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+--- Thread: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. (/Thread-SMPS-s-are-excelent-products-for-cleaning-up-your-mains-supply)
SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - Confused - 03-Apr-2018
Just a silly thread title to get your attention? Actually no, there might be some truth in this.
Recently Alex Crespi (UptoneAudio) posted this on CA:
The high-frequency switching harmonics put back into the wall by a modern SMPS are negligible.
When asked if this applies to the little things you get to charge iPhones, routers and other consumer electronics, he replied with the following:
They certainly do vary.
What is interesting is that some of the quality SMPS units actually suppress/absorb/filter(?) noise which is already present in the wall. Here is a short video demo I did with the Entech Powerline Noise Meter and the Mean Well SMPS (which we have shipped thousands of, with USB REGENs, ISO REGENs, and the original UltraCap LPS-1).
Not shown is that after that I tried the same thing with an Apple 12W iPad USB charger block (not the tiny iPhone size charger cube), and the noise went up not down.
https://youtu.be/6S73A_fRtqE
OK, I guess there is an argument that he would say that, he sells the things, but the video is fascinating viewing and food for thought.
One bit of good news for the anti-SMPS cause is that he is offering further confirmation that iPhone chargers together with a whole range of 'consumer grade' SMPS's do indeed feed unwanted noise back into the mains. But it does question the generalisation that "all SMPS's are bad for audio". Maybe some of them can actually offer a positive improvement?
I am sure some folk will reject all this out of hand, but for the more open-minded it might be something to explore further.
Maybe it is why my system is sounding so clean these days, all the good SMPS's sucking out the noise that the bad ones have put in.
RE: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - Pim - 04-Apr-2018
Interesting video and surely shows what he says is right. I wonder where the initial noise came from though; the iPhone chargers in the house / next door? That would be an interesting question to ask him.
RE: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - K4680 - 04-Apr-2018
Hi, the same success can be achieved with an R-C combination (resistor / condenser) directly at the socket or the consumer. The combination can be calculated for certain interference frequencies! There are enough examples in the internet. Such combinations are installed in many power supplies as an input filter.
It would be interesting to put the power supply in another socket, you would not experience any improvement!
RE: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - Music or sound - 04-Apr-2018
That Meanwell SMPS does not be connected to any device (actually less noise if not). I guess it is much cheaper than almost any power purifier.
RE: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - Confused - 04-Apr-2018
I have mentioned in another thread that I do have a lot of SMPS's in and around my audio system. The Devialet's themselves, Mutec MC3+USB, the SOtM kit, lots of AV kit, computer and so on. Not good I am sure.
One thing I am thinking of doing is to sell the sPS-500 power supply that came with my SOtM bundle and buy two Paul Hynes SR4 LPSU's. So losing one SMPS and replacing with two LPSU's. From a conventional audiophile perspective, this should be the way to go.
The above has got me thinking though, the sPS-500 is actually designed to clean up mains noise. To quote from SOtM:
The sPS-500 is an audio power supply designed specifically for high performance audio. It is built to eliminate noise generated by powered devices as well as to simply remove noise coming from an AC power source.
Using SOtM’s unique technologies for noise cancellation and sound enhancement, and high quality audio components that are already proven in sound quality, you will hear superior sound improvement with the well-designed sPS-500.
So maybe if I resign myself to the fact that I will always have some SMPS's around (AV kit etc.), having a SMPS like the sPS-500 powering the kit nearest to my Devialet might actually be the optimum solution. Not conventional thinking, but it might be true? A pair of Paul Hynes SR4's certainly has more "audiophile credibility" than the sPS-500, would it really be better?
RE: SMPS's are excelent products for cleaning up your mains supply. - Music or sound - 04-Apr-2018
(04-Apr-2018, 18:06)Confused Wrote: I have mentioned in another thread that I do have a lot of SMPS's in and around my audio system. The Devialet's themselves, Mutec MC3+USB, the SOtM kit, lots of AV kit, computer and so on. Not good I am sure.
One thing I am thinking of doing is to sell the sPS-500 power supply that came with my SOtM bundle and buy two Paul Hynes SR4 LPSU's. So losing one SMPS and replacing with two LPSU's. From a conventional audiophile perspective, this should be the way to go.
The above has got me thinking though, the sPS-500 is actually designed to clean up mains noise. To quote from SOtM:
The sPS-500 is an audio power supply designed specifically for high performance audio. It is built to eliminate noise generated by powered devices as well as to simply remove noise coming from an AC power source.
Using SOtM’s unique technologies for noise cancellation and sound enhancement, and high quality audio components that are already proven in sound quality, you will hear superior sound improvement with the well-designed sPS-500.
So maybe if I resign myself to the fact that I will always have some SMPS's around (AV kit etc.), having a SMPS like the sPS-500 powering the kit nearest to my Devialet might actually be the optimum solution. Not conventional thinking, but it might be true? A pair of Paul Hynes SR4's certainly has more "audiophile credibility" than the sPS-500, would it really be better?
I think SMPS are noisier than LPS if not implemented well but a good designed SMPS can be less noisy than LPS with big transformers. I got some Meanwell SMPS for some of my LED lighting and they have much lower impact on my music than the transformer they replaced. That said I have plugged all my computers, phone chargers etc. (bad SMPS) in a power purifier which resulted in better sound than plugging my stereo equipment in it.
SMPS have higher frequency noise which can be more effectively filtered. LPS have often large toroid transformers which are not necessarily the best option but because there were originally expensive (much less now) items from military purposes they are considered often the best choice. R or C core transformers have better DC filtering but they are rarely used