Here is a measurement, teardown and review of Vinnie Rossi Ultracapacitor Power Supply. As I have explained before, this class of device aims to use a set of super capacitors as the storage reservoir to power an audio device. The idea is supposed to be to provide a mains isolated source of clean power for small audio devices and digital tweaks. This is implemented using dual capacitor banks, one of which is charging while the other powers the external device. http://www.vinnierossi.com/mini/
The unit is quite pricey in my book at $995.
The direct competitor to Vinnie Rossi Mini is the Uptone LPS-1. The Vinnie Rossi Mini includes a power supply internally while the LPS-1 does not. Uptone sells the UpTone with a switchmode power supply from MeanWell.
For this testing, I used my iFi iDAC2 USB Dac which retails for around $350. It is a popular DAC so I thought it would make a good test subject.
Since I was recently testing the Uptone ISO Regen (http://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/uptone-iso-regen-review-and-measurements.1829/) I used that as a way to inject power into the DAC since the ISO Regen provides its own post regulated USB power from external supply. And at any rate, is one of the devices often used with LPS-1 or Vinnie Rossi Mini.
The follow measurement is from a J-test 12 Khz tone. Ideal system would show nothing but noise in this zoomed in spectrum from 5 Hz to 1.1 Khz. Vertical scale is likewise way zoomed in to show small differences.
As we see here, there are still mains related contributions from the power supply in both scenarios. The Vinnie Rossi however, suffers from much less of that (in red) than UpTone LPS-1 (yellow).
Since UpTone LPS-1 supports external power supplies, here is the comparison of it powered by my lab power supply relative to Vinnie Rossi Mini:
As expected, my linear power supply is essentially free of AC mains leakage, resulting in clean output.
Note that neither supply with and without my lab supply is able to improve the performance of my DAC. At worst they add those mains harmonics, at best they do nothing.
And contrary to what both of them say, they do not block AC mains leakage as it is obvious from the measurements.
Save your money and put it toward a better Dac than these tweaks.
As always, I am open to feedback, corrections, new data, questions, etc.
The unit is quite pricey in my book at $995.
The direct competitor to Vinnie Rossi Mini is the Uptone LPS-1. The Vinnie Rossi Mini includes a power supply internally while the LPS-1 does not. Uptone sells the UpTone with a switchmode power supply from MeanWell.
For this testing, I used my iFi iDAC2 USB Dac which retails for around $350. It is a popular DAC so I thought it would make a good test subject.
Since I was recently testing the Uptone ISO Regen (http://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/uptone-iso-regen-review-and-measurements.1829/) I used that as a way to inject power into the DAC since the ISO Regen provides its own post regulated USB power from external supply. And at any rate, is one of the devices often used with LPS-1 or Vinnie Rossi Mini.
The follow measurement is from a J-test 12 Khz tone. Ideal system would show nothing but noise in this zoomed in spectrum from 5 Hz to 1.1 Khz. Vertical scale is likewise way zoomed in to show small differences.
As we see here, there are still mains related contributions from the power supply in both scenarios. The Vinnie Rossi however, suffers from much less of that (in red) than UpTone LPS-1 (yellow).
Since UpTone LPS-1 supports external power supplies, here is the comparison of it powered by my lab power supply relative to Vinnie Rossi Mini:
As expected, my linear power supply is essentially free of AC mains leakage, resulting in clean output.
Note that neither supply with and without my lab supply is able to improve the performance of my DAC. At worst they add those mains harmonics, at best they do nothing.
And contrary to what both of them say, they do not block AC mains leakage as it is obvious from the measurements.
Save your money and put it toward a better Dac than these tweaks.
As always, I am open to feedback, corrections, new data, questions, etc.
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