Best linear power supply for Nucleus now?

No and don’t know. Thanks again for insight. Have you tried it?

2 Likes

Why bother, it’s simply feeding power to the NUC’s internal switching power supplies?

2 Likes

I’ll take that as a no. Thanks.

3 Likes

I have been using different chargers for my MacBook Pro, simply because some charge faster than another, apart from that nothing can damage my laptop or make my laptop sound better, or my video look sharper, and you should expect the same with your Nucleus if you use any fancy LPS.

Note that if you use a wrong or out-of-spec LPS, your Nucleus can be damaged or it refuses to work,

1 Like

Appreciate you answering my question with your experience.
Genuinely it’s good to know.
Enjoy the music. Best.

2 Likes

Noise is cumulative. We think of it in digital terms but we must not forget it is also analogue in nature. Thus, it follows that if you remove one source of noise (and take sufficient care not to replace it with something worse) you will reduce the total noise. That is readily measurable. The argument isn’t about wether it is true, it is about if it makes an audible difference.

3 Likes

No, it’s digital in nature, it’s not just wishful thinking. Digital transmissions are able to preserve bits 100%, so noise does not accumulate. The only time when analog noise superimposed onto a digital signal counts is at the D/A conversion time, and DACs have ways to address that. If they don’t, they measure poorly.

2 Likes

I’ll agree to disagree here. While a signal is digital you can eliminate noise at any stage, it’s just a case of engineering smarts. There’s nothing particularly special about audio while it’s digitally encoded.

1 Like

It isn’t all digital. You are assuming analogue noise can’t traverse through digital systems. It can, it does, and those who are any good at designing gear, especially DACs now recognise this. Digital signals may not be impacted by noise until it gets really bad, but that doesn’t mean the noise isn’t there.

2 Likes

Agreed, there is nothing special about it, until it hits the DAC.

2 Likes

I’m not assuming that, that’s how it actually works. There’s a memory buffer at each end of a digital transmission, and those buffers have nothing to do with the noise across the line. One memory buffer containing bits is the same as another containing the exact same bits. I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand.

3 Likes

You are describing digital transmission. I’ve explained that it isn’t all digital in nature. And it doesn’t matter until it hits the DAC, when it’s presence then can become a problem. A classic example is the evolution of USB connectivity for audio. That work can, and often is dismissed as snake oil. But what used to be sold as an add on box inserted into the signal path is now built in to the best hardware out there. If you look at the work done by brands like Holo Audio or Schiit you can trace the path from USB being considered inferior by the designers themselves to now when they are measurably the equal of other inputs in terms of noise while having the technical advantages of USB compared to legacy connections.

1 Like

You said that all noise is additive. Now you’re saying that it only matters at the DAC and that DACs are now capable of dealing with it. Isn’t this exactly what I said a few posts before?

1 Like

That is what I said. To me that means noise exists in both domains. If that is not how it was understood then I apologise for my poor English. That it is my first and only language means perhaps I should do better!
Also, we have always known analogue noise has little or no impact on moving 0’s and 1’s until it hits the DAC. But I would suggest that reducing noise in a digital audio chain and the wider environment wherever prudent to do so with decent low noise PSU’s is worthwhile. And that is what this thread is actually about.

1 Like

Is there a difference between a fancy and a plain LPS?

We are however talking about the PSU for the server, not the DAC. If that had an impact on the analog noise the DAC sees, it would somehow have to come through USB or other electrical input, and we established that DACs handle that well.

I’ve had my SBooster and Nucleus on continuously for close to three years.

Anything more than 10 bucks!

We have established that modern well engineered DACs manage that well. When I get mine I’ll revert to a SMPS on my NUC and report back!

3 Likes

There ain’t such a thing as a “digital transmission”, all transmissions are analog in nature, the electrical pulses being transmitted are analog and as such suffer from time distortions and noise. What is digital is the interpretation done in the realm of software, zeros and ones are logical abstractions derived from the positive and negative analog square waves. RF noise and EMI will get across from server to DAC if not properly mitigated.

3 Likes