Any experience of power supplies on a switch?

I tried a larger linear supply on my GS108 Switch. No difference to the linear wall wart linear - a later GS105 i bought for another network had a small switching supply and i also tried that - no real change. To put some context here, my Switch sits in another room at the end of 30m of Cat5e cable and i use a medical grade isolator where it terminates at the Hi-Fi end so it may be different in a different network configuration. 

James

I have two GS108's running from a dual linear power supply that I got from China off fleabay. The second switch is all Audioquest Cinnamon and just the UQ and Vortexbox NAS. I detected a minor increase in sound quality (there seemed to be a very small buzzing that went away) but I've also made quite a few tweaks over the last year so hard to say. I'm not the kind of person that does A/B ing. Once it's set and works (for the better) then there it shall remain. I wouldn't spend a lot though for an lps for just the switch. 

I have been looking around for LPS to supply 12v to all my SMPS - NAS, GS105, phone & broadband & not much luck so far.

I did borrow a Maplin unit from a mate,  it worked OK but did not stay long enough for an SQ check as it was not a steady 12v , far from it,  it swung from 10.7 to 14.4vDC  & it showed a few volts on the AC scale,  & there was no way I was interested in that.       

I have done this to very good effect, along with other network optimisations to reduce noise floor and distorted timbres (edge) in my system. 

I tried a mid-priced Chinese supply (maker of a number of models for audio purposes) but just having it on the mains - on another spur - was detrimental. So I've stuck with more expensive but 'tried and trusted' solutions. Surprisingly I've found 'upstream' devices from the primary local audio switch are also sensitive to DC quality.

Ferrites on the SMPS - especially larger multi-turn on the DC output - can also be effective and worth a test. I've also found the 'domestic' GS605 to be quieter/less edgy than my GS108 which is now retired.

Check my profile or posts for further details.

+1 on the ferrite solution, its been very well covered on the forum & worth a search.

TBH I have more or less given up on linear power as I believe what I've now done with ferrite overload on both AC & DC sides of my SMPS's  & also the SMPS's supplied via a UPS with an isolation transformer, it's resulted in SMPS noise at very low levels & the possible gains in SQ will not be worth be the cost of a linear supply.

Thanks all, I'll try some ferrites In the first instance.

Still keen to hear anyone's experience of alternative power supplies, if anyone has tried the,.

Cheers

Dave

Hi

I have just been reading a review in HiFi News of a Melco Media Storage Device. The review was by Andrew Everard. In the review he mentions that he uses a linear ps on a Netgear GS108 switch with positive results in sound quality. Unfortunately he does not give details of the switch. at least it is someone who thinks it is worth while. Perhaps contact with HFN might be worth while.

Philip

I am using the TP supply for the cisco sg200-8, it had big improvement on the sound.

Good to hear that, thanks. Can you outline the benefits?

I'll see if I can get in touch with Andrew Everard and find out what he's using.

Cheers

Dave

The background will dark more after use the TP power supply and it will make the music presentation more defination

Gosh, wish I could write copy like that!

The power supplies on my switches are just simple PSUs from CPC, which IIRC cost less than a tenner each. Can't swear to any 'knight and date improves' to the sound, as marcobb would no doubt put it, but getting rid of noisy switchy PSUs is inexpensive, and appeals to my sometimes obsessive nature.

Mind you, that way of thinking also led me to running fibre optic networking, too!

Interesting idea to use fibre optic instead of CAT5, but from the OPs perspective, that's 2 more SMPS to worry about.

Agreed, but then the linears I swapped in were only around £10 apiece, so hardly the end of the world.