3 terminal Jung Super Regulator Kit

[ALW]

I think regulator choice is rather unimportant as long as you can filter out noise and the load is rather constant och the application doesn't need extra stable voltage.

I think that power supplies make more difference to the sonic perfomance of a circuit than the basic topology does.

Controversial eh!

Andy (No engineering degree)

[peranders]

A poor amp + an extreme PS creates good sound

A poor amp is poor.

[dipchip]

peranders,

fill in the blank

great amp + bad power supply = ___________


Try to use a high quality DAC with a crappy power supply.
Thats fun!

-Craig

[stokessd]

One thing that's not being said, is the importance of power supply quality on the sound is variable depending on the circuit used. PSRR figures in highly to the sound quality vs. power supply quality debate.

For example look at the gainclones, people are building 50 watt power amps with 1000 uF filter caps. they can get away witht his because of the high PSRR of those chips.

I would argue that if you have a 90 dB PSRR, then any regulated power supply should sound the same. However many circuits (even op-amps and those power gaincard type chips) don't have that high PSRR at all audio frequencies.

Just my view from the peanut gallery...
Sheldon

[ALW]

I would argue that if you have a 90 dB PSRR, then any regulated power supply should sound the same. However many circuits (even op-amps and those power gaincard type chips) don't have that high PSRR at all audio frequencies.

I'd be inclined to agree, in principle.

The problem is I've never seen a circuit with that PSRR across the audio band, taking into account circuit noise gain etc.

Peranders,

You're right, but my point is any competent amp circuit (not obviously flawed designs) can be made to sound good, if you address the details.

Topology is almost irrelevant, but PSU's bring big benefits to everything I've tried.

Andy.

[PMiczek]

Given the above comments on power supply quality and regulators, what regulator specifications and ps "quality" are sufficient? Meaning in the type of small, low voltage digital and +/- analog supplies controlled with 3-pin regulators, and used in DACs and related digital/analog audio designs, as opposed to power amps.

It is one thing to say that a component is not good enough, or that another is "better", but what noise and regulation specs are actually required for a supply which will not add noise and distortion to the output?

[Fred Dieckmann]

"(You can not flipover these IC type references like the LM329 for the negative supply)."

Actually you could run a positive series reference for a negative reference voltage. Tie Vout to gnd and power Vin from the positive supply. You put a current on the ground terminal and V-out (the ground terminal) is the negative output reference. You are running the regulator series and shunt. Vin could be the regulated positive supply for best effective PSRR for the negative reference. Why bother? There seem to be more good series references than shunt. I seem to remember a few that can be used in either mode.

With seperate transformer secondaries you can tie two positive regulators together, for one to act as a negative regulator (V out of one tied to ground of the other) since the input voltages are isolated by the seperate transformer secondaries not be tied together the GND / Vout node is the only galvanic connection.

I have built a lot of line level circuits with ground as the most positive voltage. Scott Nixon used to joke that he had to turn the schematics upside down to figure out how they work. The circuits had ground for the supply and the load in parallel. Ground looks like the positive supply and the gound return. It is a shunt amplifier much the same priciple as a shunt regulator.

You guys in Australia swap all positive and negative descriptions
since you guys are upside down you realize........

[Fred Dieckmann]

"It is one thing to say that a component is not good enough, or that another is "better", but what noise and regulation specs are actually required for a supply which will not add noise and distortion to the output?"


You have heard the joke about the guy who ask how much something cost and the salesman saying how much you got?

It dependent on how clean your input voltage to the regulator is,
the PSRR and load currents of the circuit whos supply teminals are being regulated, and whether the circuit is anglog, digital, or vegtable. Noise, PSRR, and output impedance of the regulator vary dramatically with frequency.

And I'll bet you were afraid you would get a complicated answer like "It depends."

[ALW]

...but have you asked the right question

Rather than "what regulator specifications and ps "quality" are sufficient" how about "what regulator specifications and ps "quality" are relevant"

Aren't we a helpful bunch?

Bit like the guy asking the Irishman for directions "Well I wouldn't start from here, if I were you"

Andy (with a degree of fun).

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by Fred Dieckmann
"(You can not flipover these IC type references like the LM329 for the negative supply)."

Actually you could run a positive series reference for a negative reference voltage. Tie Vout to gnd and power Vin from the positive supply. You put a current on the ground terminal and V-out (the ground terminal) is the negative output reference. You are running the regulator series and shunt. Vin could be the regulated positive supply for best effective PSRR for the negative reference. Why bother? There seem to be more good series references than shunt. I seem to remember a few that can be used in either mode.

With seperate transformer secondaries you can tie two positive regulators together, for one to act as a negative regulator (V out of one tied to ground of the other) since the input voltages are isolated by the seperate transformer secondaries not be tied together the GND / Vout node is the only galvanic connection.

I have built a lot of line level circuits with ground as the most positive voltage. Scott Nixon used to joke that he had to turn the schematics upside down to figure out how they work. The circuits had ground for the supply and the load in parallel. Ground looks like the positive supply and the gound return. It is a shunt amplifier much the same priciple as a shunt regulator.

You guys in Australia swap all positive and negative descriptions
since you guys are upside down you realize........

Yes Fred you are right. But it were you own words that it was more complicated, you remember? But actually I thought the 8-pin references are so expensive I was better out using one for all regulators.
To pick up the old thread I use the low-pass filter circuit as in the OP176 datasheet and the negative reference i.e. -5V is obtained by a inverting opamp as in the Ref02 datasheet. 10k resistors and 5k to ground. This works well but not much better than LM329's.

Everyone:
How about a great supply + a great amplifier circuit?


The Kevin Gilmore circuit contains more "subtilities" but I leave these to discover by the sharpeyed reader themselve. In other words no more hints. This sentence courtesy of Jocko!