Let's discuss power source!

Besides the cable, the connector is very important too 

I can only speak for our products...

Switched mode is here to stay - its origins are political - a case of engineering providing a less than perfect solution for a political crisis which most people don't know exists ("security of supply" {of gas and oil})

It also serves another political process, that of globalisation - the great exchange racket (or bubble) which means the West is bailed out for doing little work by China getting the orders.

Such politics being championed by the EU have basically caused the EU to fall on its own sword...

It means we, and the rest of the Western manufacturers cannot compete by making our own switched mode power supplies, and the politicians knew that all along, so we're forced to buy them from China.

We'd much prefer our customers to use our PSU1 but for many on a budget that isn't possible.

What we do is use a 'card input filter' designed to vastly attenuate the 'wild' harmonics of switched mode power. Basically switched mode is DC with every conceivable distortion added to it.

To make them small enough to be plug top mounted they cannot use better techniques like computer power supplies - they cannot do the really high frequencies which requires considerable shielding and other techniques, and cannot therefore comply with another political intrusion called EMC. Therefore they run at something just over 20kHz and the harmonics would ruin the sound if not for our 'card input filter'.

How others cope I can only guess.

Graham

PS: suggestions that we should break the law will not be taken kindly

You may want to look at something like this . . .

dillon wrote: My Bro has a wall wart 12v AC only unit powering his DAC...

AC?

You're sure it's AC? Not DC?

If it is AC then stick with the wall-wart because its just a transformer.

Bob, £180 for a power supply helps me feel more comfortable with my own pricing for the PSU1. The original safety approval (more like being on trial for six months) allowed me to make in different voltages, but then some jobsworth "Spanish inquisition" inspector from Canadian Standards stopped me. I found the 1 GHz gain bandwidth product of the error amp quite amusing - they must be big to accommodate the microwave strip technology required... all that for stable DC, wow