Bought the Chord Qutest. Love it. Hate the power supply.


Everything about this DAC is incredible except for the dinky power supply. I wondered if others didn't like it, so I Googled it and noticed that people were upgrading and noticing a sonic difference!

I am not interested in spending much money, but I would like to replace it with something that is an improvement for my ears and my peace of mind. 

Any suggestions?>

128x128nickrobotron

@nickrobotron 

Food for thought from Rob Watts himself:

“Actually my advice is that the supplied PSU is as good as a battery supply (based on my listening with my set-up -YMMV) - which gives the lowest amount of RF noise - and that LPS supplies is likely to sound worse, as they are often transparent to RF noise from the mains - the supplied switcher has RF filters. My advice is to try a USB battery bank, and if it sounds identical to the supplied PSU, then don't bother "upgrading" with a LPS...

If you still wish to pursue, try this LPS which comes with a 30 days money back guarantee. 

 

 

@nickrobotron

Your reaction to replies don’t make sense. People are simply responding to what you wrote, these were your words. You describe the sound as “incredible “ . So in your opinion the sonic performance is awesome/outstanding:phenomenal etc. If so, then the supplied SMPS is functioning very well.

No one suggested that further sonic improvement is not possible with a LPS upgrade, not anyone. Chord it seems uses a good quality SMPS with their DACs. The higher level Dave uses a SMPS and owners are apparently very happy with them. So utilizing a SMPS wall wart doesn’t imply poor quality. Particularly if it’s in a component described as incredible. Did you perhaps choose this term inappropriately?

Charles

@lalitk 

We posted nearly the same time, I just saw your reply.

+1 , same idea and reasoning.😊

Charles