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Linn Utopik power supply

david ellwood said:
Featuring intelligent Valley Switching, Power Factor Correction, and with precision-regulated and isolated power rails – these power supplies are Linn's cleanest and best yet.

Utopik is an extremely sophisticated switch-mode power supply. In a sub-optimal switch mode power supply, you have no control over where in the input voltage waveform the
switch turns off or on. It would switch anywhere, and randomised noise is generated. With Utopik however, we monitor oscillation at the transformer’s input, and look out for the lowest troughs in the voltage – a technique named Valley Switching.

Utopik only throws the switch when at the floor of one of these valleys. With intelligent monitoring and control, we’re therefore keeping voltage as close to the ideal 0V when switching, resulting in dramatically reduced switching noise.
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What you are writing is taken directly from Linn marketing paper for utopik. And thats fine because this is all we got.

All this is probably true, but there are some questions remaining why this power supply sounds better .

I could hear that it obviously sounded better - but why ?
Have Linn used the new GaN technology, have they used many regulators in series ? Have they changed the voltage on the DC side, and how low is the ripple and noise on the DC output ? Is the switching frequency much higher than before , indicating the use of Gallium Nitrite ( GaN ) semiconductors ?

When Linn came out with the dynamik power supply, the switching frequency were 2,5 times higher than their former supplies. It sounded better. With GaN technology one can get much faster switching. We are talking up to 100 times faster.

These are some questions on a technical level that might be interesting to know more about.
 
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Musician said:
What you are writing is taken directly from Linn marketing paper for utopik. And thats fine because this is all we got.

All this is probably true, but there are some questions remaining why this power supply sounds better .

I could hear that it obviously sounded better - but why ?
Have Linn used the new GaN technology, have they used many regulators in series ? Have they changed the voltage on the DC side, and how low is the ripple and noise on the DC output ? Is the switching frequency much higher than before , indicating the use of Gallium Nitrite ( GaN ) semiconductors ?

When Linn came out with the dynamik power supply, the switching frequency were 2,5 times higher than their former supplies. It sounded better. With GaN technology one can get much faster switching. We are talking up to 100 times faster.

These are some questions on a technical level that might be interesting to know more about.
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Yes, these were the questions I had, bearing in mind we can all read the marketing blurb ourselves.
Someone will come along soon, and tell us that all we are listening to is modified mains, so that’s why.
 
Well, I was wrong . The Utopik is now measured and we can see why it sounds better - Linn has lowered the switching frequency .

”This is a ripple of 34mV for the dynamic and 20mV for the Utopik. Well, not exactly the finest DC voltage imaginable, but you keep in mind that there are a lot of filters and regulators behind it, that'll be fine. But something completely different only opens up at second glance: at the bottom left. At what frequency does the fidgeting occur? And lo and behold, the dynamic range is 831kHz. This is right in the middle of the medium wave band. That's a lot of HF, and you can create as many filters as you want, the relatively high frequency is transported everywhere through the air. Also in the circuits behind the filters, where you can find the HF again. And now let's look at the value for the Utopik: 33.9kHz. This is just above audible and is in the ultrasonic range. Nothing is being sent yet.

So, the main difference between dynamic and utopian lies in the frequencies used. The joke with a switching power supply is that you don't need such huge transformers as with the 50Hz power supply and therefore you rectify the voltage first. Then it is transmitted via the transformer at a higher frequency in an electronic inverter. The higher the frequency, the smaller the transformer required. But if you go towards MHz, like with dynamics, you have built a juicy HF transmitter at the same time. With Utopik the specification for the frequency was obviously as high as necessary and as low as possible.

Now I want to put the Utopik in my G-ADS3 and I'm curious to see how it compares to the dynamic. I don't have a direct comparison, but I know the G-ADS3 Dynamic vs. G-ADS3 G-LNT comparison well from the Selekt Edition Hub tests. I immediately notice whether the difference is larger, smaller or roughly the same. Although I hardly believe that things will get worse with utopianism

Read more here - Interesting !
 
I doubt that the change in switching frequency is the root of the improvement, its more likely been dropped to facilitate the zero point switching.
 
Got my Utopik yesterday and fitted it to my KDS3. Expectations weren't all that high, particularly when I got it out of the packaging and looked at it next to the Dynamik - it looks very similar indeed to the earlier model.

Listening was a different matter - seriously impressed. the KDS never lacked clarity but it is just so much easier to follow all the different elements of the music. On heavier stuff, there's definitely more weight and drive to the music than before as well. A really significant improvement all round.

Easy to fit yourself too - all in all, highly recommended. I also think it is great that in an era when so much is going to landfill, I can still bring my 15-year old streamer up to date. I know Linn's ongoing support for older kit has not always won friends, but in this respect, I think they deserve applause (although it would be even better if they still offered the Renew option when upgrading the DAC board).
 
eelmaster said:
Got my Utopik yesterday and fitted it to my KDS3. Expectations weren't all that high, particularly when I got it out of the packaging and looked at it next to the Dynamik - it looks very similar indeed to the earlier model.

Listening was a different matter - seriously impressed. the KDS never lacked clarity but it is just so much easier to follow all the different elements of the music. On heavier stuff, there's definitely more weight and drive to the music than before as well. A really significant improvement all round.

Easy to fit yourself too - all in all, highly recommended. I also think it is great that in an era when so much is going to landfill, I can still bring my 15-year old streamer up to date. I know Linn's ongoing support for older kit has not always won friends, but in this respect, I think they deserve applause (although it would be even better if they still offered the Renew option when upgrading the DAC board).
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I’ll be getting my KDS updated with Utopik. Looking forward to giving it a listen!
 
david ellwood said:
One advantage of utopik is its switching is likely to make it less likely to upset other manufacturers amps that are more susceptible to mains noise.
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Interesting. Can you explain this? Do you mean because the switching frequency is much lower?

I still don't know whether there will be Utopik power for my Uphoriks.
 
Nero said:
Back OT, does anyone well versed in electronics know what might be behind the differences between DynamiK and UtopiK? They are both SMPS, so what areas would you look at to make improvements?

I mean, with a linear power supply, you could play with the size/format of transformer or put in fecking great capacitors, but SMPS?
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It occurred to me that if the new PSU sounds perceptibly better than the original, it might be because the performance of the original has degraded with age.
edit: just read the technical differences over the old supply, down thread. Am I right in thinking it sounds better because Linn have made a technically competent SMPS that doesn’t churn out as much RFI?
 
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