Designed for other purposes, he doesn’t care one way or the other. Speaker and electronic design and build are his hobby/ passion.
Everything you see below from the case to the assembled amp was designed, machined and built by him.
Interestingly, I added the inline attenuators to the mix, returned Vivere1’s volume to full and volume matched using the attenuators. Again, I could not discern them… That is until I removed the LPSU from the mix altogether. Now there’s an unmistakeable change in presentation between the two inputs, with the SE sounding brighter and more forward, the balanced input sounding more refined. Hmmm, what to make of that.
My hypothesis is brilliant? 
In any case, good idea to try that.
I’ve carried out some sighted testing of various combinations:
(1) SMPS powered ODROID > USB > DAC
(2) SMPS powered ODROID + LPSU > USB pigtail > DAC
(3) LPSU powered ODROID > USB > DAC
(4) LPSU powered ODROID + LPSU > USB pigtail > DAC
As my Hi-Fi has been packed up ready to move and I no longer have two Vivere DACs I was reduced to doing this testing using Sennheiser HD800’s and my Jotunheim HPA with some inline 12-step attenuators to volume level the Joty’s SE and balanced inputs.
I struggled to conclusively ascertain whether or not there was any tangible difference between (1) and (2), perhaps (2) had it.
I struggled to conclusively ascertain whether or not there was any tangible difference between (3) and (4), perhaps (4) had it.
Both (3) and (4) yielded what seemed to me to be obvious improvements over (1) and (2).
I needed to try this with a really good set of speakers. I spent the afternoon at a friend’s place listening to his latest speaker build (they’re good enough they may replace my ATC’s). Later in the day I used to opportunity to try (1), (3) and (4). I said nothing about what I was expecting to hear.
Conclusion: there’s an unmistakable and obvious sonic benefit in (3) and perhaps a tiny, incremental benefit in (4). If you’re using RPi etc. as transport to your DAC you’ll benefit from using a good LPSU to power the transport. FWIW we did another round with a Jitterbug added to the equation…neither us us would be able to pick out when it’s in the lineup.
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Specifically which LPSU were you using?
…Sorry, thought the post above was the FIRST in the thread. Ignore the question.