Excellent Power Supply Solution


In case you haven’t noticed, it’s very hard to find a good, affordable DC power supply from a U.S. dealer. I wanted a 12 volt 3.5 amp model for a Netgear router.  The quality linear power supplies are considerably more expensive than the router. But, then I stumbled upon an interesting product from Waveform Lighting. They offer a $49 DC power supply for strip lighting purposes. The 12 volt model can handle up to 10 amps and 100 watts. I do not know the technical details on how it works, but the description states “very low ripple and noise.” It also has overload voltage protection. The DC cable is 16 AWG wire.  A nice feature is that you can attach an audio grade power cable with a C7 connector. I used a Shunyata Venom cord. 

The unit did add a noticeable increase in sound quality. A little more clarity, more lifelike vocals and less harshness  in the upper treble. If you have a 12 volt modem, router or switch, give the Waveform Lighting DC power supply a listen. Here is the link: https://store.waveformlighting.com/collections/power-supplies-and-dimmers/products/filmgrade-12v-24v...
boakey39

Showing 1 response by tupuhumuhumunukunukuapuaa

For reasons stated earlier in the thread, I don't buy into linear PSU for a router/networking device.  I do for anything outputting audible analog signals.  Being lazy at one point I had a power strip with all SMPS for various things plugged into an outlet shared with a Panamax filtering strip for my amp, DAC and preamp, and one day realized that things didn't sound as good as I thought it could.  I had received my shipment of equipment from storage after having recently moved and was in a rush to hear my gear again.  It took me a few moments to realize what I had done and when I did I moved that whole strip to another outlet a few yards away which don't run near each other at any point before the breaker box.  The sound improved quite a bit.  A smaller improvement was had by moving the power brick for my tiny PC to a filtered outlet on the Panamax.  I think that last one may have had something to do with USB and it transmitting power on the cable between the PC and the DAC. I think the lighting strip is a good solution if noise is an issue even after putting the devices on a separate outlet. Minimizing the noise on the AC circuit closest to the amplification is pretty important. 

@oldhvymec, I keep my DVR turned off.  It's a WAF thang that it's even in the rack.  Damn HDD can be heard when I have the house on quiet mode (air filters, and cat water bowls turned off).  I hate that you can't truly power off a cable DVR unit. I put a remote outlet on that thing so it turns on and off for the times that my wife might want to actually watch tv and can use voice command to turn it on otherwise.