When does power brick make sense vs individual supplies?

[Shredder777]

I am building a simple board with a large MFX, an IR-X, and a few small pedals. I have enough individual supplies for all of them.

So I'm wondering, when do you ever need a power brick? You can get small two prong plug supplies that can feed a few pedals. Just duck tape them all to their power strip, zip tie that to the underside of your board, and done.

Yet I see people spend $200+ for a large power brick to power everything. What is the advantage? Most people still have one or two large pedals that still need their own supply.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I am building a simple board with a large MFX, an IR-X, and a few small pedals. I have enough individual supplies for all of them.

So I'm wondering, when do you ever need a power brick? You can get small two prong plug supplies that can feed a few pedals. Just duck tape them all to their power strip, zip tie that to the underside of your board, and done.

Yet I see people spend $200+ for a large power brick to power everything. What is the advantage? Most people still have one or two large pedals that still need their own supply.

It makes sense when you're tired of the headache of trying to make sure your small two prong supplies stay duck taped into the power strip without coming lose and when the number of two prong supplies starts to make you feel like

 

[joezlo]

4 or more pedals, get a brick - your background noise goes up more with multiple power supplies versus one.

:This comes from someone who used power strip, a one spot, and then a brick:

If it helps, I don't use distortion pedals either, amp distortion.

 

[Aelred]

Not using MFX, I have many more pedals than power points in my room, and most don't come with an individiual power supply.

And that's just using the floor in my home, not using a pedalboard to gig with and move around.

 

[laxu]

Yet I see people spend $200+ for a large power brick to power everything. What is the advantage? Most people still have one or two large pedals that still need their own supply.

• Isolation for digital effects. They don't like daisychaining.
• Having to connect one power cable is nice.
• Leaving all your pedals connected instead of having to plug in a pile of powersupplies or mounting a power strips.

Your described setup is just going through a lot of hoops to avoid buying a power supply.

A proper PSU is just much cleaner and easier to work with overall. Those power supplies can also power your power-hungry pedals by using e.g doubler cables, or an adapter if they have a 24V output like e.g CIOKS DC7. You can even do things like power your pedals with a USB powerbank with some power supplies like the CIOKS 4 Expander.

To me it's just way more convenient to work with when you have more than a couple of pedals.

 

[Dave Lewis]

It makes sense when you're tired of the headache of trying to make sure your small two prong supplies stay duck taped into the power strip without coming lose and when the number of two prong supplies starts to make you feel like

Once you have found your special purpose it’s still shit or shinola

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I am building a simple board with a large MFX, an IR-X, and a few small pedals. I have enough individual supplies for all of them.

So I'm wondering, when do you ever need a power brick? You can get small two prong plug supplies that can feed a few pedals. Just duck tape them all to their power strip, zip tie that to the underside of your board, and done.

Yet I see people spend $200+ for a large power brick to power everything. What is the advantage? Most people still have one or two large pedals that still need their own supply.

Also -- very very few people have pedals that need their own power supply. Hell, you can power an Quad Cortex from a brick.

 

[jellodog]

CIOKS SOL is pretty affordable these days. It's one of they more reasonably priced offerings but still has isolated supplies.

I've got a couple and they've been great.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Takes a doubler and an adaptor but I've even got my HX stomp running off my DC7 along with the rest of my pedals