[hifihead]

I've heard there's different kinds of power supplies, but the terms confuse me. People claim the power supply type and specs can make a big difference in the sound of whatever it's powering. Therefore, I have some questions.

1) Is a linear power supply synonymous with a regulated power supply?

2) Is a non-regulated power supply synonymous with a switching power supply?

3) Are linear and regulated power supplies supposed to be better than non-regulated and switching power supplies?

4) Are toroidal tranformers and EL core transformers considered any of the above type of power supplies or are they a completely different category unto themselves as transformers?

 

[MindsMirror]

1. No.
2. No.
3. It depends.
4. No.

Now for some explanation.

A regulated power supply can regulate it's output, meaning it can sense the voltage of the output and will adjust itself to try to keep the output at the desired level. If the load tries to draw more power, causing the output voltage to drop, the regulator will sense the drop and let more power through from the source to try to compensate. A non regulated supply doesn't sense it's output, so it won't be able to compensate if the load changes.

There are two common ways to regulate the output, linear and switching. A linear regulator will regulate the output by increasing or decreasing the resistance from the source. With lower resistance, it lets more power through, and vice versa. A switching regulator will regulate the output by switching on and off very quickly. The higher percentage of time it spends switched on, the more power it lets through, and vice versa (this is called PWM).

These two types of regulation exist because they each have their own pros and cons. The switching regulator is typically more efficient, but generates more noise. There are a number of other trade-offs, and ways to compensate for them, it can get pretty complicated so it's not a simple as one is always better than the other.

The regulators I was just talking about are all DC regulators, they take a DC voltage at the input and generate a different DC voltage at the output. Transformers are for AC, the take an AC input and transform it into a different AC output. A common type of system will have an AC transformer, a rectifier which turns AC into DC, and then a DC regulator which could be linear or switching. So no, transformers are not a type of regulator, they are a different component in the supply for a different purpose.

 

[hifihead]

Thanks MindsMirror for your reply. That was an awesome explanation and I really appreciate it.

 

[Alcophone]

One of the advantages (when traveling, moving, or importing) of switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) is that they typically work with with any normal input voltage that can be found across the world (e.g. 85-264 V), while linear power supplies typically have a much narrower range (e.g. 90-125 V, 200-240 V). In some cases they only work in one such range and have to be modified/replaced when moving to a region that uses the other range (e.g. Schiit's devices), in other cases there is a switch or two (e.g. Gustard H20), or a rotatable fuse holder (e.g. MUTEC REF 10) that can be used to manually select the supported range. Setting a device with a linear power supply (LPS) to a ~115 V range and plugging it into a ~230 V outlet is particularly dangerous. The inverse situation should be avoided as well, but might just result in the device not turning on rather than releasing its magic smoke (my Gustard H20 survived this, luckily).

Edit: Apparently you can refill the magic smoke in some cases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke#/media/File:Magic_smoke_refill_(5990429717)_(2).jpg

 

[hifihead]

Thanks Alcophone for your reply. That was a very interesting side note.