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Squeezebox Linear Power Supply

post #1 of 16
8/5/06 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
A couple of head-fi'er have pm'ed me about my linear power supply I have for the SB3. I'm not a DIYer or play one on TV but wanted to post how easy this is to do. I would really appreciate any input from REAL DIY'ers for improvements, shortcuts, and any safety precautions that should be added.

I bought this linear supply from Digi-Key:
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T061/1642.pdf

along with a plastic case, and 5v plug (Digikey, part number CP-004B-ND
). I also bought some stand-offs, screws, rubber feet, rubber grommets at our local Halted electronics store.

Here is how I wired the power supply. I used a generic power cord (ugh!) and soldered the three wires as shown in red/aqua. Then I solderd two wires to the 5v plug and the other end of the two wires to the power supply as noted in green. That was it for soldering.



Mounted it into the case with screws and standoffs. Drilled holes into the sides for the power cord and the 5v cord to go through.


I drilled some holes in the top and bottom of the case as this supply seems to get very hot. I guess this wasn't going to be a very pleasing thing to look at but wanted it to last some.

Here is the ugly manila-folder color case with built in venilation holes. What a beauty .


Hope this helps someone and maybe motivates some to try this. It's about $60 in parts and maybe even less/more depending on the case. If you hear a difference in your transport this will help some. How much will depend on your system.

Big Thanks to AMB for some guidance in this
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post #2 of 16
8/5/06 at 11:01pm
I'm thinking about getting a squeezebox 3, and I was wondering if something such as a STEPS unit would be suitable.
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post #3 of 16
8/5/06 at 11:27pm
hi utep10,

Nice job, I think you have earnt you DIY certificate. Have you mentioned elsewhere what improvements it made to the SB3?

Just a couple of points about safety (and it seems some countries are more paraniod about mains voltages than others, it maybe a 240 / 110 volt thing). In Australia we seem to have strict guidelines, so some may not apply in your case but may be appliable if others build it.

1. Use a fuse or circuit breaker
2. Earth lug should be a bolt with locking nuts and star washers.
3. Front and rear metal panel should be earthed.
4. Cable gland should be locking type. (can't see in photos)
5. Earth wire (after cable gland) should be longer than active and neutral wires so it is the last to break if cable pulled.
6. Insulate/heatshrink all mains voltage connections

BTW: I don't always follow my own advise but if I had a house full of kids I certainly be a lot more careful.

regards
Greg
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post #4 of 16
8/6/06 at 3:18am
Thanks utep10.It's great to have as much info as posssible when making these power supplies especially when a noob attemps them .
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post #5 of 16
8/6/06 at 11:04am
Edit: Seems Greg already covered the safety, I'll only echo that I'd fuse it, secure the AC wires inside and gnd the metal panels.
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post #6 of 16
5/28/10 at 8:53am

I'm bringing back to life this very old thread since I'd like to release the full potential of my squeeze box duet. Why ? because I'm about to buy an high end dac(Ref1) and wouldn't want the transport to be a bottleneck.

 

I've read people are DIYing a linear PSU. Make sense. But I checked the output of the original PSU and it's a rock steady 9.00V... Of course with no load. I don't know how I would measure it with a load. So I don't see why it should be upgraded...

 

Beside, is there any mod to improve the digital out ? I've seen some companies offering mods at an outrageous price but is there any tutorial on what should be modified so I can do it myself ?

 

Thanks

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post #7 of 16
5/28/10 at 11:55am

Hi there,

 

Did you check out the Slim Devices forum?  There have been tons of discussions about the topic.

 

http://forums.slimdevices.com/

 

I also have a squeeze box duet and was thinking about adding a power supply to it but after reading some of the threads there I decided not to. Someone from the design team actually came out and said a power supply would not improve the sound quality.

I think if there's an inexpensive upgrade path for the squeezebox that's worthwhile I would consider it. But if it gets too much (like the CIAudio one) I would rather get the transporter instead.

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post #8 of 16
5/28/10 at 12:24pm

I didn't think at the slim device forum.... thought it was too mainstream to talk about these DIY mod.

Thanks !

I think it was the thread you were referring to :

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67898&highlight=psu

 

indeed... it turns me down

 

Guess I'll have to find another hardware to stream my music if I want to upgrade. Do you know if there is any consensus on what's the best "squeezebox like" transport ? sonos ? micromega ?

 

 

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post #9 of 16
5/29/10 at 8:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeMat View Post

Guess I'll have to find another hardware to stream my music if I want to upgrade. Do you know if there is any consensus on what's the best "squeezebox like" transport ? sonos ? micromega ?

 

 



From my experience, I would suggest trying your stock Squeezebox with your new DAC before upgrading.  I have several SB3s, and when matched with a good DAC, sound virtually indistiguishable from my Transporter.  I built a Welborne Labs SB power supply a couple of years ago and found that it made a minor improvement when using the line-out of the SB3, but no noticable improvement using the digital out into a good DAC that had high jitter reduction capability.

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post #10 of 16
5/29/10 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WilCox View Post





From my experience, I would suggest trying your stock Squeezebox with your new DAC before upgrading.  I have several SB3s, and when matched with a good DAC, sound virtually indistiguishable from my Transporter.  I built a Welborne Labs SB power supply a couple of years ago and found that it made a minor improvement when using the line-out of the SB3, but no noticable improvement using the digital out into a good DAC that had high jitter reduction capability.


I have a completely different experience.  The Transporter made a big improvement over the SB Duet with CIAudio power supply + custom DC cables.  There are also settings within the Transporter audio menu that improve the sound quality by a significant margin.

 

If you are not using an external word clock, do the following:

 

Under "settings" go to the "player" tab, then select "audio" from the drop down menu.

Digital output encoding:  AES/EBU (if your DAC has an input for it, use it)

Clock source:  Internal Clock

Effects Loop Input:  Disabled

 

and this is the most important setting, where you will hear the difference --

Effects Loop Clock Mode:  Asynchronous: External Processor Is Master

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post #11 of 16
5/31/10 at 8:45am

Thanks for your input !

... seing there is no obvious consensus on the improvements related to an upgraded PSU, I'll stick to the standard one and will see how it performs when I'll receive the new DAC.

Until then I'll inquire on what other solution there is to replace the SB. Sure I like it but it's slow, limited to 48khz and the screen is really low definition.

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post #12 of 16
6/1/10 at 2:14am

My Squeezebox is lightning fast (really). I always have 95% wi-fi because my router and Receiver sit very close to eachother. If you don't like the remote get an iPod with iPeng. It's brilliant. Too bad it doesn't play 96khz files indeed (the SB Touch does). :-(

 

I have been reading a little in modding Squeezeboxes. People seem to be recommending buying/building aftermarket power supplies for it. What you also can do is cut some traces on the board and solder the spdif out directly to the rca jack.

 

Have a look at this site. This guy has done crazy things with his Squeezebox: http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/Squeezebox/squeezebox.html

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post #13 of 16
6/1/10 at 8:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by apatN View Post

My Squeezebox is lightning fast (really). I always have 95% wi-fi because my router and Receiver sit very close to eachother. If you don't like the remote get an iPod with iPeng. It's brilliant. Too bad it doesn't play 96khz files indeed (the SB Touch does). :-(

 

I have been reading a little in modding Squeezeboxes. People seem to be recommending buying/building aftermarket power supplies for it. What you also can do is cut some traces on the board and solder the spdif out directly to the rca jack.

 

Have a look at this site. This guy has done crazy things with his Squeezebox: http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/Squeezebox/squeezebox.html

 

Really impressive link !! I may try some of the recommendation. Upgrading caps won't hurt anyway ;)

But turning the SB into a tube DAC... this guy is crazy !!

 

Speaking of responsiveness of the SB, I do have a strong signal but the remote put itself in some kind of idle mode and takes some time to "wake up"... annoying.

Browsing trough the file is somewhat fast but far from immediate. I may have a too large collection... (env 250Go)


 

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post #14 of 16
6/1/10 at 1:10pm

My library is now 151GB I see. Both the Squeezebox and the iPeng app on my iPod is fast. If you want you can choose to leave the iPod on and it will never go into sleep mode. FWIW here is a youtube video starring iPeng. The video is not fake; my SB + iPeng works exactly like in the vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzbmDBwRrSM

 

The Lampizator is very nice but I now see some new stuff! The last time I looked there was no "Fikus recipe". The Fikus mod looks a lot easier than all the others things described on the site. I might try it actually.

 

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post #15 of 16
6/1/10 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by apatN View Post

The Lampizator is very nice but I now see some new stuff! The last time I looked there was no "Fikus recipe". The Fikus mod looks a lot easier than all the others things described on the site. I might try it actually.

 


That's indeed the only one "doable" but it's still a bit vague. I would have appreciated a picture of the PCB with all the mods done.

I'll give it a try though ;)

 

 

Regarding the remote, I don't have an iphone so I stick to the standard remote.

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