UpTone JS-2 Power Supply Listening Impressions

11 minutes ago, Superdad said:

EtherREGEN heat (always a bit high because we use the case as heatsink) will NOT vary with input voltage.

2 minutes ago, Bravado13 said:

That said, the ER is quite warm to the touch despite the 12V setting. 

As explained and expected... 

Apologies, my system diagram disappeared due to a weirdness with Flickr updating the URL when you replace a photo.  The PS Audio P10 has been replaced by a superior P12 regenerator for even better sound quality.  The two JS-2 power supplies continue to give outstanding performance.
 

Anyone switch out their original Belden star DC cables on their JS-2 for Uptones new sapphire silver DC cables and can share their impressions? Wondering what to expect and if this is worth the upgrade. Thanks. 

27 minutes ago, Bravado13 said:

Anyone switch out their original Belden star DC cables on their JS-2 for Uptones new sapphire silver DC cables and can share their impressions? Wondering what to expect and if this is worth the upgrade. Thanks. 

I was very pleased moving from the original cables to the new Sapphire silver cables.  I have 1 JS-2 driving a Wavelength Audio USB Spacelator and a Sonore Optical Module Deluxe.  Another JS-2 is driving a Roon Nucleus Plus. 

In terms of what to expect sonically is a tough one to answer. Overall, I believe you will hear increased clarity; other sonic benefits will depend on the device driven, 

35 minutes ago, Mercman said:

 

I was very pleased moving from the original cables to the new Sapphire silver cables.  I have 1 JS-2 driving a Wavelength Audio USB Spacelator and a Sonore Optical Module Deluxe.  Another JS-2 is driving a Roon Nucleus Plus. 

 

In terms of what to expect sonically is a tough one to answer. Overall, I believe you will hear increased clarity; other sonic benefits will depend on the device driven, 

Agreed.  A dram of 30 year old Macallan Sherry Oak improves everything immensely.

I haven't heard anything about the JS-4 for a long time.  Does anyone have any info about specs, availability and price? Thanks

Hey if you are referring to the JS-2 per your title, much of what you seek is on the Uptone web site. Available specs is shown, unit availability can only come from Alex (it shows immediate availability now), and the price is posted.

I've got one--fantastic. 

7 minutes ago, jas said:

Hey if you are referring to the JS-2 per your title, much of what you seek is on the Uptone web site. Available specs is shown, unit availability can only come from Alex (it shows immediate availability now), and the price is posted.

 

I've got one--fantastic. 

Thanks for the reply.  I also have a JS-2, which is quite nice. But I believe there is also a JS-4 in development. I'm just curious about the status of the new one.

Haven't seen much lately on it, either. Maybe someone else has news. 

I have recently upgraded my power cable to the JS-2, from a Shunyata Venom to another  upmarket cable (the name doesn't matter, as it is a Polish-made cable, but for a price reference, it costs USD 2,000, and on Polish fora it is said to outperform cables 2-3 times the cost from well-known manufacturers). I was told that the build of the JS-2 makes it rather immune to such upgrades, but my findings are contrary to this expectation. The upgraded cable has made a huge difference in my system. Just letting you know, that perhaps it's worth experimenting with power cables for this power supply product. Of course, if the rest of the system is top-notch. The addition of the Enerr Ultimate power cable to the JS-2 has led to dramatic changes. Believe it or not. 

Those power cables that you mentioned appear to be filled with something akin to the black sand found on a beach on Maui Island, Hawaii.  I once had a pair of name-brand speaker cables that were filled with sand apparently for the damping effect.  The reason I know this is because when I went to re-terminate the cables myself, I dumped almost half the sand of one of the cables on the floor 😟  I tried to put as much of the spilled sand back in the cable as I could but the balance between the two main speakers never sounded the same after that.

Have you tried any of those high dollar fuses in your JS-2?  Personally, I've had limited luck with upgrading fuses but YMMV.

No, I have never experimented with fuses on my JS-2. Also I would like to correct my enthusiasm in my post above... There is a difference, but I guess I exaggerated with the "huge" and "dramatic" changes ;-) Still worth the money, as I hear it :-) 

No worries, Piotr, and the enthusiasm is perfectly understandable.  I wish I had the money to explore some of those very interesting upgrades.

I'm going to have to wax lyrical about how outstanding the JS-2 is - again. I have just taken delivery of my 3rd unit, this one fittingly powering the EtherREGEN and TP-Link router (both outputs set to 12V). As with the others, it rests on Black Ravioli Big Pads with granite coasters and Schramm weights on top. There is a temporary SR Red fuse in the back while I await delivery of another SR Orange. It is powered from my PS Audio P3 regenerator.

It's really hard to nail what this PSU does that others don't, but it's easy to hear as heightened energy, with stunning bass, while reducing harshness and sibilance. A tough combination of attributes. I feel strongly that its choke regulated topology has a lot to do with its amazing sound quality when powering digital components. It's not just the noise level, it's the benign nature of the noise.

Thank you again for such an amazing power supply. No, I just couldn't wait for the JS-4.

Sounds like you have an excellent system there Martin.  But just to be sure, you can sense noise even if it is benign in nature?  Power supply noise, correct?

1 hour ago, BlueSkyy said:

Sounds like you have an excellent system there Martin.  But just to be sure, you can sense noise even if it is benign in nature?  Power supply noise, correct?

Well, I don't have superpowers, but taking the description of how choke-regulated power supplies work in general, they create only sinewave ripple compared with the spiky ripple created by capacitor regulation.  That ripple goes through further stages of regulation but what you will end up with is tiny benign sinewave noise rather than tiny spiky noise.

What digital circuits hate most is spiky noise that goes up into gigahertz territory.

31 minutes ago, MartinT said:

Well, I don't have superpowers, but taking the description of how choke-regulated power supplies work in general, they create only sinewave ripple compared with the spiky ripple created by capacitor regulation.  That ripple goes through further stages of regulation but what you will end up with is tiny benign sinewave noise rather than tiny spiky noise.

Close.  

The primary benefit of the half-hump sine-shape DC coming off our diode/inductor feed into the main regulator board is that because there are far less high frequency harmonics (versus the triangle wave off just a diode bridge) left to filter out, the job of the regulators is much easier and we can use a modest amount of capacitance before then and a very small amount of capacitance after them.  Thus the JS-2 offers quite low output impedance for a supply of such great current capability.

A secondary benefit to the choke-filter design is that the unit is drawing AC mains current over the entire waveform (versus without a choke where current is flowing only 50% of the time). Thus the JS-2 is not kicking any harmonics back into the wall nor flatting the wall's AC wave.  The JS-2 is essentially the only power-factor-corrected linear power supply. Such is easy to demonstrate: Plug any conventional trans>diodes>capacitors LPS (or power amp, preamp, DAC, etc.) into one of those hone Kill-A-Watt meters that read Power Factor and the PF reading will be about 0.47.  Plug a JS-2 into that meter and you will see 0.97.

AC mains cords and "audiophile" fuses are of more significance to other gear and power supplies than they are to the JS-2 (though some still enjoy adding such). That is because the LRC of cords (and fuses I suppose) are not "enhancing" the AC FROM the wall, rather they act as filters for the harmonics that the component is putting BACK into the wall. But as explained above, the JS-2 is kicking near-nothing back into the wall.

So glad you are enjoying your 3(!) JS-2 units Martin! Many thanks,

--Alex C.

@Superdad Will the above apply to JS4 as well ?

Superdad, you are saving me from buying more solar panels.