlex is a no brainer. I can't tell such things about Teradak and always have found their response to be very slow and I finally gave up. Moreover, if problem happens shipping it back and forth that heavy unit to China at my own expense is a deal breaker. I say go with the HDplex.

On a different note, nowadays I am experimenting with up-sampling in HQP and find it very interesting. The problem is it needs very high compute power and thus I can't run the processor/ram in lower clock rates. So not too sure if a 100w Hdplex LPS (which I have) will meet the power demands. Still trying to find that out but I have switched temporarily to an atx smps with very satisfied results.

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#7 signature8

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Posted 21 May 2016 - 12:07 AM

Thanks Dev, yes that is true, Teradak communication is very slow, takes at least a day before you hear back. Larry responses within minutes generally.

I never thought that I will have to send it back to China for service, that will cost at least $300. I will stick with HDPlex I guess.

I used to up-sample with HQPlayer, everything to DSD128, but I still find IB to be a better sounding player. I have a new built PC with i7. I will try HQP with that and see. Thanks for your response.

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#8 signature8

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Posted 15 June 2016 - 04:23 PM

On a different note, nowadays I am experimenting with up-sampling in HQP and find it very interesting. The problem is it needs very high compute power and thus I can't run the processor/ram in lower clock rates. So not too sure if a 100w Hdplex LPS (which I have) will meet the power demands. Still trying to find that out but I have switched temporarily to an atx smps with very satisfied results.

Dev: Which atx smps you are using?

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#9 Dev

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Posted 16 June 2016 - 06:06 AM

Dev: Which atx smps you are using?

I am using Seasonic fanless Atx psu (recommended by Jussi, author of HQP). The sound is very open, big and dynamic. I felt the linear psu I had before restricted the dynamics and compressed things. For big compute work, I wouldn't recommend cheapo LPS, unless you are able to build one the best of the parts, including transformers, regulators and caps but it can get really expensive.

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#10 GoGa

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Posted 29 September 2016 - 04:30 PM

I am using Seasonic fanless Atx psu (recommended by Jussi, author of HQP). The sound is very open, big and dynamic. I felt the linear psu I had before restricted the dynamics and compressed things. For big compute work, I wouldn't recommend cheapo LPS, unless you are able to build one the best of the parts, including transformers, regulators and caps but it can get really expensive.

I should say that I'm happy with the HDPlex components. Larry, the owner of HDPlex is a very nice guy and provides his customers with the top level support.

I use ROON + HQ Player. I upsample everything to DSD256 without any problems. The sound is outstanding. Probably not as good as IB but very close. Given the convenience of ROON and SQ of HQP I'm very happy.

Here are the details of my playback PC hardware:

HDPlex H1.S fanless case
GA-H170N-WIFI motherboard
Core i5-6600T CPU (only 35W TDP!)
Samsung 850 EVO 120GB M.2 SATA3 Solid State Drive (SSD)
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16G 2X8GB 2133MHZ DDR4 Non-ECC CL14DIMM Dual Channel Memory
HDPLEX HiFi 250W DC-ATX
HDPLEX 100W Linear Power Supply

My ROON setup consists of:

ROON Core running on QNAP NAS (TS-453S Pro with 8Gb RAM). The library files are stored on the same NAS.
Playback PC with HQPlayer (specs are above)

Here are the details of my playback PC software with HQPlayer connected to my DAC:
I run a single PC with WIN2012 R2 in Core Mode, AO 1.4, Fidelizer Pro, Process Lasso. The PC is headless and controlled from iPad through TeamViewer. I have no dedicated audiophile USB card. A USB cable goes: JitterBug > UpTone Regen > Musical Paradise tube DAC (MP-D2). It sounds fantastic. You don't have to go to the extremes by using Win2012 as your operating system. Windows 10 + AO 2.0 + Fidelizer Pro is reported to be a very good alternative.

This PC is completely silent and capable of converting everything to DSD256 on the fly without any problems.

Music Server PC Hardware (single PC):

-- HDPlex H1.S fanless case
-- GA-H170N-WIFI motherboard
-- Core i5-6600T CPU (only 35W TDP!)
-- Samsung 850 EVO 120GB M.2 SATA3 Solid State Drive
-- Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16G 2X8GB 2133MHZ DDR4 Non-ECC CL14DIMM Dual Channel Memory
-- Blue Jeans CAT 6a LAN cable
-- UpTone USB Regen

Music Server PC software:

-- Win 2016 in Core Mode, AO 2.20, Process Lasso, Fidelizer Pro 7.10

Playback Software:

-- ROON Core on WIN2016 Core i7 laptop > UltraRendu

Digital Setup:

QNAP NAS (TS-453 Pro) > Audio PC > Sonore UltraRendu > iFi Mercury USB Cable > iFi iUSB + iPower > iFi Gemini USB Cable > Uptone USB Regen > Musical Paradise Tube DAC (MP-D2) > Accuphase SLC-15 XLR cables > ACCUPHASE E-470 integrated amplifier > Duelund DCA12GA Speaker Wire > Focal Electra 1038 BE speakers

Power Source: PurePower 2000

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#11 RubenV.

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 01:05 PM

Any thoughts on the 400W version HDPlex is currently offering? I am in the market for a new LPSU that has enough power for a 6700K to do 512 DSD upsampeling with HQPlayer. This will be for the "control PC", the NAA is already fully linear powered.

Would it be worth it to power it with a linear psu like the HDPlex or perhaps one from Teradak? Or would a switching psu without fan (like something from Seasonic) would give the same performance?

- Case: Streacom FC8 Evo                                           - Harddisk: Intel 520 120GB SSD
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570T Tray                            - Powersupply: PPA dual rail LPSU + batteries
- Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX                                 - USB/SATA/AES cable: PPAstudio RED
- Memory: Crucial BLT4G3D1337DT1TX0CEU 2X 4GB      - PPAstudio CFreader + DDC
- USB card: PPAstudio pci-express usb3.0 card             

- DAC: dCS Paganini                                                   - Speakers: Linkwitz LX521 + Thor subwoofers

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#12 Marcin_gps

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 02:08 PM

Any thoughts on the 400W version HDPlex is currently offering? I am in the market for a new LPSU that has enough power for a 6700K to do 512 DSD upsampeling with HQPlayer. This will be for the "control PC", the NAA is already fully linear powered.

Would it be worth it to power it with a linear psu like the HDPlex or perhaps one from Teradak? Or would a switching psu without fan (like something from Seasonic) would give the same performance?

It will be announced under JCAT this week. I've been running a prototype for almost a year now 24/7.

Unless you have a gaming power hungry graphic card, you're good to go!

Forget about switching power supplies if SQ is your priority.

Cheers,

Marcin

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#13 Adrian

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 03:31 PM

It will be announced under JCAT this week. I've been running a prototype for almost a year now 24/7.

Unless you have a gaming power hungry graphic card, you're good to go!

Forget about switching power supplies if SQ is your priority.

Cheers,

Marcin

These are great news! I'm curious to see how this new PS will be! I have never had a linear psu and I think I might consider buying yours.

Marcin_gps and Farmer like this

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#14 RubenV.

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 04:16 PM

Forget about switching power supplies if SQ is your priority.

Does this also counts when you use it for the control pc? I've only used a lpsu on the audio pc so far, and wonder what a lpsu for the control pc can bring to the total SQ of the system.

- Case: Streacom FC8 Evo                                           - Harddisk: Intel 520 120GB SSD
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570T Tray                            - Powersupply: PPA dual rail LPSU + batteries
- Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX                                 - USB/SATA/AES cable: PPAstudio RED
- Memory: Crucial BLT4G3D1337DT1TX0CEU 2X 4GB      - PPAstudio CFreader + DDC
- USB card: PPAstudio pci-express usb3.0 card             

- DAC: dCS Paganini                                                   - Speakers: Linkwitz LX521 + Thor subwoofers

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#15 Marcin_gps

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 05:09 PM

Does this also counts when you use it for the control pc? I've only used a lpsu on the audio pc so far, and wonder what a lpsu for the control pc can bring to the total SQ of the system.

Of course - same gains.

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#16 bogkor35

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Posted 30 January 2017 - 08:30 PM

What is the SQ advantage of HDPlex 400W over 100W (to feed SinglePC configuration with 65W mobo)?

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#17 Tomslin

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Posted 01 February 2017 - 03:13 PM

Forget about switching power supplies if SQ is your priority.

Cheers,

Marcin

Skip pico-psu also if it's possible, is my advice.

Tomas

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AudioPC: Intel S1200V3RPS, Intel Xeon E3-1230LV3, Apacer AP2GITETLQ1K3 4GB DDR3 1066 ECC DIMM,

SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRANS-ETNRC, JCAT USB Card Femto,
JCAT Reference SATA Cable, JCAT Net Card Femto

ControlPC: Intel S1200KPR, Intel Xeon E3-1265L V2, Apacer 75.A83EE.G000C 4GB DDR3 1066 ECC DIMM,

SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRANS-ETNRC (for Windows), SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRAFS-NR (for WAV-files),

JCAT Reference SATA Cable, JCAT Net Card Femto, JCAT Signature LAN Cable

Software: Windows Server 2019 Standard, Total Commander 9.21a, JPLAY 7 Femto, Audiophile Optimizer 3.00, Upplay 1.4.1

Audio equipment: JCAT Reference USB Cable, Harmony Design Pre 906, Moon Audio Silver Dragon V3 with Furutech Rhodium XLR, Sennheiser HD800

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#18 Tomslin

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Posted 01 February 2017 - 07:50 PM

What is the SQ advantage of HDPlex 400W over 100W (to feed SinglePC configuration with 65W mobo)?

400W is fully ATX compliant. With 100W version you must use a dc-atx converter (pico-psu), and it's worse. But none of them are an state-of-the-art psu in my opinion.

Tomas

AudioPC: Intel S1200V3RPS, Intel Xeon E3-1230LV3, Apacer AP2GITETLQ1K3 4GB DDR3 1066 ECC DIMM,

SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRANS-ETNRC, JCAT USB Card Femto,
JCAT Reference SATA Cable, JCAT Net Card Femto

ControlPC: Intel S1200KPR, Intel Xeon E3-1265L V2, Apacer 75.A83EE.G000C 4GB DDR3 1066 ECC DIMM,

SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRANS-ETNRC (for Windows), SATA to CF Adapter with Apacer AP-CF016GRAFS-NR (for WAV-files),

JCAT Reference SATA Cable, JCAT Net Card Femto, JCAT Signature LAN Cable

Software: Windows Server 2019 Standard, Total Commander 9.21a, JPLAY 7 Femto, Audiophile Optimizer 3.00, Upplay 1.4.1

Audio equipment: JCAT Reference USB Cable, Harmony Design Pre 906, Moon Audio Silver Dragon V3 with Furutech Rhodium XLR, Sennheiser HD800

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#19 Adrian

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 05:59 PM

400W is fully ATX compliant. With 100W version you must use a dc-atx converter (pico-psu), and it's worse. But none of them are an state-of-the-art psu in my opinion.

Tomas

And what is a state-of-the-art psu?