What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Everyone needs a stompbox.
User avatar
fuzzjunkie
Expat
Expat
Posts: 7276
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:32 am
Location: Seattle

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:23 am

timtam wrote:
Sun Aug 29, 2021 7:34 pm
It's always best to list all your existing (and planned) pedals' current draws (and the summed total draw) first when contemplating a new supply. And any voltages/polarities/AC that are not standard 9V / DC / negative tip. You could get lucky winging it on someone else's recommendation ... or you could make an expensive mistake. Although not all fully-isolated supplies are expensive these days.

With that information it's then easy to match one output on every supply you're considering to a particular pedal (eg in a spreadsheet).
This is good advice. That’s how I discovered Cioks in the first place.

I had made a list of what voltages and polarities I needed and Voodoo Labs, which I had been using, didn’t cover it. Then I researched Cioks against some other options and decided to take the plunge. Two of my pedals are Eventide, so I went with the Powerfactor branded version of the model that fit my needs.

User avatar
adamrobertt
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2408
Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:28 am
Contact:

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by adamrobertt » Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:28 pm

Wow I made this thread while drunk and totally forgot about it. Thanks for all the suggestions!

I nearly bought a Cioks unit but ended up settling for the Truetone 1Spot CS12. Should mount under my board and should be able to handle all my pedals.

Anything will be an upgrade for me though, I've been using a $20 Chinese supply that I bought on Amazon a couple of years ago... it doesn't even have a three prong cord... :D

User avatar
Nick and the Noise
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 350
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:23 am
Location: The Hague, the Netherlands

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by Nick and the Noise » Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:29 am

Did you know that Cioks supplies 9.0V and Voodoo Lab 9.6V to the pedals? Is actually does matter in sound. A lot of pedals sound better at 9.6V. Just something to consider and perhaps try yourself if you have both brands. ;D

User avatar
blunderbuss
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 212
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 3:58 pm

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by blunderbuss » Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:11 pm

Team Cioks. That’s a cool Voodoo fact. Might try in my next board!
Ryan

User avatar
beninma
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 104
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 8:31 am

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by beninma » Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:57 am

You didn't "settle" for a One Spot Pro CS12.

The Cioks works exactly the same as the One Spot Pro units.. they Cioks is just newer and costs more and has some neat options.

They're both switching power supplies that avoid the issues the transformer based supplies like the Voodoo can create.

Any of the switched supplies that you get a good price & has the correct outputs for your needs is going to be good.

I've had a CS12 for years and it's been great. But it does have some outputs on it that I doubt I'll ever see a need for like the weird AC output, and I'd happily have those outputs be something more commonly useful instead. If I was doing it again today I might very well pick a Cioks just cause they seem to have more that are all switched to the voltage you want with the dip switches. The CS12 would be better if every single output could have it's voltage changed via the dip switches, and have an option to get rid of the AC output for another DC output.

User avatar
lastactionhero12765
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:50 am

Re: What's the best power supply for a Pedaltrain in 2021?

Post by lastactionhero12765 » Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:41 am

I've had the Cioks and, while it's a fantastic power source, it might be overkill for some (most?) boards. If you need to run 6-10 pedals that all have high mA draw (basically an Instagram board of nothing but Strymon/Empress/Line 6/big boxes/Dell computers/etc.) then, yeah, sure, the Cioks will probably be your best bet. But for ~10 moderate mA draw pedals--or even mostly low to moderate with a few high-draw pedals--I would actually go with the TrueTone CS12 (which I see you did!).

Post Reply