Found this old thread.
Post #9
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=92
Does paralleling three (or more)
power supplies reduce ripple (increase
ripple frequency) ?
What is the pro/con of using
three small power supplies vs.
one large one ?
Post #9
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=92
Does paralleling three (or more)
power supplies reduce ripple (increase
ripple frequency) ?
What is the pro/con of using
three small power supplies vs.
one large one ?
I seem to stump everyone with my esotericquestions since joining this forum
or
People fear the evil one, me or
People think it's a trick question andwait for someone else to post first
Right now, I'm checking every thread (62 pages)
to gather data for my project, I'm almost done
reading 30 pages of threads. Funny stuff.
I think the Academy award goes to Kilowatt,
the ambitious Jedi Apprentice who builds Tesla
coils, HV squirt guns, and wants to build isolation-less
7kw amplifiers off 240v mains, then only manages
to blow up his 200w Leach amp on the test bench.
!Kudos!
People with monster plans gets my vote for the
award 😎 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I assume you are wondering about linear supplies.
If so, I would think that paralleling them would lead to more problems than it would solve. I would only recommend paralleling power supplies if you cannot build up a single supply economically. Getting voltages and currents to match and share equally is difficult and typically requires series resistors that waste power.
Unless you power the supply with three phase power, and thus parallel the three supplies from each leg, the ripple frequency will not change by paralleling. The amount of ripple voltage will still depend on the total capacitance and load. Indeed, as unequal currents can be drawn from each paralleled supply, total capacitance will have to be higher, I would guess, than for a single supply.
So, unless you are building one big honking supply where the needed transformer is cost prohibitive, but three smaller transformers that sum up to the same power is cheaper, then I would stick would a single.
Now, that said, using seperate supplies for each channel and even each rail of each channel, for a total of 4 independent supplies, might have some advantages sonically. Indeed, I would recommend this approach instead of paralleling and using that to power the whole amp.
If so, I would think that paralleling them would lead to more problems than it would solve. I would only recommend paralleling power supplies if you cannot build up a single supply economically. Getting voltages and currents to match and share equally is difficult and typically requires series resistors that waste power.
Unless you power the supply with three phase power, and thus parallel the three supplies from each leg, the ripple frequency will not change by paralleling. The amount of ripple voltage will still depend on the total capacitance and load. Indeed, as unequal currents can be drawn from each paralleled supply, total capacitance will have to be higher, I would guess, than for a single supply.
So, unless you are building one big honking supply where the needed transformer is cost prohibitive, but three smaller transformers that sum up to the same power is cheaper, then I would stick would a single.
Now, that said, using seperate supplies for each channel and even each rail of each channel, for a total of 4 independent supplies, might have some advantages sonically. Indeed, I would recommend this approach instead of paralleling and using that to power the whole amp.
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