[Zzt231gr]

Hello to all!

Can you please post which aftermarket psu you are using and what differences do you hear from the stock?

If you tried one or some and didn't like it,choose stock and tell us the reason.

Thanks!Happy listening!

 

[Zzt231gr]

I tried MCRU but I didn't like it because it sounded a little bright-although it sounded awesome in every aspect!

I was going to try Ciunas Audio supercapacitor psu but the company closed...

I am open for tried suggestions!

 

[Triode User]

I have got MCRU, SBooster, Ciunas, iFi, Uptone LPS-1.2, battery, Sean Jacobs DC4.

The comment about MCRU being a little bright puzzled me as I did not hear that. I guess that underlines the importance of taking the whole system as an entity because everything can react together.

My SBooster is out on loan for a few more days to a reviewer trying it also with the Qutest but I hope to come to some sort of conclusion when it returns.

 

[Zzt231gr]

I have got MCRU, SBooster, Ciunas, iFi, Uptone LPS-1.2, battery, Sean Jacobs DC4.

The comment about MCRU being a little bright puzzled me as I did not hear that. I guess that underlines the importance of taking the whole system as an entity because everything can react together.

My SBooster is out on loan for a few more days to a reviewer trying it also with the Qutest but I hope to come to some sort of conclusion when it returns.

Maybe your Spendors or your tube gear make your system sound a little warmer tahn neutral,thus you liked the sound of the MCRU?To my ears it sounded excellent in all values but it was also like robbing that last percentage of bass-or sounding a liiittle bright.

 

[Triode User]

Maybe your Spendors or your tube gear make your system sound a little warmer tahn neutral,thus you liked the sound of the MCRU?To my ears it sounded excellent in all values but it was also like robbing that last percentage of bass-or sounding a liiittle bright.

I don't know. It was with the Qutest going into a Music First Audio silver wound V2 Transformer Volume Control, then into Pass Labs XA60.8 monos and powering Spendor SP200 speakers. It sounded pretty good to me for £235. From memory I did prefer the Sbooster with Ultra MkII but like I said, that comparison and others with have to wait until loan gear has been returned.

 

[uzi2]

I tried MCRU but I didn't like it because it sounded a little bright-although it sounded awesome in every aspect!

I was going to try Ciunas Audio supercapacitor psu but the company closed...

I am open for tried suggestions!

John Kenny (Ciunas Audio) recommends Allo Shanti, but that may be based on my requirement to power both a Pi4 and the Qutest...

 

[DecentLevi]

AH-HA! Finally a thread where we can talk about aftermarket DC LPS for the Qutest without getting too much 'resistance'... like on the Qutest thread... either their cable had too much 'resistance' (LOL ) or more likely they correlated the notion as another 'snake-oil' / pixie-dust hack. Well friends I can assure you it's ANYTHING but the latter. My Qutest sounds horrible without an LPS. Don't get me wrong it sounds excellent in its' own right, but once I've heard how much better it can perform with an LPS, there's no going back! Maybe that's why the Hugo 2 I demoed awhile back sounded so great because it was on battery power. Unfortunately I'm without an LPS for it for now, will post back later.

 

[HumanMedia]

I’ve tried SBooster 1st gen, iFi, Welborne, Keces, Uptone LPS1.2, UpTone JS-2, Teddy Pardo, SR4.

YMMV and system dependency etc etc but here is my experience.

The worst were the Teddy Pardo and the UpTone LPS1.2, yes overall I’d prefer the stock supply. Next up are the iFi and stock supply. Next up Wellborne, Keces And Sbooster. Next up SR4. Best of all the Uptone JS-2. I will also put the Farad3 in there as a hypothetical best. Hypothetical as it was equal top when tested on my 2Qute but I don’t have a 5V version to try with the Qutest. But what seemed to ring true for the 2Qute tracks well with the Qutest.

in fact every night I’m thinking I should try a 5V Farad3, but I have so many power supplies lying around, and so many 5v supplies even, that with my current financial situation, another power supply seems a bit excessive.

 

[Jon L]

John Kelly (Ciunas Audio) recommends Allo Shanti, but that may be based on my requirement to power both a Pi4 and the Qutest...

There is the new Allo Nirvana, which is smps but the only one that seems to deal with the leakage current issue (unlike ifi).
https://www.allo.com/sparky/nirvana-smps.html

 

[DecentLevi]

To the best of my understanding, some of the things that set the ISO-PS from Ciunas Audio apart were: particular pre-supercapacitor voltage regulators which are specially designed for eliminating/greatly reducing RF. Direct power from battery or supercap is audibly far superior than when this power is routed through a voltage regulator - all voltage regulators seem to suffer from transient response issues & create dynamic noise when providing dynamic power to devices. Next it used a better supercapacitor config., below is a quote about the Allo Shanti:
I was told that while it (Allo Shanti) is a very good PS, it uses 2 small 10F supercapacitors on its' output for 5v and his use 3 larger supercaps outputting 350F, more than absolutely required giving more energy storage. Another issue reported with the Allo PS is residual power drains into any connected devices which may be a problem, but the ISO-PS isolates the outputs from the supercaps when switched off to prevent that.

I wonder how the Allo Sparky differs from Shanti.

IMO, only direct battery power or direct supercapacitor power is the way to go with no voltage regulator near the output. That's what the Ciunas ISO-PS had done and it's much to my dismay that these don't seem to be available anymore. I also ended up returning mine for a withheld reason, and I even ordered a second replacement DC cable, the 4S6G(OFC) in JSSG360 shielding recommended by @HumanMedia which comes to almost $200 for both DC cables with express shipping, and currently no LPS to use it with. I'm waiting for @Triode User to finish his LPS comparison to see if maybe there's an even better recommendation, or maybe if I'm really lucky, John Kenny formerly of Ciunas will send the used LPS I'm returning to him to Triode User (Nick) for his top notch rewiring effort.

 

[DecentLevi]

@Triode User I presented the following by PM, but I'm also posting it here in case any of you also have an opinion:

Regarding routing of a power switch on an LPS:
(the routing of a confidential model) controls the input power to the regulator then the supercaps. So, when I first owned the ISO-PS I was powering the whole unit up from the main switch for my AC filtered power conditioner which caused a 1-3 min. delay when powering up / turning off my DAC waiting for the supercaps to recharge and power down. But I was told from Ciunas Audio this may be bad for my DAC with the supercaps trickling power while slowly discharging each time. In your opinion is there any reason to be concerned about this gradual increase / decrease of voltage to the Qutest on each power on / power off cycle? For me, I prefer to turn my system on / off every day when I'm done.

OTOH, would you say there is any concern to keeping the supercaps running at full charge 24/7, even in a well implemented way? And for this way, I'm thinking there may be a better way to route the DC output switch so it's not directly on the output circuit in order to yield optimal results - perhaps make the switch so it disconnects the supercaps or something like that, which may / may not require re-routing them between series or parallel to achieve that. Any feedback would be helpful.

 

[Triode User]

@Triode User I presented the following by PM, but I'm also posting it here in case any of you also have an opinion:

Regarding routing of a power switch on an LPS:
(the routing of a confidential model) controls the input power to the regulator then the supercaps. So, when I first owned the ISO-PS I was powering the whole unit up from the main switch for my AC filtered power conditioner which caused a 1-3 min. delay when powering up / turning off my DAC waiting for the supercaps to recharge and power down. But I was told from Ciunas Audio this may be bad for my DAC with the supercaps trickling power while slowly discharging each time. In your opinion is there any reason to be concerned about this gradual increase / decrease of voltage to the Qutest on each power on / power off cycle? For me, I prefer to turn my system on / off every day when I'm done.

OTOH, would you say there is any concern to keeping the supercaps running at full charge 24/7, even in a well implemented way? And for this way, I'm thinking there may be a better way to route the DC output switch so it's not directly on the output circuit in order to yield optimal results - perhaps make the switch so it disconnects the supercaps or something like that, which may / may not require re-routing them between series or parallel to achieve that. Any feedback would be helpful.

All of my DACs including my Dave run on third party external power supplies. I tend to leave all those power supplies on 24/7 so the issue doesn’t arise for me.

Personally I would prefer not to have an inevitably cheap switch in the dc output circuit. Spending time and money trying to get the best dc output (and hence best sound quality) and then putting a cheap switch in the DC output circuit doesn't make sense to me.

For instance the Uptone LPS-1.2 has a power switch on the power input side and so when switched on the supercaps gradually come to life and when switched off they gradually power down.

As you know, I have completely rewired my Ciunas supply and as part of that process I took the switch out of the DC output circuit and put a different switch on the incoming power side of the circuit.

 

[Zzt231gr]

A guy I spoke to from Youtube recommends this powerbank,after trying some and came to the conclusion that it plays much better!

https://shop.aukey.com/products/30000mah-power-bank-with-30w-power-delivery-quick-charge-3-0

Anyone familiar with that?

 

[DecentLevi]

@Zzt231gr I'm not an expert yet, but it would seem that powerbank you're referring to above must have a voltage regulator, I believe they all do. See post #10 above about that.

@Triode User or someone, I get what you're saying about leaving it on all the time. But what if I wanted to turn it on/off every day, would that gradual discharge and slow power-up have any detrimental effect on a DAC like the Qutest?

 

[Zzt231gr]

I see that Allo Shanti seems similar to Ciunas supercap psu.Any member having this?