This is a rather silly question... the A6 does not use a PS, it's connected to the mains, as it has an internal, extremely low-noise switching PSU. And if you meant a power-conditioner (?) you can always only benefit from using such a thing.
A PSU isn't a power supply? I think it stands for power supply unit. You do know you can upgrade internal power supplies right?
Yes, I know. But that will void your warranty. As a rule of thumb I do the following: 1. power everything in my system 2. crank the volume to the max 3. try to hear, ears close to the speakers, if there is some noise, tipically in the 50Hz zone (as I am in Europe, in the US that would be 60Hz) If I do hear something, and depending on the level of it, I may consider a better PSU, or at least a good filter, first, as it does not void any warranty. I own a Z8, and it is dead-silent. Not only no hum at 50Hz, but also no hiss whatsoever. I believe the A6 is at least on par, concerning the PSU.
There's also electrical "noise" that you can't hear. If you get rid of that you will get a blacker background and more detail. If it was hissing I would return it.
I agree that a LPS can improve SQ for many audio components, but not all. As for the A6, someone that builds LPS mentioned to me that it will not be trivial to mod the A6 to take an external LPS.
Have you seen a picture of the inside that you can share. I'm still waiting on my unit. Yeah it might not be worth it if it's some kind of crazy wiring. Usually it's pretty straight forward in most.
Low powered audio devices (DACs, streamers) are being built with very good quality internal PSUs lately, unlike some years ago. If the device is powered by an external cheap power brick, a good linear PSU or even a low noise switching PSU (like iFi iPower) will help. If I can guess, I bet that the internal PSU on DMP-A6 is good enough.
Obviously, it is good enough or they wouldn't have used it. Trying to figure out if there is further improvement to be had or not. "Low noise power supply" is a pretty subjective term. >Lower noise than a jet engine? Lower noise than a whisper? Does anyone know how much noise this power supply actually makes?
Not necessary. More like many more vendors saying in their marketing material how good their power supplies are. Note that this statement also applies to very expensive streamers, which should have better parts but they don't (from someone, not me, who knows LPS). It does depend on what is "good enough"? For many people here, likely good enough. But for people chasing the very high end, and attracted by huge hype of the A6, maybe not?
You are absolutely right. But then again, the A6 price tag is not in the 1000's, and I believe that its quality is very good for the money you get to spend. Then you can argue on this too, if you like.
Maybe the OP can buy a unit and upgrade themselves, then they will have the answer, as mentioned this desire is a very niche want, so if you can be the first and report back that would be great
This is the power supply board. Photo 23 from this - https://device.report/m/88c750fc982731c8c366aaa18b676e29b69cdc5eeff7912f5a594dc8075b1e96.pdf
I won't be bothering to do any 'mods', just enjoy the A6 for what it is, a damn fine streamer with a decent dac.
I added a LPS package (LC filter module + external LPS) developed for the Lumin mini into the A6 with some modification. The SQ improvement is more than i expected. The high end is more stable, the bass is more solid, the imagine is more focus, i can hear more details in the records which i can't hear before. Besides the LPS mod i also added an USB optical isolation in between the A6 and the integrated amp. Both the USB iso and LPS mod gave me a significance improvement on it's own though.
While I'd love to see this setup bench tested by ASR to quantify improvements, I have to compliment you on such a bold and technically excellent implementation. Very impressive.
