Building a PSU for an external firewire soundcard

[fosforo]

Hi to all,

I bought an M-Audio 1814 Firewire soundcard.
I wonder if building a good PSU instead of the small smps included in the package could improve the sonic quality excpecially related to the A/D D/A conversion.
The included SMPS is a 12V 1A.

Any advice?

Fabio

[Hartono]

I would use battery (sealed lead acid).

also firewire bidirectional optical isolator for ground loop isolation from the pc (might be costly).

[fosforo]

Originally posted by Hartono
I would use battery (sealed lead acid).

also firewire bidirectional optical isolator for ground loop isolation from the pc (might be costly).

Why not use a better SMPS like the one for ex. proposed for Charlize or Amp6 ?

What is a firewire bidirectiona optical isolator?

[Hartono]

"Why not use a better SMPS like the one for ex. proposed for Charlize or Amp6 ?"

I haven't checked their design and not familiar with their SMPS implementation, but SMPS is inherently noisy, for DA and AD I would use battery, or at least the usual transformer+linear regulator.

battery will save a lot of hassle in reducing the supply ground loop and noise problem. the main drawback is maintenance of battery.

The firewire optical isolator is basically optical isolation for firewire device. So there is no ground loop flowing between your soundcard and the PC (PC ground is extremely dirty).

all this should result in much better signal fidelity in and out of your firewire soundcard.

I've googled for "firewire optical isolator" of "firewire optical extender" and found some result , but mostly expensive (USD 100-200).

I think if you have the time,try do a little bit of research on "optical isolator" you might get the idea of the benefit.

What optical isolation did is basically: instead of using wire and electric signal for transmitting the signal, it uses optical fibre and light,so there's complete electrical isolation from the PC. which remove ground loop and other signal cable imperfection.

the main practical drawback for optical isolation is only the cost.

Anyway I just mentioned this for the ultimate signal integrity and I remember you specially asked for "improved sonic quality" in your first post .
other method will work but will not bring as good result.

cheers

[fosforo]

Originally posted by Hartono

The firewire optical isolator is basically optical isolation for firewire device. So there is no ground loop flowing between your soundcard and the PC (PC ground is extremely dirty).

all this should result in much better signal fidelity in and out of your firewire soundcard.

I've googled for "firewire optical isolator" of "firewire optical extender" and found some result , but mostly expensive (USD 100-200).
[/B]

Where? I didn't find anything....

[Hartono]

oopss sorry I made a mistake,

100-200 dollar for the optical cable and around USD 675 for the Firewire optical repeater set

http://usbfirewire.com/frepeaters.html (receiver + transmitter)




USD 189 is for USB2

http://industrialcomponent.com/opticis/optusbext.html

I'm really sorry for the confusion