Inexpensive power supply

burger-patty-and-bacon

burger-patty-and-bacon

Active member
I'm using the ghastly One Spot right now with the ridiculous long pigtail chain... I see pedal power 2 by voodoo is like 130 bucks but I see a boatload of similar units on Amazon for 30 or 40 bux. Brands like Donner and others I have never heard of. Seeking experiences on budget friendly power and a link to Amazon so I can buy today. Thanks, lads.
 
I've had the Donner. IIRC, each supply goes through a choke, but they're all fed from the same input transformer, diode rectifier and voltage regulator, so it's like 'pseudo' isolation. The chokes filter noise on the positive rail, but do nothing to prevent noise caused by ground loops.

The reason the Voodoo Labs, OneSpot etc are so much more expensive is each supply has its own transformer, rectifier and regulator, so it's true isolation. -- No ground loops.

People usually shell out the extra money once they have more than 5 pedals on their board and can't figure out where the mysterious buzz is coming from.
 
Last edited:
As @daeg said, those cheap power supplies aren’t technically isolated like some of them claim. They work well for the most part but adding a bunch of effects can cause ground loop issues. Especially when you start mixing digital and analog effects.
 
Ok. Lesson taught. I will buy a better unit. Power Plus 2. Thanks guys.

In my music room I have to swing my chair to the right spot when recording otherwise I get gnarly hum. I wish I knew where it was coming from.
 
I've got a couple of Voodoos (I've no idea how they rate). I use the 4-port on the bench, and the 8-port on the floor for pedals. My pedalboard IS the floor so that works well.....

.....of course I probably look like I'm stomping cockroaches to the untrained eye.
 
I'd use anything that TrueTone makes but haven't tried anything beyond the OneSpot. I have a few of the Voodoos and they're killer but the price is getting a bit spendy. My faves because of how flexible they are are the Fuel Tank Classic (+$$$) and my newest obsession: the Dunlop M238 Power brick. This thing does everything imaginable, is crazy quiet and runs fairly cool. I don't like having an external wall wart but the thing works so good it's a minor niggle.
 
I got a cheap ‘Vitoos dc8’ for my birthday last year or the year before, just a cheapo supply with three isolated outputs. Two are adjustable voltage which I like (9/12/18) and the 3rd is just daisy chained to like 5 outputs.

it is actually isolated also which is nice. For a while I was running one output at 18v in series with a 9v one for 27v for a pedal that needed higher voltage (until I just built it a charge pump).

I imagine the cheap Chinese ones on eBay/amazon are lately the same sort of thing.

I had a cheap 9v ‘Stagg’ brand power supply on a daisy chain powering a small other pedalboard on the other side of the room and it recently died. I bought a onespot to replace it as I assumed it would be a high quality replacement. Plug it in and buzzzz… I’ve ordered another cheap £15 Stagg power supply, hopefully it’s still the same design as my old quiet one.

if I were to get another supply with multiple isolated outputs I think I would probably try one of the harley benton ones sold by Thomann (in-house brand). They have two fairly cheap ones that take a mains cable, and I think at least one of them is still transformer based rather than switch mode.

Looking at their site, the ‘Iso 2 pro’ looks exactly the same as the vitoos one I have
 
  • Like
Reactions: fig
daeg said:
Almost everyone tries a cheap one, gets frustrated, then eventually shells out the money for the professional quality ones.

My board has 14 pedals, supplied by 2 x OneSpot CS7 and I have zero noise. Expensive solution, but much better than buzz and constant frustration.

View attachment 14561
Click to expand...
I have the CS12 for similar reasons stated above and have zero complaints. Money well spent IMHO.
 
I've used/am using a T-Rex Fuel Tank (which had one port die but has been otherwise solid for 10-odd years), an Aetos (rock solid but current is a little limited with today's modern digital pedals), and the Eventide-branded Cioks DC7. The Cioks is unfuckwithable, running a bunch of digital pedals + a Poly Beebo + all the normal analog stuff with aplomb. (Cioks uses rca plugs for the "power" side, so plan ahead for splitters and center-positive and Line 6 cables.)

A few weeks ago I picked up a Harley Benton ISO-10AC, having discovered it on these forums. It's seen no practices and no live shows, so not sure how rugged it truly is, but has been cool thus far at home. The only thing I've noticed is some noise/artifacts in the Beebo, which wants 500mA minimum (the Cioks is 660). I'm in the US and ordered two to offset shipping costs with a friend. 10 outlets, upwards of 500mA, 9/12/18v options, and a USB port for $125 wasn't a bad risk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top