voodoo labs power supplies vs Dunlop Brick

[tdbajus]

They have the new 'Digital' supply now to accomodate the various assorted Strymon and Eventide pedals.

My old PP2 has been having some problems with having an El Capistan and an Electro-Harmonix Digital Memory man- when the Strymon is plugged into input 5 (with input 6 empty) the EHDMM won't turn on if plugged into the board.

I'm also more than a little annoyed that I have to jumper two of the inputs together to get 18v- i'm usually running some combination of a FullDrive2, DirectDrive, BYOC 5 knob comp, Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone- if I run 2 distortions and one comp, that's 6 of my 8 power options eaten up. With the Strymon taking up port 5, with 6 unplugged, the whole power supply is eaten up.

I'm guessing that, even though a power strip could easily power these pedals and more, there is a good reason for this- transformers required for isolation, etc etc. Certainly no one else I've found makes a filtered power supply with multiple 18v outs.

Except Dunlop. I've seen the Brick before, and it looks... unreliable. I got my PP2 in the 90s because of one too many wall warts dying in the middle of a show.

Also, that it:

1) seems to totally outperform the PP2 with 3 18v outputs, and 7 9 volts makes me very suspicious.

2) take up less than 1/4 of the space

3) costs half of a PP2

Makes me a little fearful.

On the other hand: Monster Cable products.

[Rolsen]

I'm shopping for the same sort of thing right now. I've been using the Visual Sound 'One Spot,' which is a high mili-amp (sp?) wall-wart, which you can daisy chain a bunch of pedals, but not the high-draw digital pedals or double pedals like the Boss DD-20. The problem with daisy chains is the introduction of hum or weird power-draw and volume issues, let alone a mess of daisy chain pedals. Anyhoo...

The Dunlop Brick does not have individually isolated transformers for the power outputs like the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power, and from what I understand operates like the One-Spot, just bigger and more expensive. The lack of individually isolated outputs is why the Brick is so cheap. The BBE Supa-Charger has those isolated power outs, just like the Voodoo Labs, but since it is not Voodoo Labs and American-made, you can find the 8-outs version for $100 on Amazon, and $140 elsewhere. I believe outputs 6-8 can be switched to 18 volts for those types of pedals. The BBE get good reviews and I'll probably buy that one unless I see a reason why it sucks. Oh yeah - the BBE has right-angled plugs, which I believe makes for neater cabling on a pedalboard. Hope that helps!

[tdbajus]

http://www.bbesound.com/products/stomp- ... arger.aspx

http://www.bbesound.com/products/manual ... manual.pdf


No dice.

Annoying that BBE locked their PDF, so I can not cut and paste from it (why does anyone do that?)

Outputs 1-4 and 7-8 will output 9v/100mA, or, if you flip the DIP switch, 12 volts. It doesn't say how many amps.

Outputs 5-6 will output 9v/200mA, or, if you flip the DIP, 16 volts at an unspecified current.


So, essentially this thing is pretty useless for anything other than Boss/standard pedals. There's only 2 jacks that will accomodate high-ish voltage (16v? WTF?) OR higher current. Seems kind of pointless, really, unless you are having ground loop problems- I've had the PP2+ for so long, I can't remember every having had any.

Of course, that would be a first, since Ground Loops Rule Everything Around Me (GLREAM?).

What I don't get is since there is enough power in house current to power every pedal that I own, and having extra amperage on tap doesn't damage pedals, why don't they make a PP3 that gives each one 500mA?

Is it cost? Safety?

On my board, (today, anyway), I'm running a Peterson Tuner (9v), Direct Drive (18v), Big Muff (9v), Timeline (9v, 350mA+), FullDrive (18volts). I sort of think people who have the fancy power supply, probably have equally fancy pedals that like either high current or high voltage.... I can't be the only one.