Hi,
I am in the process of building a streamer, a dac and a phono pre.
I would like to have the enclosures as small as possible and so I would like to put some parts a little away.
Here is the question: could I put the transformers and or the (super-) regulators in separate enclosures away from the other items (some feet)?
How long could the dc line be and what cable to use?
If in separate enclosure would it be better to use normal transformer or toroidal type? Normal type would be also cheaper.
Best regards
Branko
I am in the process of building a streamer, a dac and a phono pre.
I would like to have the enclosures as small as possible and so I would like to put some parts a little away.
Here is the question: could I put the transformers and or the (super-) regulators in separate enclosures away from the other items (some feet)?
How long could the dc line be and what cable to use?
If in separate enclosure would it be better to use normal transformer or toroidal type? Normal type would be also cheaper.
Best regards
Branko
Branko:
I've built many preamplifiers and phono preamplifiers with separate chassis for the power supplies and believe it's a smart practice. If you search, you'll find a few threads discussing umbilical cables and connector options as well.
Regards,
Scott
I've built many preamplifiers and phono preamplifiers with separate chassis for the power supplies and believe it's a smart practice. If you search, you'll find a few threads discussing umbilical cables and connector options as well.
Regards,
Scott
When I rebuilt my preamp I moved the power supply to a separate chassis. It made things a bit quieter. Definately like to use toroids. The umbilical cable was short as the Power supply sits on top of the preamp cabinet, but expensive, those multi-pin connecters and pins are expensive.
When I rebuilt my power amps I wish I would have separated the power supply and the amp sections into different chassis, not so much for noise but the single chassis is over 100 pounds and not easy to move except on a wheeled moving dolly. But then if I have done separate chassis there would have been the issue of a large DC power cable between the chassis, and probably expensive. Can't win no matter how you go, everything is a trade off. 🙂
On another of your points, the power supply and raw DC is good in one chassis, I like to keep the regulators as close the power destination as possible. That said, in my current preamp the regulator section is in the power supply chassis and the DC power cable is kept short.
When I rebuilt my power amps I wish I would have separated the power supply and the amp sections into different chassis, not so much for noise but the single chassis is over 100 pounds and not easy to move except on a wheeled moving dolly. But then if I have done separate chassis there would have been the issue of a large DC power cable between the chassis, and probably expensive. Can't win no matter how you go, everything is a trade off. 🙂
On another of your points, the power supply and raw DC is good in one chassis, I like to keep the regulators as close the power destination as possible. That said, in my current preamp the regulator section is in the power supply chassis and the DC power cable is kept short.
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Use a shield for the transformer, and stay in the same housing.
Connect shield at 2 places to dwelling Earth.
Connect shield at 2 places to dwelling Earth.
Audible Illusions preamps have separate chassis for the PSU, and they are among the best sounding machines you can find out there.
I designed a separate PSU chassis for my preamp: it has two hefty transformers, one each for analog and DSP sections, along with three chonky chokes for LCRC filtering (rail hum is low single-digit millivolts before regulators). Throw in a few capacitors & silicon and there's hardly any room left for preamping.
When I rebuilt my Monoblock amplifiers I wish I used seperate enclosures for the PS. As it was the amp went from 16" long to 24" long and from 80 pounds to 130 pounds. Not as easy to pick up and move now, but then they don't move much, or at all, in my system now. 🙂
130lb each one of the monoblocks? .. jeez, that seriously heavy! I set my limit to 40lb/chassis..
Wouldn't work for me, could never stay under 40lb/chassis with power amps, the 2.4KVA toroid, plus the hugh caps, inductors, and softstart would push 40 pounds already, not including the PS chassis. 🙂 Even with the power supply out of the main chassis the thick aluminum heat spreaders and the large heatsinks, for heavy class A bias, would still have the main amp at 70 pounds. The reworked Threshold SA/1s are serious hardware. 😁
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