home made PSU query....

I've just bought a dac and I'm after a suitable PSU, I've done a search on the web and came up with this - http://www.rock-grotto.co.uk/x-psu2.htm

I've tried to e-mail the guy - no luck yet, but the other pages aren't valid so I'm won't hold my breath...

do you think it's worth building..?
if so, anyone here willing..?

 

You could do alot better than that seems nothing more than a transformer in a box, no rectification, smooting etc. Whats the dac?

 

it's a Music Musical Fidelity X-ACT DAC - picked it up from fleabay the other week...

 

What a coincidence it says that in your kit at the bottom.

I dont know the circuit for that DAC. Is it AC or DC input?

 

Whatever you do don't spend lots of cash on an X-PSU you will get.. a transformer in a box that does absolutely nothing to improve the sound. The Guy who runs the the Rock Grotto website is a very friendly fella by the name of Mike. He also uses these online discussion forums and goes by the handle of Pinkfloyd , often to be found over on PFM, Headwise, etc.

 

yes, xpsu is just a toroidal transformer, cheap one at that, toroid international.
nice box tho' bit like ferrero rocher and david becham, both cum in a posh box

 

ok, cheers for that guys...so, is it worth getting any PSU for it then..?

 

A bigger VAC rated transformer may help. Thats similar to the michel Hera stuff, the ISO HR supply is just a big ass transformer in a box afaik.

 

I bought an X-PSU a while ago to use with my X-Can headphone amp.I tried and tried to hear a difference betweeen the X-PSU and the standard wall-wart type supply and was just completely unable to hear even the minutest amount of improvement to the sound. The only advantage that i could see was if you owned 4 different X-Ponents. In this case an X-PSU is ideal as it can power 4 x X-Ponents at the same time, which is probably better than having 4 seperate wall-warts in use. Obviously another advantage of owning an X-PSU is that they do look seriously cute in a purely Hi-Fi 'pride of ownership' sense.

I sold my X-PSU on, making a small profit into the bargain and made myself a clone of the X-PSU as per Pinkies instructions on Rock Grotto. Again I couldn't detect any sound improvements, however for the sake of the few hours that it took to make and the modest cost ( circa £30 against the going rate for a s/h X-PSU of circa £160+ ) I considered it time and money reasonably well spent. This is a hobby after all.
I don't think i would bother repeating the exercise though.. Another small advantage of the X-PSU is that it adds an on-off switch into the power circuit enabling the X-Ponent to be switched off, this can easily be done with a wall-wart by adding an in-line single or double pole light cord switch into the long power lead.

Here are a few photo's of my own : http://imageevent.com/sidandcoke/sidsypsu
http://imageevent.com/sidandcoke/musicalfidelityxcanv1mods

Hope this helps and good luck ....

 

cheers sid and coke - you've just saved me a bit of cash..! I'll do without!

thanks again