Wow, such a great discourse here regarding Power supply. The distinction I haven't seen mentioned, but implicitly described is the amperage and voltage requirement of the component. In my understanding, source components for obvious reasons require the most silent power supplies. It is the source after all that gets amplified, so any aberration, distortion, etc. in the source, again gets amplified. My sources include PS audio Perfect Wave DAC which has SMD. Downstream, I can comment about the benefits of through hole. My PS Audio 6.2 preamp had some low hanging fruit with burson and the best modern caps in the direct wire signal path. The pre is direct wired to my Hafler 9500 (funny how people pay $$ for connectors) which has been thoroughly reworked with all of the best modern components. The output stage all Mundorf with CRC and bypass near the fets with .01 and 100uf Mundorf. But back to the point, that amp, I believe came on to its own with a Sparkos Labs dead silent AFE power supply feeding those toshiba jfets with 24v of sweet sweet sweet straight line dc ( > 100db of ripple rejection) . Thats right. A discrete regulated PS for the input stage, which was imagined by Jim Strickland, but reimagined with the best modern components. Yes, Sparkos uses SMD components in their PS regulators. It has taken me some time as a builder to come to terms with SMD, but like it or not it is the modern reality. And it really works. Sparkos! I think my next move is to power the 6.2 with a Sparkos. Maybe my point is SMD in small steps. PS regulators are a big deal when you pay attention to PS noise. Sparkos has is it figured out. Peace
