Linus27 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I'm looking at getting a power supply for my pedals and was looking at the different one box option from brands such at Strymon, Voodoo Labs etc. I then noticed you can save a lot of money and buy something like a Tourtech 9v Plug and the Tourtech 5 way daisy chain. Am I missing something here as the price difference is huge. Even in the Andertons blurb they say the latter is what they use in their shop. I only run 4 pedals, a tuner, a compressor, an octave and a chorus. Is there any reason to not go for the much cheaper option? https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/guitar-pedals/pedal-power-supplies/tourtech-tta-psu01-9v-power-supply-guitar-pedals https://www.andertons.co.uk/tourtech-5-way-dasiy-chain-pedal-power-cable 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushbo Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I've used daisy chains in the past, but I often suffered with unwanted noise issues. This may have been to do with them, my patch leads or one of my more dubious pedals, but since I've been using a Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior and decent connecting cables (Warwick flat cables), all is good. I power my vintage Zoom B3 multi FX, my Sennheiser wireless receiver and a Behringer BDI flawlessly with the HB power supply. It's a slightly more expensive option (£37 with p and p) but for durability and peace of mind, I think it's worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 The 'One spot' daisy chain psu and it was too noisy (and that's with quality pedals and patch leads. Psu's with isolated outputs is the way to go, I bought a Palmer with 12 isolated outputs, 4 of which are variable up to 18v, it was about £120 and works perfectly. I think they do an even cheaper one with 8 outputs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Horse Murphy Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 25 minutes ago, Boodang said: The 'One spot' daisy chain psu and it was too noisy (and that's with quality pedals and patch leads. Psu's with isolated outputs is the way to go, I bought a Palmer with 12 isolated outputs, 4 of which are variable up to 18v, it was about £120 and works perfectly. I think they do an even cheaper one with 8 outputs. It's funny, I use a One Spot and it's as quiet as a mouse. Horses for courses I guess but I'd certainly recommend one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 The One Spot is a switching power supply, and various types of pedals (mostly time-based effects) may respond badly to it. I have a TC Polytune 3, EBS MultiComp, Darkglass B7K and EBS UniChorus hooked up to one with a daisy chain, and have zero issues - until I raise the gain on the compressor past 8 o' clock. Then it quickly gets noisy, especially with the drive on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I used to have cheaper power supplies, however once I started touring I went for the Dunlop DC brick. It works with pretty much any 9v standard pedal with no additional noise. Much like my use of the Boss TU tuners, there are probably 'better' products out there but I generally just want an easy to use product that just works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCH Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 8 minutes ago, LeftyJ said: The One Spot is a switching power supply, and various types of pedals (mostly time-based effects) may respond badly to it. I have a TC Polytune 3, EBS MultiComp, Darkglass B7K and EBS UniChorus hooked up to one with a daisy chain, and have zero issues - until I raise the gain on the compressor past 8 o' clock. Then it quickly gets noisy, especially with the drive on. We have 3 One Spot Pro's for multi pedal boards & rack.....have used for >8 years with no issues, even tho' the Voicelive demands max current. Yes they are higher price, but very high quality & silent.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr4stringz Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) Personally I went for a power supply with individually isolated outputs, as has been suggested. Sure, it comes at an increased cost, but there’s no absolute guarantee a daisy chain or non-isolated brick won’t result in noise issues. You shouldn’t get that at all with a unit like the Pedal Power. It’s been the best of all those I’ve had and tried, in as much as you don’t know it’s there. And that’s what you want. That said, I have been surprised by the Mooer Micro Power. It’s not fully isolated, but I thought I’d give one a whirl for a compact board as I saw one used for about £35 (£65-75ish new I think) . My expectations weren’t high but in operation I’ve found it almost as quiet as the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power that’s on my main board. It’s tiny too, same size as their mini pedals. Edited March 30, 2022 by mr4stringz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCH Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 6 minutes ago, BCH said: We have 3 One Spot Pro's for multi pedal boards & rack.....have used for >8 years with no issues, even tho' the Voicelive demands max current. Yes they are higher price, but very high quality & silent.... Also its mains supply power, which imo increases reliability Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I’ve used a variety of the wall-wart type power supplies and daisy chains. Some were better than others, most were rubbish - NB, I’m very fussy about unwanted noise in my sound. I’m currently using a Cioks DC5, which works great for small boards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I tried a daisy chain on my small pedal board (4 pedals) and the noise was horrendous. A guy in the local shop pointed me in the direction of Xvive and it's been fine at a pretty low cost compared to some alternatives. I haven't noticed any noise. https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/guitar-effects-power-supply/xvive-v19-power-station-220v-micro-power-supply-adapter?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_4-SBhCgARIsAAlegrU3lgPWVnCtgRF1lJOTg3hkcAV2sAzYFkyBn8kTH9z0jHjRrmFVx1IaApLcEALw_wcB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 1 hour ago, BCH said: Also its mains supply power, which imo increases reliability Generally it is said a power supply doesn't have fully isolated outputs if the power supply has an external adaptor instead of a mains lead. The types with an external adaptor will often still have a common ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 3 hours ago, Old Horse Murphy said: It's funny, I use a One Spot and it's as quiet as a mouse. Horses for courses I guess but I'd certainly recommend one. I guess it depends on the pedal but my Aguilar octamizer and grape phaser are noisy with the 'one spot' and super quite with the Palmer isolated psu. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekomatic Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 6 hours ago, LeftyJ said: Generally it is said a power supply doesn't have fully isolated outputs if the power supply has an external adaptor instead of a mains lead. It would be perfectly possible for a pedal power supply to use an external mains adapter and still have isolated outputs, if it uses isolating DC-DC converters for each output I don’t know which if any do that though. Where people have found problems with noise when using non-isolated or daisy-chained supplies, did one of the pedals use digital circuitry? My guess there would be the digital one injects noise into the power supply which an analogue one is not very good at rejecting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I got one if these works well 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveXFR Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I used to use daisy chains but got noise issues. I now use a Harley Benton Powerplant ISO 2 Pro. No more noise issues plus I can now run my compressor at 12v instead of 9v which is sounding much fatter. It's also easier to neatly wire on the board and easier to trace and fix faults. I wouldn't go back to a daisy chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I haven't used the tourtech, so can't comment on it but, like others have said, noise would be where a cheaper daisy chain would potentially let you down. I use a diago power station for one board and it's a noise free daisy chain type supply. It's fairly spenny as far as daisy chain options go though, but not too bad 2nd hand. For my other board I use a Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO 5 and would highly recommend it. It's chirpy cheap, fits under my pedal train nano, noise free and has 2 outputs with the option of 9v/12v/18v - perfect for running my catalinbread SFT at 18v without an extra psu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 1 hour ago, Jonesy said: I haven't used the tourtech, so can't comment on it but, like others have said, noise would be where a cheaper daisy chain would potentially let you down. I use a diago power station for one board and it's a noise free daisy chain type supply. It's fairly spenny as far as daisy chain options go though, but not too bad 2nd hand. For my other board I use a Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO 5 and would highly recommend it. It's chirpy cheap, fits under my pedal train nano, noise free and has 2 outputs with the option of 9v/12v/18v - perfect for running my catalinbread SFT at 18v without an extra psu I think I'll give the Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO 5 a go. What did you do about the Euro Mains Power Plug, just use a converter plug for the UK or buy a totally different UK mains power cable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I have a Vitoos Iso8 which worked well and noiselessly with a Zoom B3n, G50 wireless, mini mixer, and MidiPlus MiniEngine sound module with McMillen 12-step pedals. However, it didn't have enough oomph to power the same board with an HX Stomp instead of the B3n plus a Raspberry Pi-powered soft synth module. I will be experimenting with a 12V 4A power supply running into a number of DC buck step down modules to see if that can do the job without noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassfinger Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 (edited) I use a PSU - who's make presently eludes me - which feeds into a proper noise supressed splitter, much like the PowerPlant but a different make. Each pedal then feeds individually into its own power supply socket. I did look at getting into one of these all-in-one pedal effects processors, but as I currently only run tuner, overdrive, drop box and DI/preamp it seems vast and expensive overkill. Edited March 31, 2022 by Bassfinger Confused by the hum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudpup Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 8 hours ago, Linus27 said: I think I'll give the Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO 5 a go. What did you do about the Euro Mains Power Plug, just use a converter plug for the UK or buy a totally different UK mains power cable? I bought this one mainly because it has a standard kettle lead..... https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_10ac_pro.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveXFR Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 8 hours ago, Linus27 said: I think I'll give the Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO 5 a go. What did you do about the Euro Mains Power Plug, just use a converter plug for the UK or buy a totally different UK mains power cable? It comes with a euro plug and adapter to suit her majesty's British standard 3 pin plug sockets. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 I got one of these from Amazon, seems pretty popular, £33 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Pedal-Power-Supply-Overcurrent/dp/B075ZT7B5F/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Pedal+Board+Power+Supply&qid=1648712806&sr=8-5 I don't think its truly isolated (at that price) but my board is truly silent. Before I daisy chained and it could get noisy but this works really well. I have on it as follows: Boss TU3 tuner, Laney Digbeth Preamp, Boss LMB3 compressor, Pearl Phaser and a 15V Digitec JamMan looper. They all work fine. My guitarist also uses one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveXFR Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 15 minutes ago, skidder652003 said: I got one of these from Amazon, seems pretty popular, £33 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Pedal-Power-Supply-Overcurrent/dp/B075ZT7B5F/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Pedal+Board+Power+Supply&qid=1648712806&sr=8-5 I don't think its truly isolated (at that price) but my board is truly silent. Before I daisy chained and it could get noisy but this works really well. I have on it as follows: Boss TU3 tuner, Laney Digbeth Preamp, Boss LMB3 compressor, Pearl Phaser and a 15V Digitec JamMan looper. They all work fine. My guitarist also uses one. I used to have one of those and can confirm it worked well. The only reason I replaced it was it didn't have the right supply output for my preamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Most of the time, I just use a Diego power supply and daisy chain everything from that. I honestly can't say that I've ever found it any noisier than using a dedicated power supply. If you're only using 4 or 5 standard pedals, a daisy chain from a decent power supply like the Diego or One Spot should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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