Introduction   Features   Specifications   Gallery   Resources

    Here are some features of the Vanity^PSU that make the product stand out among other power supplies.

3 Galvanically Isolated Power Rails

    The Vanity^PSU features three independent rails. Two with 5V and one with 12V. This is to support one of the key features of the Vanity^PRO, which has a galvanic barrier between the HDMI and audio parts. With the Vanity^PSU both parts can be powered without creating ground connection between them.

2-Stage LInear Regulation

    Unlike any other linear power supply in the market,  The Vanity^PSU has two regulation stages. Both are fully discrete design without any monolithic regulator being used. The first stage creates stable DC voltage after the rectifier to eliminate its ripple, while the second one is ultra-low noise type to regulate the output voltages. Employing 2-stage regulation has two effects. The first is that the output voltage has virtually no residue of the mains AC component, the broadband noise level is extremely low and the output voltage stability is rock solid. The second one is related to the fact that linear regulation is much less efficient than switch-mode regulation. With two linear regulation stages there are more thermal losses than with one,  despite both stages being highly optimized to minimize those losses. The Vanity^PSU is not a record breaker when it comes to output power. Although it has all outputs rated at 1A of output current, it has specified total output power limit and power derating for various combinations of output loads, just like all other linear power supplies.

Very Low Noise

    Many manufacturers of linear power supplies declare that their products feature ultra-low noise, ultimately clean power,  superior performance,  and similar,  without specifying any technical parameters to support such claims. The best one can get is a part number of an integrated regulator used, but that in isolation says nothing about how the whole product will perform.

    We have built a test system consisting of a battery operated low-noise 60dB AC amplifier, audio analyzer and associated cabling and shielding to properly measure and optimize the Vanity^PSU.  The entire test system has own noise contribution lower than 1µV_RMS in the 10Hz to 95kHz bandwidth.  Below you can see noise spectrum plots comparison between the Vanity^PSU and a common multi-port USB charger, both driving a resistive load at 5V and 0.5A.  

    The difference in noise level is staggering 54.3dB, which is about 520 times better in favor of the Vanity^PSU.