(04-May-2016, 02:59)baddog Wrote: I just received my shipping notice today, it is being shipped out from Small Green Computer ( New Hampshire ) I too was on the mailing list. Just an FYI for context. I will use the existing Uptone Audio JS-2 I already use for my Mac Mini.

(04-May-2016, 08:41)Hifi_swlon Wrote: Antoine, the Sonore PS is now priced on their website and Barrows mentioned in one of the comments it should be shipping from next week - built to order.  It's listed as $2,399(!) and is apparently the PS used (a pre production version anyway) in Chris Connaker's review (he didn't mention the total cost of the source he reviewed was therefore $3,048 and not $649, but anyway)....

http://rendu.sonore.us/signature-series-power-supply.html
Actually, it doesn't state if there's a 240V version, and the question was asked and unanswered in the comments.  Way out of my league anyway, and I've also got an aversion to a big unit as PS.  I'd take something in a nice case like a small Aurender if it was big enough to need to be 'on display', otherwise I'd really prefer to find something I can just shove out of the way and hide it.

It would be helpful if they included costs with all their recommended supplies, as it seems like there's quite a range, and also ideally someone actually give some indication of the relative performance....  I guess this will all unfold over the coming weeks...

(04-May-2016, 08:58)GuillaumeB Wrote: Ouch! That was naughty of Chris not to disclose... Perhaps that will come in part 2?

Interesting though, we are now in the same price bracket as a high end Aurender or Melco. Can't wait for the comparisons and shoot outs to begin.

Guillaume

(04-May-2016, 09:39)Hifi_swlon Wrote: Antoine, where's the best place to get info on Paul Hynes supplies (specs/pics/prices etc)?

The website I found doesn't appear to have been updated since circa 2008?! (http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/index.html)

Quote:On the power supply side of things, I can tell you the technical details of what is most important, but it won't do anybody any good because nobody tests supplies for this. there is no agreement on how to run the tests, there is NO off the shelf test equipment for this, anybody who does this (and very few are ever done) has to build there own test equipment from scratch.

It is theoretically possible somebody could build the appropriate test equipment and test a whole bunch of supplies and publish it, but they would have to get all the supplies and spend a lot of time doing it. It would be a huge project, take a large amount of time and cost a lot of money. I'm not sure who is going to pay for that, the project would have to pay someone a lot of money to take it on.

So for now there is NO WAY to technically select the best supplies, the measurements simply have not been done.

That leaves people listening to things and subjectively figuring out which sounds the best.

If you really are interested in the details, here is what is needed.

For computer type digital equipment the noise coming from the supply is really not that important. Particularly for the microRendu which has ultra low noise regulators with extremely high noise rejection.

The really important part is how the supply responds to transient loads. All digital circuits do not present a constant load to the PS, the load current varies all over the place. This changing load is not slowly changing, it makes large current changes very quickly, the supply has to deal with this and keep the voltage constant even though the load is changing rapidly.

These "transient load events" can be very short duration, medium duration or long duration. The short duration events can be handled by small capacitors near the load. The caps have to be physically small in order to keep the inductance down. But physically small caps don't hold much charge, they have to be re-charged by a fast acting regulator. This part of the system is built into the microRendu board.

These regulators have to be fed by a larger cap that can handle the medium duration events. This is also on the board.

But THOSE caps have to be fed by the external power supply. It has to be fast enough to quickly recharge the first level caps. In addition it has to KEEP them charged. What happens is that the supplies that are fast enough to properly deal with the load don't have enough capacity in THIER caps to keep it up for long. When a long term transient happens the small caps handle the first little bit of it, the caps feeding the regulators take over and keep it going, the caps in the supply take over and keep on feeding them, but the AC line part doesn't react fast enough and the output caps sag before the AC part can recharge them.

This is the big challenge of power supplies for digital circuits. They need to have large capacitors, but this usually means a slow supply. This requirement leads to strange things like needing a 6A supply to properly handle a 1 A load. If you just design the supply as 1A the transformer and diodes will have too high an impedance to react fast enough, and the caps will be too small.

There are two different ways this can be measured. The most obvious is to build an adjustable load that can be programmed for different transient loads (different changes in current and different durations of the change) and run a whole bunch of these and see what the supply does. This is a lot of data that has to be looked at. One big advantage is it shows exactly what you are looking for, how the supply responds to transient loads.

The other approach is an impedance VS frequency plot. This is one test that shows everything, it is very easy to compare between supplies, but it is not so obvious how to convert this to what you really want which is the transient response. Once you learn how to interpret the results it's actually easier to use, but it takes some effort to learn what it means. Neither of these is a nice single number people like to have to compare things, there just is not such a simple thing in this space.

John S.

Quote:The SR2 is about to be obsolete as the cost of manufacture is approaching that of the better SR3 so it is not worth offering both products. Regarding technical issues both the SR2 and the SR3 are manufactured using an off the shelf mains transformer, and the low power version of the PR3 discrete component, high performance, voltage regulator circuit.
 
The SR5 and SR7 offer higher power output that requires greater thermal management using progressively larger heat sinks. The increased chassis dimensions to accommodate the larger heat sink also allow the use of larger mains transformers and this allows for a very high quality mains transformers that are custom built for us to my specifications using oversized grain orientated silicon steel cores. These transformers are specifically designed and wound to avoid core saturation in use allowing the transformer to deliver large transient currents unhindered. There is also considerably more energy storage capacitance than the SR3.
 
The SR5 allows for one high current rail as well as a low current rail if required. The total VA rating of the transformer is 160VA, and this VA rating must be shared by both rails. Each rail has it’s own galvanically isolated transformer secondaries to avoid ground return current inter-modulation that occurs when two items of equipment are powered by the same DC source.
 
The SR7 single rail power supply is the essentially the same as the SR5 but with higher power rectification and output stage with a 250VA mains transformer.
 
The SM7 MR4 has one high power rail and three low power rails, all galvanically isolated. The chassis has extended depth to allow the use of a larger VA mains transformer for the additional rails.
 
The SR3 was originally designed to fit a specific requirement of a customer and there were size and budget restrictions on the power supply. That said, it works very well and is a very popular power supply. The SR5 and SR7 had more leeway on cost allowing progressively better performance.
 
The SR5, SR5-MR2, SR7 and now the SR7EHD-MR4 are available from PHA Ltd.
 
A new SR5-MR2 will cost £750 plus DC lead cost, insured shipping and funds transfer costs.
 
A new SR7EHD-MR4 will cost £1200 plus DC lead cost, insured shipping and funds transfer costs.
 
The lead time from Paul Hynes Audio Ltd for SR5 and SR7 power supplies is approx 20 to 35 working days (due mostly to the lead time for the custom manufacture of the mains transformers as we do not hold stock of these because there are too many options to consider for stocking
purposes)
 
The DIY Rendu supply you refer to uses a PR3i-09 AC input regulator module, which costs £100 plus insured shipping cost of £12 and funds transfer costs. You will still have to acquire a chassis, a mains transformer and hardware as well as machining the chassis and finishing the assembly. The PR3i-09 is only available from Paul Hynes Design. Lead time from order placement to shipping approx 15 to 20 working days.
 
<cut>
 
I no longer offer the custom build service at Paul Hynes Design and I have recently transferred the last remaining few Paul Hynes Design outstanding orders to Paul Hynes Audio Ltd for inclusion in their production schedule. <cut>
 
<cut> All built SR power supply designs are now completed by Paul Hynes Audio Ltd, and they are holding to lead times. Paul Hynes Design is now only providing DIY modules and technical support to Paul Hynes Audio Ltd.

Quote:The SR2 power supply can provide 1.4 amps DC and is available in the following DC voltages :- 3v3, 5v, 6v, 7v, 9v, 12v, 15v, 18v and 21v. The SR2 is supplied with a mains lead and a DC lead terminated with a DC plug to suit your equipment DC jack. Alternative connectors can be fitted if required at extra cost. The SR2 power supply costs £195.

The latest model of the SR3 power supply is available in the following DC voltage/current ratings :-
3v3 2A, 5v 3A, 6v 2A, 7v 2A, 9v 2A, 12v 2A, 15v 1.6A, 18v 1.4A, 21v 1.4A. The SR3 is a higher performance power supply than the SR2 and it is not supplied with a mains lead, as most customers prefer to use after market upgrade IEC mains leads with the SR3. The SR3 costs £300. The DC lead is also a separate item as several options are available for the SR3. The DC3C annealed copper DC lead costs £50 and the DC3FS annealed fine silver DC lead costs £85. The internal wiring from the regulator module to the DC output connector can be specified as fine silver for an additional £10 when the power supply is ordered or £20 plus return carriage when retro-fitted.

Quote:The SR5 and SR7 high performance power supplies are now available from Paul Hynes Audio Ltd.

The SR5 can be supplied with the following continuous power ratings :-

5v @ 6A, 6v @ 6A, 9v @ 6A, 12v @ 6A, 15v @ 6A, 18v @ 5A, 21v @ 4.5A, 27v @ 3.8A, 30v @ 3.3A.

The SR5 can power a wide variety of equipment including DACs, Streamers like the Squeezebox range, the Mac Mini, single voltage DC input audio server low power motherboards, Raspberry Pi audio servers, USB cards, as a power source for the Pico ATX voltage converter in low power audio servers.

For a review of the SR5 powering the Mac Mini and also an SR5 powering a Squeezebox Touch see :-  http://hifipig.com/paul-hynes-ph5-power-supply/#more-15703

The SR5 costs £600 and the DC5C annealed copper DC lead costs £75. The DC5FS annealed fine silver DC lead costs £145.

The SR7 can be supplied with the following continuous power ratings :-

5v @ 12A, 6v @ 12A, 9v @ 12A, 12v @ 11A, 15v @ 9A, 18v @ 8A, 21v @ 7A, 27v @ 6A, 30v @ 5A.

The SR7 can power a wide variety of equipment including DACs, Streamers like the Squeezebox range, the Mac Mini, single voltage DC input audio server higher power motherboards, Raspberry Pi audio servers, USB cards, as a power source for Pico ATX voltage converters providing power for higher power audio servers.

The SR7 costs £750 and the DC7C annealed copper DC lead costs £100. The DC7FS annealed fine silver DC lead costs £229.

Other DC output voltages can be catered for on request.

These power supplies are shipped via parcel carriers and the cost will vary depending on the destination. We can quote for shipping if you include the destination with your initial enquiry.