BH12neil Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Can anyone advise whether these power supplies have isolated outputs or not, advise seems to be conflicting? Thanks BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 From the official website - http://artecsound.com/effect/index.html If they don't say it's isolated then it isn't! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH12neil Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Thanks pantherairsoft, the official site says that the units inputs are individually regulated and individually hum filtered, does that not mean they are isolated? Different terminology I appreciate, but does it mean the same thing? BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH12neil Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Ok, following still more research I have found the answer to my question. ARTEC POWER SUPPLIES DO NOT HAVE ISOLATED INPUTS. Thanks for your help pantherairsoft. BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Very very different. Regulated and filtered is what 99% of professional power supplies do - to remove mains hum and interference and to ensure the output only gives the pedals what the pedal asks for. A supply, for example the Diago Powerstation uses this technology, but as it uses a daisy chain and only has one output there is the chance that interference can appear later in the chain of outputs, caused by the power lines picking it up rather than the supply itself. It's rare, but can happen. Artec are basically making the claim that every output has this protection as they all come from the brick itselt. In practice I doubt you would notice a difference. Isolation uses a circuit to close the ground so no common ground is shared. It means the pedal it's powering thinks it is powered by a stand alone power supply and is not having to share a power source with any other pedal. In many cases this makes no difference at all. Some pedals however (Moogerfoogers for example) will just not play ball without an isolated supply and either will not power up, lower the noise floor of the signal chain or whine like a b**ch! Can I ask why you need/think you need isolated outputs? I only ask this as quite often people try pedals on a multi supply and they don't play ball and think this is because they require isolation, however in over 50% of cases (IME) it's actually because they are not getting enough juice! Most daisy chain supplies will not output large amounts of mA/draw per output, even some pedals with multiple outs (like the Artec) are limited to 100mA per output - this sounds like a lot and often far more than the manufacturers state is needed, but if you look at the dedicated power supply that it works fine with/the manufacturer supply they are often over double the required mA as that headroom makes the pedals happy. Since I moved to a GigRig supply using the distributors (that are not limited in anyway per output, unlike a daisy chain) I found 4 pedals that I thought required isolating, actually just needed more power than the daisy chain could supply and they now work perfectly off the distributor. Anyway... I've rambled on - Why do you need isolation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH12neil Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 At the moment I have a large pedal board which at present is run with a combination of a Gator Bus 8 and a cheap daisy chain. All of the pedals are relatively low draw in nature, and I've done the Ma maths to ensure that I'm not overloading which I'm not, there is headroom but an additional brick would improve that situation. My pedal board consists of:- MXR Bass Octave Deluxe > Coopersonic Dirtbox > Bass Big Muff > SFX Micro Black Dragon Distortion > Carl Martin Classic Opto Compressor > MXR Bass Auto Q > Aria Flanger >Analogman Mini Chorus > Earthquaker Grand Orbitor > A/B Box > El Nano The Mole. I also have an Akai Headrush and a Zoom B2.1u which are both powered independently by adapters and a Ghost Face Fuzz which is battery powered. I am finding that when using those pedals run by the daisy chain I am getting noise so I have moved pedals around to test whether its pedal noise or power supply noise (possibly ground loops), the result seemed to be that no matter what pedal was being powered by the daisy chain there was noise albeit to different extents. When powered by the Gator, what ever the pedal there was no noise. I am aware that the Gator isn't an isolated power block but it seems to work well without any negative issues to speak of. On a secondary point I hate the daisy chain from a visual point of view, its messy on the pedal board and seems to tangle everything up. Having decided to now replace the daisy chain with something better it seemed a good Idea to get something with isolated outputs to ensure that any power related issues would definately be dealt with, the plan was to invest in the Voodoo Lab brick but I can't afford it at the moment so I was looking for cheaper alternatives, hence the Artec which looked interesting. Of course I have no desire to spend any more money than is necessary to achieve my goal so if you are able to recommend any power supplies isolated or otherwise that come with solid recommendations that would be really appreciated. I realise from my own experience of the Gator block it's not absolutely essential to have isolation to achieve a quiet pedal board but I don't want to keep buying products that are not up to the task and then still ending paying for an expensive isolated unit. Thanks for taking an interest, I appreciate your comments. BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Im using a Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior from Thomman. It's a little bulky but it has 5 120mA isolated outputs and works fine for everything i'm using it with. Really cheap too. The larger ones don't have the iso outs, only the Junior model does. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH12neil Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Thanks for your post Liam. Just had a look at the Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior, looks interesting - does yours run silently? For that price its almost worth getting two to accomodate the vast majority of my pedals; it's almost to good to be true, are there any drawbacks? BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Have you tried a different daisy chain cable (not the supply, just the cable). Some cheapens are not great - I'm not saying its the cause, but it could be! Make sure you don't power much more than 1amp with a daisy chain either as they tend to get noisy even when te supplies can handle more (IME only this is...) I have one I can lend you if you want to try. I Coul also lend you a GigRig distributor to power the pedals off from your power supply - that would deduce for sure if it's the supply. Has it always been noisy or has it got worse? Just wondering if a power surge or similar damage it at some point? Those harley Benton ones seem very good for the money if you are in a budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH12neil Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 I am confident that there hasn't been a power surge as the power tower I use from the wall socket for adapters has surge protection on it and no surges have been detected. Thanks for the offer of the loan of the stuff but for the moment I think I have decided to run with a combination of the Gator Bus 8 and a newly purchased Harley Benton and in the fullness of time I'll review again. The daisy chain I bought was nearly as expensive as the Harley Benton so there seems little point in revisiting the daisy chain option in the circumstances. I think maybe in the future, when hopefully more funds are available, I will revisit this again and consider the Gig Rig or the Voodoo Lab but at the moment that's just not feasible. I really appreciate your comments, I've learnt a lot, thanks for your help. BH12neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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