Power Supplies vs 1Spots...am I a sucker?

[pipelineaudio]

I'm a life long recording engineer, not a performer, so I defer to the players out there when it comes to gig ready guitar stuff. On pretty much overwhelming advice, I got a Voodoo Labs Power Plus 2 for my pedalboard. The 1Spot was working fine before, but it made me nervous

The Voodoo Labs one seemed ok at one show. It sucked that it needs a current doubler cable for my wireless and it doesnt have enough juice for all my devices, but I think it may have been a little less noisy than the 1Spot when used with the Tonex One.

So practicing today, my Tonex One intermittently turns off when using the expression pedal on my Helix. I could reproduce it pretty well.

So I stuck an 1Spot on it and couldn't get the problem to happen again.

The 1Spot has WAY more juice, doesn't require a doubler cable, is way lighter and smaller and hasn't made any real trouble for me (aside from possibly more noise on the Tonex One but I can't completely confirm.

Are these power supplies just for suckers?

 

[laxu]

If it works, it works.

I have an old 1Spot daisychain and honestly it works fine, as long as it's not used on digital pedals. That's when you need isolation. It actually works well to power a CIOKS 4 Expander.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

If it works, it works.

I have an old 1Spot daisychain and honestly it works fine, as long as it's not used on digital pedals. That's when you need isolation. It actually works well to power a CIOKS 4 Expander.

Same. I've got a 1spot that works well for my analogue pedals but I will get noise if I add a digital pedal. I also have some fuzzes that can run off centre neg 9v but can't be daisy chained.

 

[fetishfrog]

I played in a band with a guitarist and bassist that both used One Spots. I had and still have my Pedal Power 2+.

Guess who always had issues and guess who never had issues?

This was a long time back, so I hope the One Spots have improved. They were noisy at the time.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

"Why should I use an isolated power supply that is not at all up to the task I'm assigning it to rather than a behometh of a single-source daisy chain that provides enough juice for my pedals?"

Remind me what studio you work in so I never pay a penny to do any business there?

 

[pipelineaudio]

This is why people don't ask questions.

I say I am stepping out of my field of expertise. I asked about a product that was universally and specifically told to me to use by all the alleged experts in this field I am not part of, after giving my pedal list and all of their current requirements and this was the product I was universally instructed to use (this was right before all the Cioks and all those sorts of things came out), and the One Spot was universally frowned upon, but yeah, give me grief for asking a question.

Yes it SEEMS stupid that something that has too little current would be preferable but all the "experts" said those pedals don't actually use that much current, and its overkill

Right here on this board we have "experts" who think wood makes a difference to the sound of an electric guitar. We have people who believe they can hear differences in mic preamps that test exactly the same. We have people that think somehow modeling technology cannot reproduce known electronic algorithms in DSP

We even have people who believe that the sound of some artists' amp they see in their rehearsals or onstage is the EXACT signal that makes it to the end of their recording...no eq, no compression, no filtering, no room treatment, no mixing artefacts, no group compression, no master compression, no master EQ

So pardon me for asking a question

 

[Devin]

I've been running the 1Spot CS12 Pro on my board for years; zero complaints

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

This is why people don't ask questions.

I say I am stepping out of my field of expertise. I asked about a product that was universally and specifically told to me to use by all the alleged experts in this field I am not part of, after giving my pedal list and all of their current requirements and this was the product I was universally instructed to use (this was right before all the Cioks and all those sorts of things came out), and the One Spot was universally frowned upon, but yeah, give me grief for asking a question.

Yes it SEEMS stupid that something that has too little current would be preferable but all the "experts" said those pedals don't actually use that much current, and its overkill

Right here on this board we have "experts" who think wood makes a difference to the sound of an electric guitar. We have people who believe they can hear differences in mic preamps that test exactly the same. We have people that think somehow modeling technology cannot reproduce known electronic algorithms in DSP

We even have people who believe that the sound of some artists' amp they see in their rehearsals or onstage is the EXACT signal that makes it to the end of their recording...no eq, no compression, no filtering, no room treatment, no mixing artefacts, no group compression, no master compression, no master EQ

So pardon me for asking a question

If this had been a newb, despite my operating on approximately 8,000 grams of sugar, I wouldn't have replied like such a dick. But come on man -- matching a power supply to a piece of gear is bread-and-butter for anyone calling themselves any sort of an audio engineer.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I'm a life long recording engineer, not a performer, so I defer to the players out there when it comes to gig ready guitar stuff. On pretty much overwhelming advice, I got a Voodoo Labs Power Plus 2 for my pedalboard. The 1Spot was working fine before, but it made me nervous

The Voodoo Labs one seemed ok at one show. It sucked that it needs a current doubler cable for my wireless and it doesnt have enough juice for all my devices, but I think it may have been a little less noisy than the 1Spot when used with the Tonex One.

So practicing today, my Tonex One intermittently turns off when using the expression pedal on my Helix. I could reproduce it pretty well.

So I stuck an 1Spot on it and couldn't get the problem to happen again.

The 1Spot has WAY more juice, doesn't require a doubler cable, is way lighter and smaller and hasn't made any real trouble for me (aside from possibly more noise on the Tonex One but I can't completely confirm.

Are these power supplies just for suckers?

If you had to use a current doubler with your wireless, then you were already using up the two 250ma outlets on the voodoo labs. Which means you were running your Tonex off a 100ma jack when a basic google search shows the pedal needs 130ma current...

 

[pipelineaudio]

It is, but being told by those who are paid to make these decisions, in a context where me and you both KNOW, 10000% that current draw specs are very very often for entertainment purposes only, and who's current specs are written by people who actually believe in religious magic when it comes to the materials their transistors are made of are WAY beyond a reliable way to decide needs.

But do go on, tell your heart surgeon which brand of scalpel he needs to use

 

[pipelineaudio]

If you had to use a current doubler with your wireless, then you were already using up the two 250ma outlets on the voodoo labs. Which means you were running your Tonex off a 100ma jack when a basic google search shows the pedal needs 130ma current...

Actually, iK states that it is 320mA which is why, again, I asked "isn't the claimed output of the Power Plus at 100mA too little for this pedal?" To which the "experts" unanimously stated that it actually doesn't use that much current.

 

[yeky83]

WHO ARE THESE EXPERTS GETTING PAID TO GIVE YOU BAD INFO?

OF COURSE WOOD MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO TONE.

IS IT TONEX PEDAL OR TONEX ONE, GET IT STRAIGHT.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Actually, iK states that it is 320mA which is why, again, I asked "isn't the claimed output of the Power Plus at 100mA too little for this pedal?" To which the "experts" unanimously stated that it actually doesn't use that much current.

Dude...

...try again. The Tonex requires 320mA. The ToneX One (which is what you said you were using) is 130mA.

If I were in the market for a power supply and I saw one whose spec sheet did not add up to the spec sheet of my pedals, but lots of other similarly priced power supplies did add up to the spec sheet of my pedals, I'd buy the one that comported with my pedal spec sheet.

And if I bought the one that DIDN'T comport with the spec sheet of my pedals, I would not be left scratching my head wondering why the pedal keeps turning off.

But hey, I'm just a chemist by training, not an engineer...

 

[yeky83]

current draw specs are very very often for entertainment purposes only

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY

 

[SillyOctpuss]

It is, but being told by those who are paid to make these decisions, in a context where me and you both KNOW, 10000% that current draw specs are very very often for entertainment purposes only, and who's current specs are written by people who actually believe in religious magic when it comes to the materials their transistors are made of are WAY beyond a reliable way to decide needs.

WTF are you on about?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Okay, assuming you were using the Helix expression pedal to control the ToneX, it sounds like you were using the ToneX, not the ToneX One as stated in the OP. Yeah, I would not be surprised that the Voodoo Labs had trouble keeping up with a pedal that was over 3x higher rated current draw than the output it was connected to.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY

"We love our customers so much that we entertain them by getting them to buy power supplies waaaaaaaay higher spec than they need. They love wasting money".

 

[la szum]

WTF are you on about?

 

[yeky83]

Alright, shooting it straight to the info you're looking for...

Switching is noisy. And traditionally, switching power supplies had higher noise than linear ones. But we know how to clean that up now. Like a decade ago, Strymon came out with switching power supplies that were as clean or cleaner than linear ones. Then other companies followed. Some are better than others, the 1Spot is a little noisier by the figure floating around online but who knows if they've updated it since. Anyway, the folks that are telling you to buy the old Voodoo Labs power supplies cus it's the least noisy are stuck in like the 2000's.

Get a power supply from a reputable company with the correct voltage and enough current, minding the polarity and hole size. If you want the least noisy, I think that's the Cioks followed closely by Strymon by online figures? Dunno, practically a non-issue.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Alright, shooting it straight to the info you're looking for...

Switching is noisy. And traditionally, switching power supplies had higher noise than linear ones. But we know how to clean that up now. Like a decade ago, Strymon came out with switching power supplies that were as clean or cleaner than linear ones. Then other companies followed. Some are better than others, the 1Spot is a little noisier by the figure floating around online but who knows if they've updated it since. Anyway, the folks that are telling you to buy the old Voodoo Labs power supplies cus it's the least noisy are stuck in like the 2000's.

That's some seriously technical mumbo jumbo yeky. Only an engineer would be able to follow that!