Nucleus Power Supply Poll

Audiophile sofa stands :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Buy 4 and get a nucleus audiophile psu :grimacing:

There are actually very few that do a truly good job of this. The USB input in the Holo Spring and May for example. Topping? Not so sure.

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I did measure my D70 output when connected to a gaming laptop and to a PC, under both light and heavy load, and didnā€™t observe any differences in the noise. Either that particular Topping does a good job at filtering USB noise, or USB noise is not really an issue on my machines.

My Chord Hugo 1 does a bad job of filtering USB noises, once sorted, it sounds really really good.
Now I run HQPlayer on my MM to upsample the music stream.

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Yes both cases are possible, and probably both things are happening. Take a look at the USB modules in the Holo DACs (you can find some info and detailed pics online). They have done a very careful job in those modules, it is all optically isolated from the DAC circuitry, including full ground plane isolation (absolutely necessary).

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I have a Nucleus Rev A i3, and a ROCK (Nuc 7i7BNH) and my main MOCK (ASRock H410M i7 10700) and 2 others - Gigabyte, ASUS all using LMPS (some are just endpoints).

For the record my ASRock was on windows 10 but the windows installation crashed unable to repair - so now using ROCK - which is sooooo much faster.

There are also LMPS options for MacMini machines and other PC based options too (HDPlex and others)

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OK, poll closed. Roughly one third aftermarket PSUā€™s, two thirds provided PSU. I personally draw no inferences from this poll other than it gives an indication of numbers. If the result has been skewed either way by people voting who donā€™t own a Nucleus or their BN/DN clones then I guess that is a matter of conscience. To address a comment above, the numbers canā€™t be skewed by the type of enthusiast that Nucleus owners might be. Only by people who voted who donā€™t own one. :wink:

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I guess you mean me but no idea why. If there are 10,000 Nucleus users who use it with the supplied PS and donā€™t discuss it on the forum, that can certainly skew the result. IMHO itā€™s much more likely for PS tinkerers to be forum users than for Nucleus owners who donā€™t bother.

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I got an LPS for my Nucleus because I donā€™t really like wall warts. The HDPlex powers the Nucleus, a RaspberryPi and my DAC. So three birds with one stone. I doubt the sound improved, but that wasnā€™t the point.

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David, I once was in your camp of how can a power supply make any difference to the sound of an electronic device dispensing digital information it is nonsense but now by my own efforts I have proven that stance wrong in my system to my ears and some other listening family. I recently replaced my Nucleus power supply with 300w HD Plex unit and there was a distinct difference sound wise to my ears in my system you may say that if you spent $1k on a LPS you are either mad or ludicrously wealthy (some of the former none of the latter) and only kid yourself there is a difference to justify the expense. My regular listening partner who is very familiar with my system noted a sound signature change that he liked on some music styles but not on others without me telling him of any changes made. I also just in the past two weeks took delivery of a pair of 1512 Puritan Audio power conditioners that replace my pair of Shunyata V-Ray Hydra conditioners and before you say another waste of money I lost my entire amplifier system some years back due to a lighting strike that resulted in a $127,000.00 insurance claim. These were replacements for a 30 amp Timonta unit fried in the same event my power comes from an end of line transformer 2 phase 480 volt supply split back to 2 x 240 volt lines to the house but there is a large amount if IM distortion 95-115 on the meter with the V-Ray units it reduced back to 55 -62. There was a considerable amount of background noise removed as a result but also a persistent hum that I was never able to fully remove especially through the REL line array subs, now with the Puritan units in place totally silent IM reading back to 12-15 dynamics and subtle details on very familiar tracks audible for the first time. Is it just a case of me trying to justify the $10k spend to myself ? Defiantly not in this case the difference is that dramatic and I am old enough and ugly enough to not try and BS myself otherwise. Hands down these Puritan units are the biggest $ for $ improvement in the overall sound that I have ever spent on my system to my ears very close to the improvement with the REL line arrays. So power supply improvements can make a very big difference to a system capable of realizing these changes with out needing to BS/justify to yourself that you are a fool with to much money to waste. Audio is a very personal subjective hobby and I have always subscribed to the theory if you have $10 ears buy a $10 system anything more would be just a waste, in my case over many years I have managed to educate myself in how to to enjoy the music I listen to and have the means to indulge myself a little in the process for great enjoyment and thatā€™s the aim isnā€™t it?

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If youā€™re happy with the money youā€™ve spent, thatā€™s your prerogative. But there is no science or measurements to back up the belief that a linear power supply can make any difference to a streamer, DAC, or glorified mini computer (which is what a nucleus is).

The nucleus is a HUGELY noisy component, the CPU throws out absolutely tons of electrical noise, the power supply is the very least of your concerns in one of those.

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@David - Is there a way to reduce that in the chain? Or eliminate it?

Marry Christmas

Torben

Iā€™m not sure you can apply any one solution? Is the issue specific to the NUC hardware at the heart of the Nucleus or is it a general issue about how and why Roon uses CPU?

Keeping ā€œcomputersā€ as far away from the real audio gear certainly is a good idea. Using a network connection between the Nucleus, Rock or any other computer rather then a direct USB connection as suggested by Roon is another recommendation. Thus the idea of having a Nucleus in the Hi-Fi rack is rather odd.

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Not really. If it is totally enclosed in a few millimetres of aluminium then you arenā€™t going to get any significant stray RF noise. Physical isolation is less important than electrical isolation with respect to a device like that.

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Donā€™t you think itā€™s like having it both ways? On the one hand we have all sorts of discussions about medical grade power supplies, special power cords doing magic on the last 2 meters. And here an ā€œaudiophileā€ technically inferior computer wrapped in aluminium may sit in the rack for no reason since distance is way more efficient than housing??

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you cantā€¦ CPUā€™s are noisy, thatā€™s just how they are. The way to avoid the noise, is to not have a CPU. From an electrical point of view though, that noise is unlikely to make it out of the machine in any way. If you connect directly to a NUC / Nuceus via USB, then i guess maybe, if the DAC was crap and had zero isolation from source, some of that noise could get into your DAC, but its all ultrasonic and beyond the threshold of human hearing anyway.

In a networked situation, theres no way to transmit that noise from Nucleus to streamer and people should stop worrying about it.

A PSU on a nucleus isnā€™t going to fix the issue either way.

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I have Nucleus +. At the beginning I use power supply which was together with Nucleus, when I bought it. I changed it on LPS Keces and the sound become better.
Power supply is important in audio equipment. For example, in case of power amplifier is the main component. In case of streamer, too but it is not such spectacular. Theoretically, it is difficult too explain, but there is a difference in sound quality and it is hear.

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In a power amplifier, the power supply is in the signal path. This has nothing at all to do with the Nucleus

Xmas riddle

Setup:

x PS ā†’ Nucleus ā†’ ethernet via optical fibre ā†’ streamer ā†’ DAC

Where x PS is a) a hardcore audiophile LPS and b) the cheap wall wart SMPS the Nucleus was delivered with.

Question: Would you be able to hear a difference in SQ? And why would you?

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