AC vs DC power @ Simon Yorke Designs recordplayer

9V battery supply

Power and its Conditions

It was necessary to adjust the sound using cables and AC conditioning (or the removal of such) to bring the frequency extremes into balance. Because of the S9's midrange favoritism, TARA Labs cables were de rigueur. Generally, the 0.8 interconnects were in use, to provide the needed frequency spread.

The motor is particularly sensitive to the origin of the AC. With the supplied AC/DC wall-wart plugged into a passive power conditioner, the TARA PM/2, some of the bloom was reigned in, and I gained control and focus, but the midrangy character was exacerbated. It was a toss up between the PM/2 and straight into my Ensemble Mega power strip.

The S9 can alternately be powered via a battery. This is easy to setup—just disconnect the wall-wart from the motor and replace it with the plug from the battery adaptor. (And disconnect it again when not in use, because even when not spinning, the battery sees a load and is draining.)

The battery power supply is literally just that—a nine-volt transistor battery hanging off a wire. It would be nice to have a matching holder for the thing.

Initially, this was really impressive. Running it on the supplied nine-volt battery dropped the noise floor drastically. It was already quiet but you could now sense a deeper well of blackness in the spaces between the notes. It was a little eerie—it reminded me of digital silences at first, with their digital black holes. There was definitely a greater signal to noise ratio and more separation. Sir Speedy attained even more grace. I'm told you can use a 12v battery for further gains—Simon uses a 12V 1,2Ah dryfit.

I never got around to trying that out, though, because the thing went and morphed on me the next night, when it became less noise suppressant and tonally brighter. It seems even that skimpy battery supply adapter has a burn-in period.

Quoted from http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue35/yorke_s9.htm