Does any user have experience of the sBooster BOTW Power & Precision Eco MK II linear power supply upgrade reviewed by The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel on YouTube recently. Apparently a selection of low voltage connector adapter tips are included with the sBooster, I would like to know if one of these does fit the Port. Any information concerning the correct size pin (spec.) of the low voltage connector tip to fit the Port would also appreciated.
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Userlevel 5
+13
Hi
Good corporate answer. The power supply is a $2 cost point at most. Even comparing my existing walwarts with this one, it looks very shoddy. Even Sonos are ashamed of it by not having aSonos label with clear clear electrical data provided. Please be truthful and admit that this is inferior to the main voltage input of the Connect.
Userlevel 5
+13
Hi
Please be truthful and admit that this is inferior to the main voltage input of the Connect.
Why would Sonos install such a component in the first place?
Power strips that claim to improve the sound quality of connected kit are heavy duty snake oil. There is not ONE controlled blind listening test for these, which isn't surprising.
Power strips that incorporate different kinds of surge suppressors are a different thing, but I don’t think the conversation is about this aspect of strips.
If I were the manufacturer of a bespoke streamer such as the Port, why would I then rubbish the whole package by including an unbranded, less than $2 power supply with the kit? Are other Sonos users satisfied by this line of response.
Userlevel 6
+12
Are other Sonos users satisfied by this line of response.
I own a Port and am satisfied with the power supply as is. The Port is already over priced for and I would not want to pay
a dollar more for a power supply that will provide me with no added value IMO.
If I were the manufacturer of a bespoke streamer such as the Port, why would I then rubbish the whole package by including an unbranded, less than $2 power supply with the kit? Are other Sonos users satisfied by this line of response.
Those of us who do not fall for the snake oil which describes the vast majority of audiophile claims would be quite satisfied with a generic power supply. The idea that a power supply could ever impact a digital signal in the esoteric and flowery manner described by audiophiles is, quite simply, absurd.
The Port as supplied by Sonos is not as good as the ZP80 which it is replacing in my system. The ZP80 was powered and connected to my amp using snake oil cables (Russ Andrew Reference PowerKord, Silencer Block and Crystal Cu) and whilst trying out how to get the new Port to sound as stable and musical as my ZP80 I contacted Chord Cables who suggested switching the output from variable to fixed which removes the DSP from the signal path.
Now I have spent 40 years working in shop floor environments and my hearing is no longer perfect but I can still hear a tune and whatever it is that makes your foot tap and during the last week the Port has started to shine. My wife actually asked with 2 tracks if I had got new recordings (Melinda - Tom Petty, Live Anthology and Western Wall - Rosanne Cash). My system isn’t top end (approx £2500 on amp, speakers and cables but changing this one setting has convinced me to keep the Port and pass the ZP80 onto a friend.
I have no doubt that mains quality contributes to a system’s ability to make my foot tap but if others cannot hear the changes then don’t buy expensive cables and be happy with listening to your music. Our main source of music are the FLAC files copied from our CD collection onto a raid configured NAS drive and I can tell the difference between these and Spotify. If you can’t then expensive cables will be wasted.
However I get a real thrill when I hear music that gets close to a live performance and little background noises sneak in.
Please try switching off the variable output and see if you can hear any difference.
Why did I buy something that on first listening appeared to be inferior - I wanted my Harmony Elite to control the music I listened to through my amp and the ZP80 will only allow this if the queue is put through an Alexa compatible device. So I was using my kitchen Play 1s to queue the music and then Sonosnet to listen on my ZP80 rather than the more stable Ethernet connection. This meant interference from say a microwave oven would stop play. Now when you have your eyes shut and you are listening to one of your favourite tracks this is really annoying.
To answer jgatie and davnos I will after buying a Chord cable (so I can put my Crystal Cu back on the CD player) may try an upgrade of the power supply but only if I can hear a difference and keep tapping my foot.
Userlevel 6
+12
I can't hear a difference between variable and fixed output. Even if I could I'll be sticking with variable for the convenience of Sonos volume control rather than having to manually change it on my amp but ymmv.
Userlevel 7
+17
Describing these things as “snake oil” is a bit much - at least in my experience. I used to own a Marantz DV4200 DVD-player and an SR5200 receiver and have heard differences between the supplied coaxial cable and the Oehlbach cable I replaced it with.
Unless I hear any cable difference in a controlled single variable listening DBT, I treat all cable claims as subjective opinions of those that have bought or are selling snake oil; in the field of home audio the entire domain of cables is notoriously rife with snake oil sellers for decades now.
I have replaced kit like van den Hul interconnects/speaker cables with Amazon Basic RCA cables, and hardware store bought two core wire for speaker wiring and heard no difference. Ditto with some Chord cables so replaced. The replaced kit cost more than ten times the amount of what replaced it.
What matters especially for speaker wires is conductor thickness that corresponds to the cable length needed to minimise signal voltage attenuation. Electrons don't care what make of cable they flow through as long as they can flow as freely as they do in copper wire of adequate thickness for the cable length in use.
Back to the original question - does the BOTW P&P ECO 12-13V MKII Linear Power Supply work with the Sonos Port with the included adapters? I was also looking into this, but want to confirm it works..
Hi David_367, I cannot understand why it wouldn’t work if the supplied adapters fit the Port power supply input. My only comment would be that if you use an adapter there are additional resistance points to take into account and if I am looking at the correct item it is very expensive. Have you looked at the Russ Andrew Powerpak 2. Seems much cheaper and with a 60 day return would appear to be a no risk option. I am looking at it myself after I have sorted out the interconnects. However the BOTW does have a toroidal transformer v a switched mode so apart from my reservations re adapters it does seem a better unit but at more than twice the price it needs to be.
Sorry for deviating from original post
I think key to the question, which I’ve wondered myself, is would switching the power supply one the port from a switched power supply to a linear power supply increase the sound quality.
I have no idea! If anyone tries it, please let us know. I suspect, however, that it may differ based on the quality of the power int he household, with less inprovment if the power is relatively clean...although some folks claim that switchers actually create noise that they pass to the streamer.
I tested out a “better” power supply from ifi called an iPower. It is also a switcher power supply, but they claim to have done a lot of work to reduce the noise that switchers generate, and that some streamers and DACS are susceptible to. They claim they have reduced the noise levels below those generated by linear power supplies. I used the 12v 1.8A model.
I think this type of thing only works for some devices, if the power handling does not handle electric switching noise as well as more expensive solutions (which tend not to use switchers to begin with). This is why audiophile level devices tend to put a lot of focus on power supplies.
My experience was I did indeed experience better dynamic range, stronger base, and somewhat better imaging when I made the switch of the stock power supply to the iFi for the port. I was surprised. This was through the Idageo classical music app, which streams uncompressed CD quality files.
I was willing to try the iPower because it is far cheaper than a true linear power supply ($49 vs $300+).
I tested out a “better” power supply from ifi called an iPower. It is also a switcher power supply, but they claim to have done a lot of work to reduce the noise that switchers generate, and that some streamers and DACS are susceptible to. They claim they have reduced the noise levels below those generated by linear power supplies. I used the 12v 1.8A model.
I think this type of thing only works for some devices, if the power handling does not handle electric switching noise as well as more expensive solutions (which tend not to use switchers to begin with). This is why audiophile level devices tend to put a lot of focus on power supplies.
My experience was I did indeed experience better dynamic range, stronger base, and somewhat better imaging when I made the switch of the stock power supply to the iFi for the port. I was surprised. This was through the Idageo classical music app, which streams uncompressed CD quality files.
I was willing to try the iPower because it is far cheaper than a true linear power supply ($49 vs $300+).
Do you realize it is impossible for “noise” to affect a digital signal in these ways? A digital signal cannot be made to have “better dynamic range, stronger base (sic), and somewhat better imaging” by cleaning up noise (whatever “noise” it is you are talking about). A digital streaming signal is either cut off by interference, or it is not. There are no subtle changes to the sound quality, you either get the signal, or you don’t.
And even if this “noise” could subtly affect the data in the ways you claim, those changes would be caught by error correction, and dropped on the floor to be retransmitted by the source. Sure CD’s had error correction which estimated the missing data, and audiophiles could hang their hat on the highly unlikely possibility that the estimate was coloring the sound. However, streaming is not like CD’s at all. Streaming is buffered enough that any faulty data can be resent, so what is played is 100% from the source, or it doesn’t play at all.
What you are hearing is nothing but plain old confirmation bias, and would disappear under a properly conducted double blind comparison.
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