Paul Hynes super regs

I've just been made aware of these 3-pin super-regs by Paul Hynes.

http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/page6.html

The interesting thing for me is that he does versions to replace LM317/LM337 as well as 78xx/79xx.

What sort of performance could be expected from these? How would they compare to an LM317/LM337 tweaked with Zener diodes etc?

Of course they are much much more expensive than a few Zeners but if they really are that good........

 

Yes, they'll probably out-perform plain old 3-pin regs. For some loads better regulation can be worthwhile.

However...

If you're paying for such performance - don't fit them in an offboard supply, the benefit of the potentially-better regulation performance is lost. High-performance regulators belong right at the load served, ultimately /ideally taking feedback from it (at the pins of the IC served).


[and don't be bamboozled by that link's claims of error amp performance; making a good reg is a lot more complex than just picking a fast opamp for the 'error amp'. You have to make it stable into any conceivable load too; but that makes for much more conservative delivered performance and duller reading ]