Power supply vs. daisy chain for pedals

[Rikki_Sixx]

Is there a benefit to using a power supply brick for multiple pedals, rather than a single 9V mains plug with one of those daisy chain kits? Would daisy chaining cause excess noise?

I only use 4 pedals, and this is for home practice at low volumes rather than stage or studio time. 

[EBS_freak]

17 minutes ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

Is there a benefit to using a power supply brick for multiple pedals, rather than a single 9V mains plug with one of those daisy chain kits? Would daisy chaining cause excess noise?

I only use 4 pedals, and this is for home practice at low volumes rather than stage or studio time. 

Some pedals are prone to noise if they aren't run from their isolated supply. In short, if you daisy chain and there's no noise, then jobs a goodun. If there is no noise, find the noisy pedal(s) and run that from it's own/isolated supply. There's plenty of touring artists running pedals off daisy chains.

[Rikki_Sixx]

Thanks @EBS_freak! When you say isolated supply, you mean it's own direct plug into the mains? Rather than a power brick?

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

Thanks @EBS_freak! When you say isolated supply, you mean it's own direct plug into the mains? Rather than a power brick?

Umm- both really. Separate power supplies will give you an isolated feed - but tend to be a bit clunky.

A power brick can give you isolated supplies or it may not - some of the cheaper bricks are simply a daisy chain disguised in a nice looking box. It's usually a big marketing piece - if it says isolated outputs, you are ok, if it doesn't say anything about isolated outputs, then it's a daisy chain in a nice box.

[Al Krow]

+1 to @EBS_freak's comments - he's pretty much nailed it.

Only point to add is that on another thread @operative451 mentioned that she was using a Joyo ZGP (costs around a £10) to cancel PSU noise.

Not sure whether she is using it for just one PSU --> one pedal or for daisy chain purposes; but it seems to me if you went PSU --> Joyo ZGP --> daisy chain you could potentially get the benefits of low noise without needing separate PSUs or a power brick with isolated outputs. 

If that's right / works, I may have just rendered forking out on a Ciocks DC5 a bit otiose! 😀

[operative451]

If i'm using all 'normal' pedals then the ZGP goes between the wall power supply and the daisy chain. If i'm using it for pedals and Zoom B3n then it goes on the daisy chain plug that goes to the Zoom. It usually takes a bit of jiggling plugs around to find which bit of the chain doesn't interfere with other bits..!

[Rikki_Sixx]

I got this daisy chain cable with 5 connectors from eBay in the end, there's absolutely zero noticable hiss or noise compared which is great! I'm sure one day I'll encounter a pedal which adds in some hiss, but for home practise this is great.

[Jack]

As a very general rule of thumb it's always best to isolate digital pedals. Plenty of analogue pedals benefit from it, and plenty of digital ones don't need it, but it's a good start.