diy lps for digione signature

[AKT]

hello friends,

i recently upgraded from HT to a stereo setup. my source was a chromecast audio (cca). based on inputs from forum members (@arj, @amitk777) i purchased a digione signature streamer. a definite step-up from cca. I have been powering it with an old anker switched power supply.

another forum member Ujjwal (@ujjwaana) kindly put together a quick and dirty linear power supply for me. i could not hear a huge difference initially but after the LPS broke-in (2-3 days), the overall presentation got a lot tighter. it was great to hear the transition!

total cost of this LPS is lower than Nirvana and another power out can be added so I could power both the HAT and RPi with a single power supply. i am not into diy so i am putting the specs as i got from Ujjwal - "Two stage LDO filtering - ROHM Semiconductor BA00DD0WCP-V5E2, followed by TI's low-noise, high-PSRR TPS7A9201DSKR". right now it is housed inside an old amplifier chassis.

i would like to check how much better does shanti get and if it would be worth an upgrade. if any of the shanti owners in BLR can kindly lend me one (obviously if you are not using it actively) for a couple of days to perform A/B testing, i can share my subjective listening impressions.

spl thanks to ujjwal and thank you all for reading through.

-abhishek

 

[SanjeevM]

I am using Shanti for over a year now. It's better than the std RPI psu, the iFi psu, and a linear psu with rectifier and filtering caps. Not compared with LDO based psu.

 

[AKT]

Sanjeev,
shanti is obviously superior. why have you excluded ldo based psu? would you happen to know what kind of lps is shanti?

 

[premoddev]

Have you got a chance to compare your lpsu with Shanti or even Nirvana smps?

Thanks.

 

[AKT]

Have you got a chance to compare your lpsu with Shanti or even Nirvana smps?

Thanks.

I did Prem. It is quite close to Shanti but the cost escalates once you add a 2nd clean rail (not needed but good to have). I am using both of them interchangeably.

 

[premoddev]

Have you tried a power bank with your Allo streamer? If so how it's compares to the lpsus.
Thanks.

 

[AKT]

Prem. I feel; the buck boost circuitry in power banks which regulate voltage is never audio grade. After all, a power bank is designed to merely charge other devices. This takes away from the goodness of using batteries. I have not tried them and I unfortunately do not have one at home either.
These of-course are my own influenced views. There are many on this forum who are using a power bank and seem to be quite satisfied with it.

 

[premoddev]

Prem. I feel; the buck boost circuitry in power banks which regulate voltage is never audio grade. After all, a power bank is designed to merely charge other devices. This takes away from the goodness of using batteries. I have not tried them and I unfortunately do not have one at home either.
These of-course are my own influenced views. There are many on this forum who are using a power bank and seem to be quite satisfied with it.

Thanks for the reply... in fact I have tried a 20K mah power bank recently with my Allo BOSS v1.2 device as a single power source. It worked fine, seems clean. But what I felt was the sound became more thin compared to the wall wart (its a phone charger) I used to use with Pi. I never had any audio grade power supply, so can't compare it against them.

I would like to have a better power supply, but all those cost like bomb in the pocket.

 

[AKT]

Prem. If I were you, I would borrow an audio grade power supply (SMPS or LPS does not matter for now) and at least test if it's all worth the hype. Check for Sbooster (expensive), Shanti, Nirvana, ifi (cheap) etc.