Power Supply for Volumio Primo

Hi there,
Have anyone tried other than the stock power supply with Volumio Primo (v3 I think). I think the stock is Allo, which sonically does not touch my 12 year old $300 Marantz CD player. In my setup at least. Then goes iFi, Shanti, SBooster lately Ferrum Hypsos - can not decide which one of those would make a difference, if at all. I am looking at Ferrum Hypsos but again, would there be enough difference to justify the price tag (when used with Volumio). Any experienced user here?

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suscribing, we know everything count :+1:

So really, no one is using other than the stock power supplies with prime?

@sngreen,
Please have a little patience and give the community time to respond.

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What I can say, waiting also for people answer, is

  • everything count effectively, from speaker cable, usb cable, power cable, power plug, usb filter, passing from rca to XLR make also a nice difference
  • beware of marketing and monitor homogeneity and cost effectiveness of your setup, for example i had a look at ferum ipsos and it smells bad in regards to this 2 parameters
  • primo’s starter dc power supply seems to be qualitative
  • what about power conditionner that clean the power flow ? it can also feed several devices from 12v to 230v if I remember well

Keep in mind that a well designed voltage circuit of your Streamer/DAC will filter out spikes and noise from the connected PSU.
I recall a test on ASR, where they connected a DAC to a distorted power line (simulating a dimmer) with no measurable difference on the output. So in basic, if the PSU makes such a big impact, you should reconsider the design of your streamer/DAC and ask yourself if you really want to buy it.

On the SBC’s (like rPi) the PSU will have a big improvement, because of the cheap design of the onboard power circuit/regulation.
So in short, devices that fully depend on the quality of the DC input voltage, will mst likely benefit from a clean signal.

I’ve tried a number of different power supplies with both Pi 3 and 4, from the standard Raspberry Pi supply to an iFi supply, battery power, and an Allo Shanti supply. In my experience none of them offered much, if any, improvement on the basic supply. Your experience may be different.

chourmovs_vs is correct in saying everything can make a difference. The biggest improvement I’ve found recently has been using the balanced output of my DAC (matrix mini-i2) into my preamp (Music First).

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Thanks jsneff,
Although Hans Beekhuyzen often mentions power supplies in his reviews, Volumios as well, I suspected it would not make worthy of the price difference. Thought I would ask first, they are not that cheap after all.

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@chourmovs_vs
From what I read elsewhere power conditioner do have a tendency to take life away from the devices they filter that power for (musical devices, I mean). Do not know if this is really so, but I just do not have any excitement about trying it out, somehow.

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ASR is a Pandora’s box in itself; I only looked at few of their threads on this topic, with nja, nja mostly, and closed that page, again. Just do not think those guys give a fair enough picture to what you may get at the end. On almost every topic they open.

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That’s a very harsh and undefined statement you make.
Guess manufacturers just loan their stuff to ASR just for the heck of it.

It’s more complicated and multivarial, difference you can hear depends on the sensitivity of your system and the one of your auditive organs. If I remember well, I’ve read somewhere on this forum that shanti’s power was an improvement to primo’s standard one. Since the day I own my dynaudio X38, everytime i change something in my setup, i feel a significative change, sometime placebo effect may happen but it make sense since slight difference are passing in an amplification, multiplication is “distributive” if I remember well :wink:

it was concerning new rivo in fact

I also compared…
Many standard noname, Apple, RPI, iFi, Allo Nirvana.
iFi is clearly better than the Noname, Allo Nirvana better than iFi.
I couldn’t test Shanti.
I am currently using the Allo Nirvana and will not give it away again!
I also use the iFi AC iPurifier.
(Allo BOSS2, Hypex NC400, Boenicke Audio W5SE)
There is also the DC iPurifier, but don’t know if it’s a good device?

If your system is good, the differences are easily audible.
Listen carefully, you will notice.
e.g. live, vocals, piano, drums and use good recordings
More real, more vivid, it’s more fun

But if you are not interested enough in the last details and you are not an audio freak, there is no need to invest a lot of money in a power supply.

Found interesting comparison here,

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I got night and day experience when I change from stock Raspberry to a IFi Power X 5v.
Just wow when I connected it.
But that was on my system.
Buchardt speakers
Musical Fidelity M6si
Topping D90 MQA

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sometimes it is also the expectation that puts you on edge and you suddenly hear everything differently.

I’ve secretly switched components from a friend’s installation in the past.
he didn’t notice anything all evening until the moment I gave it away.

Have you ever had the feeling that everything just doesn’t sound as nice and the next day it suddenly does. a person is very sensitive to a certain mood and events that happen casually during the day.

as an example: (not really hey :wink: ) volumio announces a major update but then changes nothing in their software (except a few characters) then I’m almost sure that there are a lot of people who hear all kinds of improvements or deteriorations at once .
it’s just in it. expectation

there’s no absolute truth, it’s well known that our brain can accomodate to the lack of our system with time, but on the other side ampllified differences should be detectable on sensible setup.

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top notch setup indeed, I’m not surprised

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I had Buchardt S300 when I did the changed, now I got s400 mk2 :heart:
Love those speakers