it’s difficult to generalize about this, since some wall warts are not that bad. but generally the wall wart is a cheap SMPS (switch mode power supply) and the source of lots of noise. and we don’t know the specifics of what gear and which particular wall wart. did this wall wart come with the gear? might be ok. or the combo of the wall wort and the power isolator might happen to sound fine. these things are not always predictable. you do need to listen.
if you can find a linear power supply that can replace the wall wart that would be step 1. then step 2 might be adding the Power Isolator. alternatives might be a better wall duplex outlet as those are also sources of noise, or maybe a dedicated circuit? both those things likely would improve the performance of the transparent power isolator.
fundamentally when looking at A/C power grid questions; you look at it from your home power source outward, look at power grid noise sources in your home, and see how you can isolate as much of that from your system power grid. but now i’m moving away from your actual question.
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Cheap wall warts could push noise both back into the "clean" side of the power isolator and provide less than ideal power upstream.
Will a better support like an iFi help your sound quality? I don't know, really, but I do encourage people to keep dirty power supplies outside of the clean side of a power conditioner.
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If I plug the wall wart into the power isolator, does this precluding need to replace the wall wart for a better Power supply
Short answer, no. In addition to reducing noise a better power supply will usually improve the performance of the component over a wall wart. An analogy might be an athlete eating a diet of healthy food versus loading up at McDonalds — one of them enhances performance, the other not so much.
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We really need more info. Most useful would be to show your system under your user ID. That gives us lots of info… and you don’t need to repeat it in every thread.
In general, the power supply is a major factor in the sound quality of a component. Most of my components have at huge, heavy, internal components dedicated to power. So, the short answer Is that plugging into a power isolator will not replace a better power supply.
Most likely a vastly better power supply will improve the sound significantly. But it is subject to the quality and resolution of your components and the rest of your system.
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The isolator and upgraded power supply are two separate but additive links in the chain. An isolator or purifier will reduce the noise in the AC to your power supply (and typically other components, too); the improved power supply will allow for greater reserves of that cleaner power for delivery to your component without adding much noise of its own. If I were you, I'd start with the improved power supply. I've never met a component that hasn't improved with a bigger, better power supply--even turntables, weirdly enough. Isolators or purifiers can be hit or miss, dependent on the design and the component plugged into it.
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@jumia
You are talking about two different things. A wall wart in general is crap for hifi usage and a Power isolation device won’t change that.
I’m looking at getting an S Booster power supply for my streamer to give me cleaner power.
https://www.sbooster.com/
All the best.
JD
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All wall warts are not created equally which makes sense. I have a streamer, the lumin x1, and it comes with a separate Power supply that's supposedly is quite good.
But when it comes to a Quality switch or even a nucleus, spending 300 to $1000 or more for a power supply seems a bit crazy. All these lesser costly peripheral pieces of equipment that are touted as needing power supply improvement that will cost 300 to $2000 or even more it's pretty horrifying and likely ridiculous.
if it really works guess i need to spend nearly $1000 to improve the quality of a switch and a nucleus. Add this is after spending a lot of money on the power conditioner.
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simple answer: no. The wall wart creates its own noise. BTW it creates noise for what it powers and also feeds some noise back into your other stuff, since its on the "clean" side of your isolator.
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Hello,
If you can get some linear power supplies for each you will be good. Besides not creating noise they have continuous clean power.
An example is if you unplug your wall wart your switch or Nucleus go dead instantly. If you plug them into an SBooster and you unplug it from the wall there is about 15 seconds of power left in the caps. In the end you always have clean constant volts going into your device which really helps with consistent sound and preventing noise.
Two of these are about $800-$900. Then I would at least change your wall outlet to a hospital grade. Besides better material you get a much tighter fit when plugging you Transparent into it. Basically what Mike was talking about above. So for less than $1000 you can make a big difference.
If you cannot upgrade your Grounding and power system from the outside in the check o
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Out Puritan products like the PSM 156 and the GroundMaster City. It will really impress you. Really great if you are in an environment that doesn’t allow you to rewire your power. You can isolate you from all of your neighbors and even yourself like from your DVR or refrigerator. I hope this helps.
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The biggest improvement I can make right now is to find a refrigerator with less compressor noise. I actually turned down the freezer temp setting and found that the compressor was cycling on and off quite a bit less. Freezer is now 0 to 5° which is fine.
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If you have a good “power isolator,” whatever that is, not sure the refrigerator should make much difference. What power conditioner are you using BTW?
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It's a Transparent Power isolator, it is in the power conditioner family.
Related to refrigerator compressor, I am speaking about the obvious audible noise not the electrical noise, which is on a different circuit and should not be much of a problem assuming my grounding system is OK, and it is.
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I owned a Sim Moon 650D DAC/CD player ($8.5K) and after a couple years added their separate power supply 820 ($8.5K)… to me totally worth it. The new power supply replaced the internal one. I quieted the output, enhanced resolution, improved sound stage. But each decision has to be made on an individual basis.
If your component has a wall wart power supply… then perhaps trading in and upgrading the unit might be more cost effective.
A few years later I replaced both with a single $17K unit. Huge upgrade… but completely different sound and the right move for me then.
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