Pedal Chain State of Power for 2023

As you will see in my forthcoming end of the month Pedal Chain Update - I acquired an Eventide H90 Harmonizer over the Christmas period - before that - my various Power Supplies / Outlets were already at Maximum capacity / use - with all outlets already assigned.

This means that I inevitably had to add one more Power Supply into the mix - where the only suitable candidates really came from Cioks - as the H90 requires at least 1,200 mA of current - where you need to use a Cioks Parallel Adapter to combine the output of 2 of its 660 mA outlets from one of its Future Power Generation devices (1,320 mA).

In my book the Cioks Future Power Generation power supplies are the leader of the pack currently / best of breed - where you can fully granularly define the output of each isolated outlet - from 9V / 12V / 15V / 18V. Cioks have just added a new second Mains powered unit - the 5 outlet SOL - while for me the original trio of Cioks DC7, 4 and 8 units are already best of breed. There used to be a 4 unit that you could power with a mains supply - while this has been discontinued in the wake of the SOL (essentially a DC5 of sorts).

I’ve been through a number of power supplies over the years - including some T-Rex ones - before I finally settled on this pictured arrangement. The Friedman supplies make up the numbers - with a cool 10 outlets each - albeit only 350 mA per outlets - which is actually fine for most pedals. I next added the 5 outlet Strymon Ojai and 9 outlet Strymon Zuma at about the same time.

Next was the Cioks 8 - which is powered / chained to the Zuma, and where the new Cioks 4 is in turn chained to the Cioks 8.

If I need more outlets I would have a final end-game of swapping out the Ojai, and switching the Cioks 4 for a second Cioks 8. While right now I already have 3 outlets spare - of the 46 total - which combined deliver no less than 21,920 mA.

Note that nearly all my pedals are either 9V or 18V - where I prefer to use an Xotic FX Voltage Doubler - rather than the granular controls of the Coks units - as it’s all to easy to plug in the wrong supply that way - while the Xotic Adapters properly stand out and make you aware that you’re pumping 18V into said pedal. I only really use the Cioks dip-switches when I need 12V to 15V which is incredibly rare. The Eventide H90 takes a 2.5mm barrel centre-positive adatpater. I have various adapters from Cioks, Strymon and T-Rex - which I use particularly for centre-positive applications.

With a complicated pedal arrangement like mine - inevitably the power supply and patch cable arrangements can be highly complex too.

So I feel I’m pretty safe for a while now. This new breed of fully granular and chainable power supplies is just superb. Only Cioks gives you that full granularity and high capacity as far as I’m aware.

In terms of my own situation though - the number and type of power supplies that I now have are absolutely perfect for my own requirements.

Would be cool to hear what solutions you have in place yourself.

The only down-side for the Cioks really is their own proprietary power leads - which can make things a touch awkward at times - and possibly pricier that you would want - but Cioks really does have a solution for every eventuality.

I’m most bemused by how you need to combine and double up 4 Cioks outlets - using 3 of Cioks’ Parallel Adapters - in order to power up a Neural DSP Quad Cortex - whose power rating is set at around 3 Amps / 3,000 mA - but where 2 x 660 mA x 2 gives you enough juice at 2,640 mA.

For me Cioks can be the only solution - while there are good reasons for using these Strymon and Friedman power supplies too. Voodoo Lab has long been citied as the preeminent power supply brand - while I fear they’re being slightly left behind currently.

The modern paradigm of power supplies - it ultra compact ultra silent units - with high power output capacity and fully granular outlets. Currently there is nothing really quite as good as the Cioks units.

My Current Power Supply Roster consists of :

• 2 x Friedman Power Grid 10’s (20 outlets)
• 1 x Strymon Zuma (9 outlets)
• 1 x Strymon Ojai (5 outlets)
• 1 x Cioks 8 (8 outlets)
• 1 x Cioks 4 (4 outlets)