Stuck a Linear Power Supply on My Switch - Blimey! 😱

Can you please stop…
Very much like what I have - d2 switch could be a candidate if one comes for a good price. Yours had been a steal

Switch and cable threads. The gifts that keep on giving :joy::joy::joy:

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Certainly gives Netflix a run for its money!

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They’ll never stop. Super subjective.

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This is a slight diversion but is relevant and I didn’t want to start a new thread. So…

This afternoon, just for a bit of fun really, I tried some cheap ball-bearing isolation devices under my Chord S6 mains block which feeds my BT SH2 and EE8. These are basically cheap Stillpoints rip-offs. Very well made and finished, out of Aluminium, but only £25 for a set of 4! They do however look the business - not that it helps.

The mains block was previously just sat on carpet over underlay on its own little feet. Interestingly the initial impression very much mimicked changing from the SMPS on the router to a LPS. I thought it was rather nice. The sound became smoother and warmer, with a marked reduction in HF glare and splashiness. I listened throught the afternoon, to track after track, with always the same impression .

As time went on however I found myself feeling more and more that something wasn’t right. It was as though the sound had become more subdued and less immediate, more controlled but with some of the speed and impact removed. I found myself admiring the smoothness and HF refinement instead of just enjoying the music. So I removed the devices and hey presto. All the immediacy, impact and speed was restored. The music was fun again. Lesson learned.

It was an experiment doomed to failure really, but reinforced something I had always found in the past. That low cost isolation devices tend to give with one hand and take away with the other. Maybe Stillpoints or Cerapucks would work well. But no guarantee and anyway much more than I would be happy spending.

The other thing I have come to believe is that any isolation device which introduces compliance or movement of any sort usually has a smoothing, softening effect on the sound, whilst robbing it of some of its speed, impact and immediacy. The results will be very much system and listener dependant in terms of whether judged an improvemnt or not.

I’m in the prcess of making an improved stand for mt BT SH2. Currently its sitting on a piece of 2cm thick acrylic supported by 4 thick 20cm long acrylic bolts as legs. The new stand will also feature a 2cm thick acrylic platform, but now supported by 4 titanium M8 threaded rods and bolted on with titanium nuts. We’ll see…

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In my ongoing quest to find a power supply that betters the standard Chord SMPS that comes with the EE8 switch I’ve borrowed a couple more. This brings the total number of power supplies I’ve had on loan to around thirteen. I have one old (no longer made) small linear power supply that sounds fantastic. It has the speed and detail of the SMPS and the bass, timing and drive of a good LPS. The reason for the continued search is that I have a friend who’s borrowed my LPS and wants something similar, so we continue to to see what’s around.

The two new power supplies on the list are the Ferrum Hypsos and the Sbooster.


I’ve not tried the Sbooster yet but I have to say the Ferrum Hypsos is pretty impressive. Dead easy to set up. Just scroll down to English Electric switch, press the control nob and wait ten seconds. Out of the box and stone cold it was easily as good as the LPS I currently use. After a day of warming up it was sounding very good indeed, like someone had turned up the tonal contrast another notch. It has a lovely dry, fast and detailed sound with great bass weight and a beautifully detailed airy treble, easily surpassing my current LPS. In fact I’m struggling to find any area of criticism except for the price!

The Sbooster is up next then it’s over to my mate to try them on his system. I will let you know the outcome.

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I’ve had my eyes on the Ferrum so will be interesting to hear your thoughts on it versus Sbooster which I found sounded “better” or shall I say more to my taste than few others I’ve tried.

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Plus the ferrum is nicer to look at than the plastic Sbooster with cable hanging out of the front.

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Yupp

I don’t have enough money to fanny around with more switches, I’ve settled on the Farad 3 after your earlier recommendations, no more rabbit holes for me :rabbit2::rabbit2:

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Maybe you know that long review from Audiobacon. The guy tested a dozen of them and compared.

His final thoughts :

As far as the “best” power supply, I honestly couldn’t settle on a specific one. Over time, I actually swapped between many of them and enjoyed them all for different reasons. For instance, I really liked the Paul Hynes SR4-12 and Fidelizer Nikola2 for their tone, the Sean Jacobs DC4 for its “live” molding, Mojo Audio Illuminati v3 for its spatial realism, and UpTone JS-2 for its fun energy and treble. I’m also consistently impressed by the technical abilities of the Plixir Elite BDC and seduced by the intimacy of the JCAT Optimo.

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He could have summed it up with “I liked them all” :smile:

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The conclusion is a bit kind for all the brands that let him try these lps.
But if you read it, it’s a bit different. One of the two favourites, clearly above, was the Sean Jacobs. I don’t remember the other one.

As always power supplies to matter and have their unique way of performing with the product they are hooked up to :slight_smile: Trial and error.

I just on curiosity plugged in my SMPS that comes with the Lindemann Bridge II and hey hoo the bass tightened up a lot. It’s the same manufacturer of SMPS on my Lindemann as in my Ansuz D2 Powerswitch.

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The Paul Hynes psu are no more as far as i know……he closed down and unless he is using a different name?

I find myself agreeing with you. I think the Sbooster is a good all round linear power supply, especially for the money. It has a really big full bodied sound. However, compared to the Ferrum it sounds a bit busy, three dimensional flatter and a little less nuanced but I do like that it sounds nice and musical. My general experience with most of the linear power supplies tested is that they sound so dull and slow. The Sbooster certainly escapes that criticism!

What I’m finding is that the really good power supplies (I’d put the Ferrum in this group) do seem to be able to create a terrific three dimensional soundstage with every instrument locked in its own spatial position. Vocals can sound particularly amazing as you tend to get a hint of the venue acoustics where they were recorded. The layering and interplay of instruments is much easier to understand, which in turn gives everything much better sense of timing.

If I was comparing the two power supplies I have at the moment, to my current power supply, which is no longer available. My current supply would be a 9 the Sbooster maybe 7.5 and the Ferrum Hypsos a 9.5. I’d score the standard EE8 SMPS at around a 7.

I’ve got to take the supplies over to a friend tomorrow, so burn-in time has been a bit compromised but the Ferrum was sounding very good. I’ll be interested to see which one my friend prefers.

When possible I’m interested in hearing more on how they differ in the bass area (Sbooster vs Ferrum). According to other reviews Ferrum is more neutral and tighter than Sbooster which is more organic.

I heard the same. Don’t know more.
As talking ps, and as you know I wrote earlier not experiencing a big change with my new second one, I unplugged today the burndys and re plugged. Then I noticed that one was touching the rear Fraimlite metal part. I isolated it with foam.
A surprising uplift. Some glare, I didn’t noticed before, was removed. And the sound liberated itself very noticeably.
Now I see the upgrade more clearly. Ureka.

Yep. I’d agree with that but the Ferrum is much more real and more natural than the Sbooster. I find the Sbooster initially impressive but after an hour or so it became a little bit too much where as the Ferrum you could listen to for hours.

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With Powerline on my Ansuz D2 Switch the Sbooster added some low end but with the Ansuz A2 power cord on the switch which is digging much deeper and is more transparent than the powerline the sbooster is upsetting the balance a bit so I might look into the Ferrum. It also looks good :slight_smile:

Ah so it’s a hybrid of SMPS and LPS…

Hifi Knights
"A team of Ferrum engineers recognized the advantages of both of these solutions. They ultimately came up with the HYPSOS, a power supply that stands out among others with it hybrid design – in part linear and part switching mode. Manufacturers who use switching power supplies even in some high-end components claim, that linear ones limit dynamic range, that they are not able to produce large impulses fast enough, that they limit the energy of the sound, which translates to inferior performance. After all the listening sessions in multiple configurations, even though I had been a little bit skeptical at first, ultimately I had to admit that combining these two technologies, the linear and switching mode power supplies, gave excellent results. The sound improvement was significant and repeatable (in terms of character, differing in scale) regardless of the application.

Using it ensured audible results in a form of more resolving, clearer, more transparent sound, that at the same time was beautifully smooth, coherent, fluid and natural. The dynamics were excellent, both in the small (micro) and large (macro) scale. The sound of the components powered with the Ferrum seemed particularly effortless, relaxed, non-digital and open. It also gained in terms of the spaciousness and imaging quality."

It’s an EMI filter on the inside of the power cord (Delta).

HIFI Pig.
The biggest impact for me, without doubt, is in the delivery of the bass and lower end of the frequency scale. This isn’t about bigger bass, it’s not even about pushing the equipment to give a lower frequency response, it’s about how the Ferrum HYPSOS manages to deliver its power so the equipment can grip the bass and make it as tuneful and purposeful as I can imagine it can be.

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