[tangent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowpogo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why four separate web sites are falsely selling it as "linear" if it's so clearly not is beyond me.

It's a game to grab the gullible.

The term "linear" alone is almost useless. It just means that all the parts involved are linear: R's, C's, L's, and if there are active electronics, they're used in analog fashion. An unregulated supply is a "linear" supply: you've got two big L's, one big C, and a diode bridge which is a analog if you squint a bit. In practice, the only thing "linear" rules out are digital and switching type techniques.

"Regulated" is also too often misunderstood. There are a whole lot of regulation techniques, none of which give the same results. (If they all gave the same results, we'd have discarded all but one of them, yes?) Even the cheapest, nastiest little switch-mode power supply is "regulated". It just means that some effort is made to keep the output voltage relatively steady in the face of input variations.

Even the combination "linear regulated" doesn't automatically mean "clean power". There's still plenty of room for discrimination. If you want to know how clean a power supply is, you have to measure it.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowpogo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Some people think certain opamps sound better at higher voltages. Just wanted to test this myself.

The opa2107 sounds better at 30v than it does at 9v, but i doubt the difference between 24v and 30v is much.

Some opamps just can't swing very close to their rails, so the additional voltage on the rails can help prevent clipping.

 

[slowpogo]

I don't have much understanding of power regulation other than that it "cleans" the power and is supposed to sound better. So my questions are probably not always sensible. But I'm learning..!

I opened the power supply...there's a wound-wire transformer on one end, a 3300uf Nichicon electrolytic on the other end. They are connected to a terminal array in the middle, along with some kind of plastic-encased chip with four leads coming out of it, which is wedged down where I can't get at it.

There's also what looks like a small tantalum capacitor (imperfectly shaped, glossy, yellow-brownish) with "MNX 875" printed on it, about 3mmx5mm. Its axial leads are connected to the terminal array.

Looks pretty close to your description mono, probably just a standard PSU...