What are the best options for upgrading the power supply for my NUC? Has anyone used the TeddyNUC?
Hi Don,
Are you connecting your DAC directly via USB to your NUC, or is your DAC connected to a streamer?
Kind regards, Frank.
Connect by Ethernet and save a few $
Another war starts
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The best option is the PSU the NUC came with. Zero additional cost.
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I connect my Chord Mojo 2 into my NUC.
A PC motherboard contains VRMs, or buck converters (switch regulators), to convert 12V to 1.4V and 1V (and possibly other voltages?) for the CPU and various other chips and components.
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Hi Don.
Honestly mate, spend the money elsewhere.
I borrowed a MCRU Linear power supply for a couple of weeks to try with my Roon Nucleus, and as expected, it made absolutely no difference to what was coming out of the speakers.
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There is no upgrade. The one that came with it is designed for use with it.
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Six years ago when I was cobbling together a low-powered system for a small one-bedroom apartment, the TeddyNUC didn’t exist back then. So I bought a Teddy Pardo 19/3 to power my NUC. It’s been a solid piece of equipment as far as reliability goes ever since. Does it impart some sort of magical sonic quality that makes it a “must buy”? Maybe not & with my hearing, I’m not the one to be making that call anyway. I was having fun piecing together something I could enjoy listening to while I wrote code all day. I just bought stuff I liked & had fun building the racks and the stands. YMMV.
Inspired by the roon forums I bought for my first nuc a power booster. This booster moved to my new nuc, so I can use the power block from the new nuc for another purpose. By the way, this new power block is much bigger then the old one.
(Until today I avoid an ABX test between my old nuc power block and the booster 
)
For “my garage room” I bought a very very cheap amplifier that needed external power. Combined with a cheap power supply and with “full power silence” I can hear a noise when I put my old ear on the speaker. But with the new nuc power block - see picture -
that noise is gone. (Nowadays my garage has a marantz with the roon HEOS Extension.)
@ger_tielemans I can imagine that changing the wall-wart of your cheap amplifier by a decent switched power supply of the NUC can influence the sound of the amplifier drastically.
I can imagine that too, but, as with most upgrades, that depends on the quality of the system and your hearing.
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Hi…
I bought one of these:
It was created specifically to power a 19v NUC.
Anyone who has searched knows that NUC-Specific power supplies are obscure and difficult to locate.
This came very reasonably fast from China.
It is also reasonably priced…
Have been using it for one week.
Runs pretty cool and I have had no issues……
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We all can play nice.
For those of you who think that upgrading PSU will increase SQ, you are just partially correct. There is more to digital signal cleaning than that.
I agree. But one can start by the supply and experiment. The good thong is that in the digital world it doesn’t have to be expensive because of mass production.
Indeed. And one can start even less expensively: try standing on your head to listen, and see if that improves the sound. Something few have even tried, in spite of the easy availability of experimental materials!
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I sill have a few bottles of digital signal cleaner, if anyone is interested. One drop every month is good for about 1TB uncompressed data, so I overestimated my needs.
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@Jut The problem with that approach is there is very little room to improve after you upgrade your power supply. Also, just because it is a linear power supply, it does not mean it will sound any better than the switch-mode PSU.
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“but still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”
If you believe that a PSU upgrade of a standard computer improves the integrity of the data flowing out of it and ultimately the result of its analogue conversion into sound, then it probably does. The human brain is just built like that.
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