Replacing LM317 with SR question.

[fatcat]

I have just looked at the acoustica tweak titled “the Naim CD3.5 super-regs”.
There is one point that is puzzling me, they have not recommended removing the pair of resistors that control the output voltage of the LM317. As far as I understand, if they are left in the circuit, the output of the super-reg is connected to ground via a couple of resistors. Is this a good thing, bad thing or, of no significant.

Has anybody compared the sound with the resistors connected to resistors disconnected. It would be a simple matter of cutting one wire on one of the resistors.

 

[martin clark]

All the resistors do is draw a small standing current, regardless of the other loads on the reg. The current is small (I=V/R, maybe 10mA) so there's no great incentive to remove the parts. In fact - keeping them is a Very Good thing. Virtually all regulators perform very slightly better if a small 'idle' current is drawn from them, and this includes Andy's SRegs.

 

[fatcat]

Thanks Martin

I am in fact replacing a 7805 reg, with an Audiocom Q-Power super reg. After it’s settled in, I will try it with a resistor between output and ground.