Farad
Super3 Double Regulated
Linear Power Supply
Incl. 21 % TAX € 745.00
- Worlds best linear power supply
- Available in 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 15, 19 & 24 V
other voltages on request: +59 Euro - Maximum output current 3 A
- Input voltage 100-120 Vac or 220-240 Vac / 50-60 Hz
- IEC input, GX16-4 gold plated output connector
- High inductance, double shielded toroidal power transformer
- Pi-filter supply input with over 85,000 µF electrolytics
- Ultra high capacity: 1.3-2.5 Farad, using Super Capacitors
- Low noise regulator, post filtered with Pi-filter using ultralow ESL caps
- Gold plated PCB with star ground and star power supply configuration
- µP-protection against shorts, over-temperature/current/voltage
- Unique crowbar protection: impossible to damage your equipment
- Aluminum housing; fully shielded against EMI/RFI interference
- Radiation free to prevent polluting other equipment
- 0.5 DC power cable with 5.5/2.1 mm or 5.5/2.5 mm barrel included
- Weight 1.6 kg / 3.5 lbs
- Small dimensions 130x40x200 mm / 5.1×1.6×7.9 inch
The absolute reference in linear power supplies
The Farad Super3 brings great improvement in any system, not only when replacing a switch mode power supply (SMPS), but also when replacing a linear power supply and even if your gear has an internal SMPS, or multiple. An easy way to take the performance of your streamer, D/A converter, (phono) preamp, turntable, settop-box, video processor, media player, headphones amp, electrostatic and active computer speakers and the like to a much higher level. Even connecting it to your network switch, router or modem will yield a substantial improvement. The results are a less harsh (“digital”) sound, far more dynamics and a lower noise floor with more detail; simply more music!
The Farad Super3 Power Supplies are unique because they incorporate the latest of capacitor technology, EDLC Super Capacitors. They have an IEC power input and a gold plated GX16-4 output connector for flexible DC power cable choice, high induction double shielded power transformer, schottky rectifiers, a choke power supply buffering, and a first stabilization charging the Super Capacitor bank to create a dynamic battery alike source. From this source the output voltage is stabilized by a fast transient, low noise regulator and post filtered with ultra low ESR polymer and reversed shape high voltage ceramic capacitors. All is mounted in a small shielded aluminum enclosure on a high quality gold plated PCB with star ground and star power supply configuration. Farad power supplies are fully protected against short circuit, over- and under voltage, reversed voltage, over temperature and surge currents.
The DC power cable supplied as a standard is unshielded. Farad also delivers a higher quality cable at additional costs. Level 1 DC power cable is shielded and also has a gold plated connector at the receiver side, while level 2 uses mil-spec non-inductive tin-plated copper Teflon 4×16 AWG DC power cable and an Oyaide DC connector. On Level 1 and 2, special connectors like XLR and Lemo can be mounted as a service, without additional costs.
Reviews:
Farad Super3 Power Supply with Level 2 DC Power Cables by Mike Girardi @ stereotimes.com
Farad Super3 power supply by Alan Sircom @ Hi-Fi+
Farad Super3 by Jason Kennedy @ the ear hi-fi music gear
Facts will form a poem by Michel van Meersbergen @ HVT magazine (Dutch)
Multitest externe 12-Volt voedingen door Jaap Veenstra @ alpha-audio.nl
Mytek Brooklyn by Marja & Henk @ 6moons.com
Testimonials:
“A week passed since I received your PSUs and installed them in my system. Well, count me impressed! I had different LPSUs in my system, but Farads are the best. Sound is not only darker (in a good way) and smoother, like I’ve heard with other PSUs. Now it’s much more dynamic and real. I was expecting good performance, Super3 is not cheap after all. But it was a pleasant surprise how big could be the difference. I hate audiophile cliche, but this is exactly the case for it – three Super3s brought my system’s sound to another level. Also, these units runs cooler than any other LPSU I’ve had before.”
“Made some huge steps forward with the Farads! The Pink Faun I2S bridge gives a really great digital throughput to my system feeding it separately with the 5V Farad Super3. Same counts for the other 12V Super3 which now is connected to an Anti-Mode 2.0 dual core for correcting my low frequencies. For the first time I find my system playing from top to bottom at absolute phenomenal level. Top!! Unique music experience has now come to my home!”
“The Farad power supply is still breaking in on the Sonore OpticalRendu, but I do find it as an improvement over the Paul Hynes PSU. The sound is clearer and with less ‘digital noise’ so I am going to keep it. I might even buy another when/if I have sold the Paul Hynes PSU.”
“I connected the Farads to the Hugo TT2 and M Scaler, …and enjoyed beautiful music the rest of the evening. It got late… The sound quality improved, from really great to fantastic. I feel the dynamics got better, blacker background, more open, more musical in essence. I put the new Farad on the TT2 first and then on the M Scaler. I think the effect was largest on the TT2, but I will not test the opposite combination. The Farads will always be connected to both Chord products from now on 🙂 Thank you for a fantastic product, again raising the sound quality and enjoyment of music!”
“Just a note to let you know that the Super3 yielded great results when supporting the Uptone EtherRegen. In my system more improvement adding the 12v Super3 than initially adding the EtherRegen with the provided SMPS.”
“Very happy with this Farad Super3, it replaces a SBooster on my 432 EVO Essence, and yes, it is very audible: More deep and focused bass, easier and more present mids and more fluid highs. In contrast with the SBooster, which already is a not bad at all supply, a serious step forward. Thanks a lot. It also looks good and has nice weight, top device.”
“I received my 18V Super3 yesterday and have been using it with my iFi Pro iDSD dac. I’m so glad I took the gamble as my DAC has never sounded this good and I only have had Super3 powered for 24 hours. Super3 brings a touch of smoothness and warmth to my system, which I’ve been after for a long time now. Many times those values come with compromises on other aspects in the sound, but not this time. Thank you for a great product and kind regards.”
Rajiv a.k.a. Austinpop:
“An indepth and excellent review by Rajiv who compared the Super3 next to the Uptone JS-2 and LPS-1.2 as well as the Paul Hynes SR-4.
“The Farad Super 3, in addition to being an excellent PSU as I found in my previous report, has the added advantage of a continuous current capacity of 3A. This puts it in a unique position compared to lower powered supplies like the LPS-1.2 and the SR-4. The field of high-quality PSUs with current capacity over 2A is quite limited, and the Farad is a welcome addition. I can see it being a great fit for DACs, and other current-hungry devices like NUCs. For my use case of powering a Chord Hugo TT2, the Farad Super 3 was not only up to the task, its SQ while doing so was excellent.”_Read all about it here.
“I have been burning in my new Farad Super3 on my SOtM tX-USBUltra and it is a definite improvement over both the sPS-500 Ultra and the TLS Linear Power supply I used to use. Increase in blackness of background. More ease and subtlety. But no less authority. Really well made as well. Thanks to all for recommending these power supplies to me.”
“Sound is initially stable on the Sonore Rendu player, relaxed and a high degree of details. Tighter and more defined bass is what I notice the most. Is better to give fuller timbre. Cymbals gets more texture and definition in the attack.”
“Last week I bought a Farad Super3. It’s a 12V version to use with my Nuc7i5dnke running Euphony. Before the Farad I used a new version HDplex 200w. There really is no comparison. The Farad is superb! Much more grip and ease, it’s dead quit, much more details and beautiful decays, etc, etc…”
Marja & Henk @ 6 Moons.com:
“First we used this Farad brick with the non-plus DAC. That was an easy improvement. The stage illusion was far more realistic in all three dimensions while the Zu Submission subwoofers were now properly set to work. When we swapped the silver DAC for the black DAC+, the external power supply proved its added value again and lifted the sound to another level. In our case the gap between the far more expensive T+A DAC8—which is a pure DAC without any extra functionality—and the Mytek/Farad combination was at least halved.”_ Read the full review here.
“Mini PC with Intel N3700 1.6 GHz, 8 mb, Windows 10 fall creators update, iFI Dac iDSD micro, Beyerdynamic headphone DT990.
Farad 12Vdc against standard switched supply: Substantial more easy sound and soundstage, more involvement, more PRAT.
Farad 5Vdc on the iFi Dac: Even more relaxed sound, higher involvement, more initmate sound, more PRAT, higher transparancy in soundstage.”
“I’ve connected the Super3 to my PS Audio P-20 as a power source, and the combo has been delivering DC to my SoTM USBultra for the past few days. Still far from the 200+ hrs burn-in time, but it’s already sounding really good!”
“The Farad Super 3 and the SOtM Ultra Neo are a synergistic match. Your upgraded DC cable was the last to sonically break in, but once it did everything fell in place on all parameters. What is interesting is that, at least in our system, digital is finally presented in an intrinsically musical manner without discernible deficit. Musically, a digital “Linn Sondek” moment. A first for us; paradigm shift I think.”
“What a special power supply you got ready for me! Wasting no time I connected it by means of the level 2 cable to the Aquavox AQ-Switch-SE. During the morning and early afternoon it became obvious Farad brings a lot to the sound quality. Improved transients (ie. key touches on piano). A much better positioning of the musicians in the soundstage. Bass has charming organic qualities, more power and definition. The organic balance, voices, flow and the pitch black background of the soundstage… what else can I add to this? An outstanding product!”
“First reaction, using the Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core: WOW!”
“Thanks for the Farad Super3 in use with my Mitchell turntable. It really adds to the total image. Great flowing and balanced sound with a much higher resolution. Happy with the purchase!”
“That Farad supply really is a super cool product. I connected it to my Chord DAC, and the difference is more than just a difference. Easiness, silence and purity improved a lot. I do not like using superlatives, it just isn’t digital anymore. Sound became “analog”! Thanks for this beautiful product.”
“With the arrival of the Farad supplies all my network components are now linear supplied. From the first tone it is clear the NAD M12 receives a very clean Ethernet signal. It is clear that a medium class DAC/pre can play at top level. I think these devices gain the most in their digital areas. The result of the reclocking and conversion to optical, and using the AQvox switch, is above expectations and I had high expectations already.. Thanks!”
“Fired it up and it sounds amazing even after just a few hours… Right off the bat, you designed an LPS that reflects quality. With the 5.5/2.5, very hard to build that cable and make it look like you did not hack something together…you thought about it… If you did it great work, if one of your team did it… Thank them for me, quality is so important. Thanks for getting it here for weekend enjoyment. You ROCK! You made me very happy today. Thank You!”
What are Super Capacitors?
EDLC Super Capacitors, also called Ultra Capacitors or booster capacitors, are the latest development in capacitor technology. They are based on a porous carbon material with very high surface area and very small layer distances, resulting in very high charge density. Super capacitors combine a very high capacitance with high pulse power capability and low ESR values. In short, they act like batteries without their disadvantages.
Why does Farad use Super Capacitors?
Where typical large electrolytic capacitors have typical values up to 10,000 µF, or 0.01 F, even the 3 A Super3 Power Supply has a capacitance over 1 F meaning 100 times more energy storage! Super capacitors can deliver high pulse currents and have low ESR, resulting in a very stable and clean, battery like, power input for the final low noise linear regulator. The better and more stable this input, the better the final result.
Is it true that Super Capicitors have a short lifespan?
Have a look at the Super Capacitor manufacturer curves for the capacitors Farad use in their designs:
All capacitors in the designs will be used below 80 % of the rated voltage. Even at full load continuously the capacitors temperature will stay below 50 degrees. In practice the supply will be 40 degrees maximum at normal use (below 2 A average). So lifetime expectancy according to the manufacturers curves will be over 10 years worst case, in practice more like 20 years of caplife time.
Why does the Super3 only have one fixed output voltage?
The power dissipation of a linear regulator is dependent on the ingoing and outgoing voltage and current. Therefore the only way to make the output flexible is to make the input voltage flexible or by using switching power regulators, as many other brands do. Both of these ways are very sub-optimal designs. Since Farad is aiming to be the absolute reference in regulated linear power supplies, Farad specifically choose to go for rigid, but fully optimized fixed output voltage in their power supplies.
Why is Farad using the Super Capacitor power bank as smoothing caps and don’t they switch between one bank while loading the other?
There are several reasons they don’t do this. First it means extra switching electronics in the supply lines, second it means that you are using only half of the capacity from the super caps at a time. Third and we think most important reason: A value of 1 Farad means the capacitors are able to deliver 1 A of current for 1 second with 1 Volt drop. Suppose we have 10 F capacitance, deliver 2 A current from our supply and the regulator can typically handle a 0.5 V drop. This means capacitor banks have to be switched every 2.5 seconds… This means the final regulator gets a 0.4 Hz triangle wave with 0.5 V amplitude as an input signal, instead of a steady DC. Because in our supplies we use a special PCB layout, special custom wound transformers with double static shielding, choke smoothing and pre-regulation before the supercapacitor banks, so the noise residue will be minimal and also the necessity for switching.
What is the importance of star grounding and star configuration power supply?
When two electrical points are connected to each other, the connection between them is never perfect and will always have inductance, capacitance and resistance. When current is drawn through this connection (whether it is wire, PCB trace or point to point), a voltage will be induced, adding noise to the signal. The presence of these problems can be heard when disconnecting interlinks between devices as loud plops, squeezing and buzzing. Although almost always present, it is not normal and a good system does not have these noises.
By starring ground lanes and power lanes, the distance of the connecting lines will be reduced to zero inside the device and thus also the induced noises. A supply can measure really good on a test bench, but when not properly starred, it will give a lot of additional noise in a system.
Why doesn’t Farad use power line filtering in their power supply?
A good power supply acts in fact just as a power line filter. Farad uses specially custom wound shielded high inductance toroidal transformers. By adding chokes and fast filtering capacitors around it, they already have better initial power input, without adding additional components to the signal chain, keeping things more simple and better.
What kind of protection circuitry does the Super3 Power Supply have?
Most commercial linear and SMPS power supplies will pass full voltage when their final regulator, or parts around it break down. This will almost certainly result in irrecoverable damage to the device to which it is connected to. Farad power supplies are not only protected against the usual things like shorts, over-temperature and over-current, but also have a microprocessor controlled crow bar protection against over-voltage. In short this means the supply will short itself and blow its own fuses when a dangerous too high output voltage is detected, so the load (your equipment) will never be damaged!
Why does Farad use gold plated 4 pin GX16 output connectors?
Output impedance of a power supply is really important. A total output impedance of 100 mΩ (typical in many commercial power supply systems), already gives a voltage drop of 300 mV when the load is 3 A. This results in bad regulation, of course the impedance needs to be as low as possible. Output impedance is made up by the regulator, the PCB traces, connectors and cables. Farad choose for a low impedance, high transient, low noise output regulator. On the PCB they use power planes, so wide organic shaped traces. They do not like to use barrel (or similar low level quality) connectors, since they have high contact resistance, typically in the order of 30 mΩ. Instead, Farad typically uses the gold plated GX16 4-pin connector. Gold plated GX16 connectors have a typical contact resistance of 3 mΩ, and with two pins parallel this is even halved, giving much lower total output impedance.
Why does the Super3 use an output connector and not a solid attached cable?
Farad knows the importance of cable swapping, it can make a big difference in the final quality of your system. For the DC output wire they use 4 strands of 0.5 mm² tin plated copper as a standard. This tin plated copper wire has a high sound quality and does not have the disadvantages of silver(plated) wires. The cable impedance is an important factor in the quality of a power supply. The total of 1 mm² / 17 AWG wire area Farad use means only 16 mΩ per meter (8 mΩ per 50 cm). For example a 0.33 mm² / 22 AWG (widely used in power supplies) wire has a resistance is 52 mΩ per meter, running up to 84 mΩ per meter for a 0.20 mm² / 24 AWG wire. Also, two thinner wires parallel sound better than one wire of the same thickness.
The Super3 get standard delivered with a 2 x 2 x 18 AWG tin-plated copper cable with a 5.5/2.1 or 5.5/2.5 mm barrel connector of your choice. The Level 1 cable upgrade cosist of a 2 x 2 x 18 AWG tin plated copper wires with tin plated copper shielding. The Level 2 cable upgrade consist of a 2 x 25 x 28 AWG tin plated copper wires with tin plated braid shielding. Level 1 and 2 cables are also available with a mini- or micro USB connector or Dell 7.4/5.0/0.6 connector.
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Super3 Double Regulated
Linear Power Supply
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Wiebe –
I bought this power supply for my Dayton DSP-408, an excellent sounding dsp that I use as a crossover filter for my four way speakers. I have been reading about switching and linear power supplies and it came to mind that this crucial part of my hifi could actually be the weak link in the chain because it came with a cheap adapter. Is it crazy to use a 530 euro power supply for a 180 euro dsp?
Replacing this adapter with the Farad3 was a huge improvement. It brings an inky black silence in quiet passages, more and easier to hear detail, better soundstage and authority to the music but most importantly, more emotion! Listening fatigue is completely absent. A similar upgrade regarding only the replacement of ‘conventional’ equipment (amp, dac, etc.) would set me back at least thousand euros, probably much more, to get the same result. And I only got the basic version of the Farad3…