I’ve got 3 upstreamHD DACs for 3 zones in my house all powered by a usb-c charger brick. Even built a nice custom rack for the setup and works great. Now I’m wondering if I should get a high quality power supply and if that would make an incremental improvement in sound quality.
I did something similar with my BlueSound Node with a commercial kit and not sure if that helped.
Am I chasing a pipe dream here and should focus on other things to improve
Sound quality?
The spec sheet for the HD DAC board shows a requirement of 2 amps per board, does your USB C supply have sufficient output to power all three at this current?
I have always been a strong believer in using a power supply capable of more output current than is required.
Phone chargers are also inherently noisy, audio quality supplies will inject far less ripple into the circuitry and therefore be quieter.
Yea the power block has 2a per outlet as I searched wide and far for it.
I’m wondering why I can’t get a decent linear power supply 50w and then wire that to each Upstream. Just not sure if I have to pigtail a usbc cable to power it or if I can use the 5v in and ground on the board. With usb-c would I have to worry about usb power management protocols.
If you did an upgrade to your BlueSound Node supply and couldn’t discern any improvements to the sound why are you bothered with this one?
An improvement to what you currently have might be a good quality SMPS such as a Meanwell and maybe add a LC filter to the output. Allow some ventilation around the supply.
You are correct, you can use the JST connector marked 17 in your manual is an alternative 5V input
