If you think you are getting "audiophile quality" anything, essentially retail for $30, you are fooling yourself.
The pictures look impressive to someone no familiar with the technology, with the beautiful black PCB, and those big finned heat sinks, and the clean look on the back of the PCB. It is smoke and mirrors.
Looking at these two, the "cheap" supply looks like it was made by someone who has a clue what they are doing. The upgrade looks like it was made by a hack.
The pictures look impressive to someone no familiar with the technology, with the beautiful black PCB, and those big finned heat sinks, and the clean look on the back of the PCB. It is smoke and mirrors.
- Their are no AC EMI components on the so-called "upgraded" power supply!!! There is no chance this would pass FCC\CE requirements and it will create a noisy mess on your AC. On the other hand, the so called cheap power supply has some proper EMI components.
- Those finned heat sinks are useless. Finned heatsinks don't work in a sealed environment. They are no better than flat metal. On the other hand, the so called cheap power supply has large flat metal heat sinks that will be as close to the case walls as possible. That is going to work far better than the so called upgrade.
- The so called upgrade has no components on the back on the PCB. The so called cheap unit has components on the back of the PCB, which provides a shorter thermal path to keep components cooler, and they make use of solder to increase the conductivity of current carrying traces.
- I can't find a MOV to protect the so called upgraded power supply. I can see one on the so called cheap one.
Looking at these two, the "cheap" supply looks like it was made by someone who has a clue what they are doing. The upgrade looks like it was made by a hack.