Linear Power Supply?


Can someone tell me exactly what an LPS supposedly does to improve the operation of a turntable motor? Does it run more precisely at a given speed? Does it vibrate less? I have a SOTA Eclipse motor with Condor and Roadrunner. SOTA is coming out with an LPS option which they say is better than the SMPS wall wart, but I want to know exactly how it’s better. If less noise in my system is the benefit, then I believe I already have that addressed because I plug it into my PS Audio P20 power regenerator.

earthtones

Viggen, Sounds like in your case the wall wart WAS a transformer, only. That’s different from the situation under discussion where the wall wart is a complete power supply, meaning a transformer plus the downstream parts required to generate DC at a particular voltage and current.

For the OP, as noted above, all electrical questions in high end are ... complicated.  First perturbation, though, I'm inclined to believe that the elasticity of the drive belt would tend to filter out any micro-differences between a well-designed SMPS & LPS outputs. 

That said, I'm willing to assume that: 1) SOTA carefully chose the wall wart they currently use, and 2) they believed that an LPS *could* make a difference, tried it, and feel that it did.  Maybe they'll let you try one out?

Good luck with your decision!  Please let us know if you take the leap.

@lewm the difference is AC vs DC.  doesn't deny the fact that providing tt motor with cleaner power is a significant upgrade in sound at least IME it was.

I'm sorry.  Where did I "deny" anything?  I simply pointed out that the OP is concerned about replacing a wall wart that contains an entire power supply, which launched a discussion of switching power supplies (SMPS) vs "linear" power supplies (LPS) whereas your wall wart was (apparently based on what you wrote) a transformer.  Whatever else constitutes the power supply of your turntable must reside on the TT chassis; it could be an SMPS type or an LPS type.  Changing the transformer does not change the downstream characteristics of your PS, except whereas many times a "better" transformer may favorably affect function, at least to the ear.

Hello,

The only experience I have on this is with a Rega and a SBooster LPS. One thing I noticed is when you unplug the wall wart the platter stops spinning. I would think with fluctuations in power the speed could change or alter. I don’t know if you would hear the difference on all systems. 
that being said when you use the SBooster LPS the power is constant because of the power and caps. The green power light stays on for about 30 seconds. The reason why that is important is because it means you have constant power even if the power from the wall gets glitchy. Like a 30 second power buffer. That means you have the same speed all the time. 
I don’t know what the cost of this LPS you are considering. You have to ask yourself could that money be better spent somewhere else like on a cart or phono stage. If you are good on all the rest of the fronts then try the LPS. I hope this helped.