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Comment by zamalek | Hacker News Reader

Audiophiles swear by Apple chargers as a power source. It's a needlessly clean power source. I was having extreme issues with noise from my DAC, to the degree of clearly audible at normal listening levels. Apple sorted that right out.

The charger is the only product I will buy from Apple. It's complete and utter overkill, you'll never have problems for a very minor premium (absolutely speaking, not relatively).

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What you are experiencing is not "power supply noise", but most likely ground loop noise. The fix is not to shill Apple power supplies, which as switching power supplies are still extremely noisy, but to use proper connectors and signalling.

> The fix is not to...

Except the fix was exactly that, according to the commenter.

The way you say it makes it sound like cargo culting.

I'd rather know what causes my problems than turn to Apple for every problem.

That's like saying "I had back pain, so I bought a 10,000 dollar mattress and it's fine now!" Meanwhile, the actual solution was that the person needed a firmer mattress.

Knowing what the actual problem is rather than what product fixes it will save you time and money.

> so I bought a 10,000 dollar mattress and it's fine now!

It's $20. The jitterbug (ground loop/galvanic isolation) is $60.

Heh. If I plug an iPad charger in the "wrong way" (symmetric EU socket), I observe massive interference/hum via the 3.5mm audio jack. The hum disappears if I rotate the plug, or touch the metal backplate of the iPad.

I have the exact same issue with a MacBook (2015). As soon as I plug in the audio jack, I will hear background noise, except if I touch the aluminium body. I solved the problem by replacing the default short connector to the socket with a desktop-like long power cable, that unlike the short one has a ground connection.

Do you have some sources for this? A quick google search turned up nothing

Professional (and generally speaking) audio equipment can produce undesired sound effects if there’s any voltage irregularities going on. I know that certain outlets in my house that cause static noise out of a guitar amplifier because they aren’t.. perfectly wired? Also, I know audio engineers will typically plug their equipment into an outlet that is separate from their computer to avoid this as well. I haven’t studied electrical or sound engineering too deeply but I have noticed the same. Knowing that this is a general issue, I did a quick search and found this: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0712/

Oh yeah I have a electronic music studio for years and a clean power source is the beginning of everything. Brought in stuff for repairs only to have the technician tell me that there was nothing wrong. At home same problem again. "Try plugging it in directly to a wall socket" problem solved. And with lots of outboard gear you get lots of cables and lots of adapters.

Google "balanced power for tube amplifiers" and see how far that rabbit hole goes ...

(And it's not all superstition, and it's not all for tube amps -- it's all in the SNRR of your power stages for every piece of equipment in your sound chain.)

Is SNRR different than PSRR?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rejection_ratio

https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu...

https://www.audioreviews.org/apple-audio-adapter-review/

This is about the audio converter not the charger.

> Audiophiles swear by Apple chargers as a power source.

Are these the same audiophiles that swear by gold plated contacts for every connector?

As an audiophile who is picky about chargers, no. Also, Apple isn’t the only company making decent chargers, but many of the comparable chargers I’ve gotten from other companies—e.g., some of the older Pixel chargers—have died over time, while their Apple counterparts are still kicking. I keep meaning to open one of the dead chargers to determine the cause of failure, but I have a tinkering backlog at the moment.

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