Switch mode versus traditional power supplies

Well done, Paul. That's not an easy topic to discuss and keep it from becoming highly technical. Excellent explanation.

A commendable job by Paul on this video. One thing that Paul briefly mentioned that I wanted to expand on. "Switching" Power Supplies have oscillators in them. And those oscillators are certainly over 10Khz. Paul said that Switching power supplies create "noise" and that is very true. And because of that, per the FCC ( Federal Communications Commission ), requires any consumer device with an oscillator over 10Khz MUST carry a testing for compliance certification number. Purchasing an off the shelf power supply that is already certified does not absolve you from getting your entire product retested and certified. All of that can be a pain in the ass. Been there, done that.

After years of trying to understand the difference, your explanation of linear vs. switching power supplies was the most well thought out explanation. Thank you.

Toroidal transformers are heavy and make your equipment feel more expensive 🤣

Paul, thanks. Many others have tried to explain this, took longer, used graphs and acronyms, and left me perplexed.

Great ‘simple’ explanation Paul. Thanks!

Paul, I really appreciate your videos, Thanks!

Switching power supplies are nothing new. Science discovered long long time ago that as the frequency went up, the size of the transformer went down to transfer the same amount of power. So, if you wanted a smaller power supply, you would take the incoming 50 or 60 Hz power, put it to an oscillator that would "switch" it at a much higher frequency, then use a much smaller transformer to make a conventional (linear) power supply. But now, you would also need some extra filters to clean up the higher frequency components brought on by the oscillator. That's what it is in a nutshell... In most cases, switching power supplies are chosen to eliminate an large, expensive transformer. Therefore, most switching supplies have the number one design goal to be "cheap" and, in line with this goal, the filtering I mentioned above is also not done properly. The lack of proper filtering and shielding makes most commercially available switching power supplies a poor choice for high end audio. Of course, a switching power supply can be designed and constructed in a (expensive) way to have an excellent noise filtering, which would make it suitable for high end audio use. However, almost nobody does that because you don't want to deal with such a complex design when you will likely have no cost or performance advantage over an equivalent conventional (linear) power supply.

I'll take the robustness of the transformer instead of a sensitive SMPS ✨

I have a Technics mini-system that has a separate Pulse Power Supply Unit SH-C01 for the 50W RMS amp SE-C01. It was bought in 1979 and looks like it was 45 years ahead of its time.

Thank you for this Paul.

You explained it well and it was less than two minutes more than the average video.

great vid paul. thanks

For a power amp, traditional transformers are not regulated and the voltage drops by the signal load and mains power fluctuations. Capacitors are used to help on that. A switch mode power supply can provide precise regulated voltage and also eliminate the need for an external power regenerator as it sort of does the same.

Better or cheaper 🤔 The bean counters always win

SMPS in an Emotiva Reference Differential sounds amazing.

Great explanation

Very interesting thanks.

Spectron first developed a switch mode power amp and it was very good in 1999… I owned 1 and it was great… combined with my audible illusions pre amp, it was as good as anything …

Less metal=more cheaper