Linear Tube Audio- Little Known Great- Linear Power Supply


I bought one of these LPS for both  my  Sonore and uptone Ethernet converters  rather then  use the cheap wall warts , I have found the LPS make a big difference in my system and others who have tried the Linear tube Audio brand we had a audio shoot out  with 9 guys in our local audio club this is 7 volt  and a Whopping 8 amps ,they can make these to over 20 volts if I need before streamer or server. I had a Fidelizer I used which is very clear and open but no warmth or too neutral , this Linear LPS beat 5 different models by 7-2 margin this included the uptone audio LPS with dual outputs, as well as Sonore , both were more $ monies . This unit I bought direct on Audiogon for $700 , Teddy  pardo was another, a model from little green computer  and a 4 year old Mojo audio which btw came in 2 nd with 2 votes . It was the naturalness and soundstage expansion that was most apparent ,imaging too had more weight . Low level detail , the Linear tube brought out details from the background more to the forefront where you can hear much more into the mix. One thing I do want to mention , during the review I removed the after market 5 amp slow blow ,20 mm synergistic purple fuse ,with writing on the fuse facing the front when installing ,I  put in the stock buzz fuse .   For the shootout .  To make everything equal .  As far as build quality No contest the Linear tube trumped everyone , at almost 6 pounds, the others had mostly a 30 Va transformer and 30-50 k in capacitance . The Linear tube Audio LPS has a 100 Va low noise transformer , over 125k in Nichicon capacitors that’s more then some amps !  It has 3 inductors for filtering with the capacitors for the incoming AC , as well as the DC on the output , it does one more thing attached to a heat sink the Worlds best Belleson Super regulator to keep everything super low noise and stable. 
regarding  after market fuse Highly recommended, mfr stock fuses are a Huge bottleneck coming in they are zinc - steel and brass around 18 on the conductivity index ,the top fuses around 60 , by having far lower resistance much lower noise. Floor coming in , the internal filtering  has a much clearer signal to start with . My friend has a Linear tube LPS  on his router as well which  is 12 volt like most today that are modem- router combos , he brought this over to demonstrate on my router ,any wifi signal is far better  and for Audio from my New motorola 8702 modem-router which btw has docsis 3.1, older routers have 3.0 docsis ,the 3.1 is many times faster, much bigger buffer ,I have No drop outs now and excellent wifi range.,  the audio for streaming was much better cleaner much more pristine  sounding he has a Synergistic purple fuse in his LPS which makes everything a bit warmer more natural, and just makes every aspect of the performance more natural. Yes $200 is a lot for a fuse but to me as a Audiophile well worth it . One more thing a respectable power cord is a must ,stock cords compress the soundstage .I use Pangea best awg14 sig mk2  using the           Cardas 6-9s Copper and very beefy Copper gold connectors for $200 an easy recommendations even in dacs,preamp, powercords if you don’t want to spend $$ the Pangea Ac 9 SE it’s actually awg7 using Cardas best wire at $350 a true bargain . On my home page I have pictures taken with the cage removed to see the    
top notch construction of the Linear Tube Audio LPS  made in MD USA 🇺🇸 which to me is a Huge plus .

128x128audioman58

Glad to be of help , use a decent power cord at least awg 14  Pangea mk2 quality with Copper copper gold connectors not brass , and for $90 vh audio - Hifi tuning Gold copper fuse. 20 mm small fuse 5 amp Slow blow arrow on fuse facing towards the front . just a recommendation Everything is optional !

I have been modding for years you want a$1200 LPS witha excellent Dc cable poor yourrouter and everything else in between the LinearTubeAudio LPS great Dc cable most charge $150 for,use at least a decent $200 power cord with Copper not brass connectors , the linear tube can take up to19-20 amps for most router modem combos12 v , just check ,get rid of the junk wall wart, and smps .for agood line conditioner, Puritan audio- Mike audio archon the5600 model $2300 a excellent buy.IHave foundtransformertypesuckthe life out of the musicality. AudioArt makes some respective valuepower cords with pretty respectable 

Furutech Gold Copper  connectors not 3 x less conductive Brass ,and Cryoed treated and be Hagerman cooked, and under$450.

@audioman58  Old thread but still on topic so...  Where do I start? I've got a Sbooster on a Chord Qutest DAC, the stock SMPS on a Chord MScaler which feeds the DAC, a iFi Elite on the satellite router which feeds connectivity to the audio system.  And the stock cheap SMPS on the main router in another room/floor which has the separate home theater system. That SMPS is on a Hydra 4 conditioner but I'm still leaning toward replacing it and would appreciate your opinion.  

Also, Chord advises caution on replacing the SMPS on the MScaler. I've read they advise using 12vdc instead of the 15vdc supplied because of voltage variations in aftermarket LPSs and other aftermarket power supplies. I tried a 12vdc iFi Elite on the MScaler and did not think it sounded as good as the stock medical grade (MeanWell?) SMPS. But the IFi Elite seemed to improve my overall audio quality when used on the satellite router which feeds the audio system. 

@jjss49 

no doubt lta makes good stuff, i am an owner and lover of their zotl 40 ref plus amp, a wonderful sounding and well built piece .... but quick research will shed light on the fact that there are plenty of excellent lps’s on the market that give the user the benefits of that upgrade

Agreed, so many variables involved from one listener/system/component to another. Not possible to declare one particular good quality LPS superior to all the rest. There’s a host of very good choices.

Charles

 

Stack of Pardo supplies for 2 servers and a switch have been… ON…. for…. years… One running a NAIM Unitiserve is on a Decade….

:-) LTA is excellent gear

Enjoy the music

Jim

there are many well made, capable linear power supplies out there these days... priced very high to quite reasonable

no doubt lta makes good stuff, i am an owner and lover of their zotl 40 ref plus amp, a wonderful sounding and well built piece .... but quick research will shed light on the fact that there are plenty of excellent lps’s on the market that give the user the benefits of that upgrade

ferrum sean jacobs etc on the high end

teddy pardo, paul hynes etc at the mid level

sbooster, ifi, keces etc etc on the affordable end

 

Mark Schneider and the team at LTA know their way around a power supply. It all starts with David Berning. He is truly the Guru of tube amplification and the inventor of the ZOTL circuit, the first real change, or improvement in tube amplification in 60 years. Yes, LTA makes a great linear power supply but Berning’s switching power supply is even better and probably the best out there.

IHave been testing many  LPS and equipment through our audio club for years

this  is by far the best engineered LPS I have heard under $1k. It runs warm never hot ,it has a vented cage ,if you look up my user name  there are pictures of the internal build .

A friend with 30 years experience likes Acopian. They are industrial strength -- you can just plug them in and never bother with them again. They are often sold on ebay, too. I got my $305 unit for $140 on ebay, new, and it works like a charm on my Bluesound node. https://www.acopian.com/linear-regulated-power-supply-models.html

I just bought a bunch of linear power supplies and sold a few.  My searches did not turn up this one.

I ended up with 4 Farad power supplies that I am really happy with but the LTA looks nice.  It doesn't say whehter it is supercapacitor based or not.  but I think it is.  Does it run cool?  Some of the supercap LPSs I've tried run quite warm to the touch which decreases life of electronics, especially in a item that is always on.  The Nutone LPS is notoriusly unreliable and you can hardly keep your hand on it.

Jerry