Innuos LPS1 Linear Power Supply

The LPS1 is the linear power supply Innuos built to lift the STREAM1 and the NET1 above the medical-grade switched-mode supply that ships with them in the box. A 150-volt-amp toroidal transformer, a regulation stage built around Mundorf and Nichicon capacitors, medical-grade AC filtering at the inlet, and dual outputs that power the streamer and a secondary device in a single chassis. The LPS1 wears the new Stream Series fascia and stacks naturally with the chassis it feeds.

The case for a linear supply in this part of the system is the case the rest of the Stream Series rests on. The signal a streamer hands the DAC downstream is only as clean as the power feeding the streamer's internal rails. The switched-mode supply in the original box is the right answer for the customer building the system one component at a time — small, light, quiet enough to do justice to the streamer it feeds. The linear supply is the next step. A toroidal transformer delivers AC into a bank of premium capacitors. The capacitors deliver smooth DC to a regulation stage. The regulation stage delivers clean low-noise power to the streamer at exactly the voltage and current it asks for. There is no switching circuit between the wall and the streamer — none of the high-frequency noise the switched-mode supply works to suppress and never fully suppresses.

The dual output is the second half of the design. A nineteen-volt rail dedicated to the supported Innuos product the LPS1 is feeding. A second switchable output — five volts or twelve volts at up to one and a half amps — for the DAC, the network switch, the router, or any of the small components the customer wants to keep on a quiet supply rather than the closet power strip. The grounding port at the rear lets the LPS1 tie into the system's ground plane for the customer who maintains a careful ground architecture.

The chassis matches the STREAM1 — 240 millimeters wide, 200 deep, 80 tall, 3.9 kilograms — and shares the front-fascia treatment for the customer who wants the two chassis to live next to each other on the rack. The LPS1 is backward-compatible with the older ZENmini Mk3 and PULSEmini for the customer still inside that line.

What the LPS1 delivers is the quiet step the rest of the Stream Series is built around. The noise floor of the streamer falls. Voices sit forward by a small but consistent amount. The system reveals what it is capable of when the front end stops contributing its own electrical signature. The LPS1 is the upgrade most customers do not consider first and remember most when the upgrade is in.

Available at both Alma showrooms by appointment. The LPS1 is best heard in place — we are happy to demonstrate the change against the customer's STREAM1 or NET1 in a system conversation.