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Best power supply?


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I need to get another pedal board power supply. A few years ago I got a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 and like it a lot.

 

Lots of clean power and a variety of voltages.

 

Is there anything newer I should be considering instead??

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is your pedal power 2 not working anymore or why do you need a new one?

 

for new power supply, its like it was before, isolated outputs is a must have, otherwise you have a daisy chain in a box with all the noise issues.

and it depends how many outputs you need and what options?

 

voodoo lab is still good but from the price point of view imho too expensive

t-rex makes a fueltank jr. with isolated 5 outputs which is great...

 

but thomann and some others offer still cheaper china made no name power supplies like this one:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_junior.htm

 

i haven't any experience with any of them, cause my 10+ years pedalpower+ still works great.

 

there are much more options nowadays than ever before, but again i can't stress it too much, if it doesn't say isolated outputs, it most likely isn't so don't put your fingers on it

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My current Voodoo Labs works great. I'm adding a second pedalboard for stuff I don't need all the time. So it makes sense to have a separate power supply so it's quick to set up.

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If they are all 9V just get a Spot One. I run maybe 10 pedals on a spot one daisy chained.

I only have one pedal, a noise gate that doesn't like it so I keep that one on a separate zero hum wall wart.

I in fact dumped using that noise gate so it isn't even an issue any more.

All the others pedals work fine with zero noise.

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noise on a daisy chain starts, once you add delay pedals and or some digital pedals, often they draw a lot of current and then its becomes really annoying.

 

there is nothing wrong with having 2-4 pedals on a daisy chain, but when you a pedal freak like me and having always 10+ pedals on the board having a great power supply is essential and it saves a lot of headache cause you don't need regularly identify where the annoying noise source is...

 

and it became much easier than ten years ago, cause now you have lot of options to get isolated outputs on power supplies below $100, which all are worth looking at

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If they are all 9V just get a Spot One. I run maybe 10 pedals on a spot one daisy chained.

I only have one pedal, a noise gate that doesn't like it so I keep that one on a separate zero hum wall wart.

I in fact dumped using that noise gate so it isn't even an issue any more.

All the others pedals work fine with zero noise.

 

You know enough electronics and that ground loops are the next fact after plus and minus. Does digital switching cancel hum in some way?

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^^^^ Both of those are good points. Much of it comes down to the type, and the age of the pedals. In general, most new major manufacturer pedals are pretty good on current draw, most rarely require more then 100ma so you can daisy chain a bunch of them without an issue. Even many of your old pedals are good on current draw, but there's always those exceptions

 

None of my echo units have an issue and I have Zero issues with ground loops. Just that one gate pedal has a problem. Its Behringer clone of a Boss Noise Gate so it may just be the brand. It does work with its own wall wart so I just figure it doesn't like the Spot one.

 

Its your oddball manufacturer and heavy current suckers that seem to cause the biggest problems. The key is when you're setting up a pedal board, you simply test things out one by one, adding and removing things as you go till you know it all works well. I'd have no problem finding an buying a brick if I needed it, I just don't.

 

My back row of pedals is elevated on an angle so I can get to them easily. This leaves space under that shelf where I have all my AC components. I have a rather large power outlet box with built in noise filtering, and isolated outputs. Its similar to this except 10 outlets I believe. I used it for ages before multi supplies were readily available and ran about 10 separate wall warts to power everything. I really don't need something tha big any more but because its industrial quality power filter I use it for protection vs utility.

 

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The outllets are sideways instead of in a row like many power strips I can run a bunch of oddball wall warts on there when needed. I do in fact have to because I have some oddball pedals like the Silver Dragon that run on 18V AC and a couple others that have non standard voltages I cant get from a DC brick.

 

I don't normally take that big studio pedal board to gigs however. The thing is way too big to be practical playing live. I have like 6 drive pedals, 3 modulation, 2 comps, 2 echos, and some others I built like multi loop and rotary speaker controls all setup for running a stereo amp setup.

 

When I play live I have a smaller kit with maybe a half dozen essential pedals, Tuner, Compressor, Overdrive, Distortion, Chorus and Echo is all I usually need. I also have the amps channel switching. if I need to get tones beyond that, I fake it or go without and gloss it over with my playing skills. The whole thing fits in a small Rocktec pedal board case with a removable top I bought maybe 25 years ago. I like it because its slim and compact and will fit in the back of my combo amp. All I do when I gig is connect the spot one, which has a nice long 25' cord and run my 2 cords, plug in the amp and bam, I'm playing within minutes.

 

 

Of course I do bring out the big guns occasionally too. I have midi rack units where I can run stereo effects on a pair of 100W amps with 4X12 cabs, and use a full sides pedal board too. Its just a matter of what I'm being paid any more. I see no sense in hauling all that gear for a show for 100 people when I can get buy with a simple 4X10 combo and minimal pedals. When I play an outdoor festival with several thousand people, I'll make sure I'm heard from one end to the other. If the cops show up to tell me to turn down I know I'm being heard in the next town 10 miles away.

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What features do you guys think a "best power supply" should have?

 

Let's define what makes a power supply good, and give some examples too if you can please... I think that if we can do that, it might help the OP. :) But thoughts about what makes a supply "good" are bound to vary though, depending on individual needs. I'd want something with a ton of outlets and multiple voltages and maybe with a starved voltage outlet thrown in for good measure... but for someone else, a massive power supply like that might be overkill; they might have a smaller board and value compactness more than tons of outlets.

 

 

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Clean, dependable, durable, inexpensive, capable of supply the right voltage an current, compact, lightweight, expandable, adaptable.

 

 

Vanity does run rampant in show business however. A guitarists pride in his gear can easily take priority over all other considerations.

A Player connects with his gear when he performs, and when its working its the greatest. There's often little gray area. He is often highly unforgiving when it doesn't. That once highly praised piece of gear that has gone many years beyond its life expectancy can easily be condemned as being the worst piece of gear he's owned, especially when it goes down during one of his performances.

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for me it needs to be durable. i had a lot of wall warts/one spots alike fail for me over the years, when running daisy chains

i'm not a clean setup and wiring fetishist, if you see my pedal board pics, the wiring is always very messy, but i like to avoid cable salads, so i try to keep all cables as short as needed.

having a power cords extension with 5-6 outlets and 6 wall warts in it always makes a mess with the cables.

 

as for the power supply, as much outlets as possible (for the price), isolated outputs, so there is one common noise source eliminated.

i do not care for special voltage features etc, cause most pedals in need of this have their one power supply with them, so i use them.

so its a compromise for me, having 2 or 3 pedals on the board with their own wall mart and the rest on my pedalpower+

 

everything in a mid/big size rockcase fits well in and i'm ready to go.

 

one important thing about shopping a power supply, is to check if all needed cables or even more are included. this is the biggest thing which suck with the pp2+, they still ship it still only with 6 standard boss plug cables for the eight outlets...

 

the fuel tank jr here is great, cause you get all and more than you need with it

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I'm realizing that I need to consider the current the power supply can put out. Up until now my pedal board had simple stomp boxes. I never thought twice about what they needed. Clean power was all I cared about.

 

I've just ordered the Eventide H9 and that needs 500mAmp of current. I'm getting the Voodoo Lab HEX and Ground Control. The HEX requires 100mAmp and the Ground Control needs 500mAmps. The Ground Control will be powered by the HEX via a 5 pin MIDI cable. So the HEX needs 600mAmp total.

 

I think I have exceeded what the Pedal Power 2 Plus can put out. The Voodoo Labs 4x4 might work.

 

I need to chart out what the various items on my pedal board require.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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In the end I realized that I wouldn't be sure of what will stay on this new board and what will be swapped out over the first couple months.

 

So having something bulletproof with lots of power, and lots of options was most important.

 

For that reason I went with the Voodoo Labs Mondo. It will easily fit under the PedalTrain Classic Pro and be able to accommodate anything I need.

 

Thanks everyone.

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A good power supply meets the following needs:

* no extra hassle

* doesn't kill tone / introduce noise

* durable

 

The durability and hassle factor would both be addressed by a somewhat stiff cable coating - "cable salad" would be helped if the insulation helped keep stuff straight. And theoretically it would last longer.

 

+1 to 'adequate # of connectors'

 

Power conditioning and tone / noise is really a matter of mfr. choice as to quality and QC, isn't it?

 

I also think it might be nice if it were a brick with a plug for the power cable (like many laptops) on the upstream/wall socket side. This would be replaceable if damaged, and if necessary, you could purchase a longer cord.

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