I risked buying a Chinese LPS on Ebay that looked very well designed & built. Paid about $130 incl shipping. To my ears, it clearly improved my DAC’s sound vs the stock wall wart ps.

It’s ASR so take everything he says with a grain of salt, but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of measurable benefits to the ones he tested.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/do-you-need-linear-power-supply-for-dacs.7021/

Depends on the specific gear. Some want better regulation, others just outboard the transformer and rectifier and have additional filters/regulation internally and don’t need help.

you can usually spot linear power supplies because they’re big and they get hot - there’s a big transformer in there and those are (relatively) expensive. these use coils to drop voltage.

the smaller, cheaper and more common switching power supplies chop incoming voltage up at high frequency (which is then filtered), which dumps radio frequency garbage all over your household power rails. but they’re super common and very efficient.

almost all gear can cope with noisy power though. there are voltage regulators in all your equipment to smooth out spikes and they normally work great.

in practical terms, upgrading a power supply might see a change in mains frequency hum (+ harmonics), or noise floor. unlikely to lead to dramatic audio performance changes… maaaybe better transient handling but if your equipment is that close to operating limits the power supply is probably not going to fix it. a bad linear power supply will be worse than a good switching power supply though. i wouldn’t bother doing this without measuring audio performance because otherwise there’s no way to figure out if it’s getting better or worse.

Do you think the manufacture wouldn’t include one if it was needed?

For phono stages, a well made linear power supply can offer huge improvements where tiny electrical signals are being amplified, a quiet linear power supply. However, there’s a balance one must maintain.

A few phono stages like the Schiit Mani 2.0 uses a wall wart to provide power to a highly regulated power supply within the chassis. Because of this, the Schiit Mani 2.0 is the best phono stage under $750, yet costs an almost criminally meager price of $150. Mind you, the Mani 2.0 is limited to higher output MC, MI/FC and MM cartridges. If low output moving coil cartridges are your preferred cup of tea, look elsewhere.

For phono stages above $750 that still rely on wall warts with noisy power supplies, a reasonably priced LPS is a valid and practical option.

LHY/TEK audio makes high quality linear power supplies in a wide variety of output voltages and amperages. The company is a reputable Chinese company that ships to the USA and can be paid via PayPal.

The same company makes a rechargeable battery power supply for the Wiim Pro by the way for about $200.

I wouldn’t get into this new tranformer stuff.

It’s a rabbit hole.

First you start with the transformer. Then it leads to rubbish like mains supplies, suppressors etc etc.

Just look at all the garbage that russ Andrews sells. It’s a catalogue of stuff that does nothing.

Once you fall for these grifts then you will find yourself hooked and much poorer. And all for nothing.

Yes I’ve tried russ Andrews. I had to do so I can judge.

I also knew him decades ago. A very shrewd businessman who knew how to sell.

Switching supplies are much cheaper to manufacture, linear power supplies often sound much better. Much product at the higher price points use linear supplies but there are better and worse quality switching supplies as well. Wal wart styles are the lowest of the low.

However, at the price points of products that use outboard wal wart style supplies, you’re probably better off saving your money on after market linear PSUs and budgeting to upgrade your equipment instead.

Yes, it could be a super noticeable difference. It may depend on the quality of your phono stage to begin with as well. I think sound quality could be improved in two ways:

1. Generally, you will get much better bass definition just because the new power supply has that much more juice available on demand.
2. By switching to a linear power supply, this will result in much cleaner power delivery and much cleaner highs as a result.

A power supply only has a “sound” if you are hearing hum. A phono preamp needs only a tiny amount of power to function and any power source with reasonable filtering will be fine. If you want to be a purist, set up your phono preamp to be powered by batteries.