Pedal Chain State of Power for 2024
I hadn’t intended to upgrade my power supply infrastructure this year - but was kind of compelled to because of the recent Poly VERBS addition to the chain. The Poly VERBS needs 500mA, so I swapped over the supplies for the VERBS and Hologram Microcosm slots - as the Friedman Power Grid was powering the particular VERBS slot and only delivers 350mA - which turns out is actually not enough for either pedal (Microcosm states 400mA requirement). The Microsm kind of works with no noticeable difference at 350mA - but I’ve no wish to cause any potential damage to that one’s electronics - so I decided to add another Cioks 8 Expander - which of course increased the power supply capacity by. 8 further isolated outlets - for a total of 54.
At the time that I got in the Friedman Power Grids - they were a pretty good deal for getting lots of isolated slots - i.e. 10 x 350mA. While I’ve found that those don’t give me quite the extreme flexibility I need - as of course I’m forever chopping and changing things around - and introducing different pedals constantly into the rig - with different and varied power requirements.
If Cioks produced a 10 slot Future Power Generation supply - I would of course jump on that. While in the absence of those I’ve done some research on which are the best 10-slot supplies for my needs - to replace the Friedman Power Grids.
The final selection was really between the Mono Large Power Supply - it has 10 x 500mA, with three of those variable at 9V, 12V and 18V. It’s generally priced at $229, but weirdly a significantly more £289 in the UK - which amounts to $366 on the exchange rate.
By contrast the NUX NIP-Z10 Zeus can be had for as little as £179 in the UK and generally goes for $254 worldwide. The Zeus has the same number of 9/12/18 V variable ports as the Large Mono, but it additionally has a fully variable 10th outlet with Mini Knob - which takes you from 6V to 12V fully granularly.
Current Power Infrastructure : 2 x Friedman Power Grid [20], 2 x Cioks 8 Expander [16], 1 x Strymon Zuma [9], 1 x Strymon Ojai [5], 1 x Cioks 4 [4].
Future Power Infrastructure : 2 x Nux Zeus [20], 2 x Cioks 8 Expander [16], 1 x Strymon Zuma [9], 1 x Strymon Ojai [5], 1 x Cioks 4 [4].
Quality is of course the most important thing for me overall - but pricing is also significant!
The Friedman Power Grids are the same price as they were at launch - $219 / £219 - but are starting to look rather dated against the current competition. I often use Andertons in the UK, Sweetwater in the US, and Thomann for Europe - as my price gauges - and I've noted a general creep up in pricing - particularly on some of the Andertons pedals - not sure what's going on there - but it definitely pays to shop around!
So the $ | € | £ pricing for each of the featured power supplies is as follows (ascending order) :
- Cioks 4 FPG [4] : $139 | €139 | £129
- Strymon Ojai [5] : $169 | €189 | £159
- Cioks 8 FPG [8[ : $189 | €199 | £175
- Nux Zeus [10] : $254 | €254 | £199
- Friedman Power Grid [10] : $219 | €249 | £219
- Strymon Zuma [5] : $279 | €289 | £249
As I said before - it would be nice if Cioks had a 10 FPG supply - advancement over their DC7 - as a core supply - most of the others are 'Expander' varieties which don't take a mains power cable - a 10 FPG would be perfect really - in terms of scale and scope. While the new Nux Zeus is pretty cool - particularly with its 10th fully variable outlet - which is brilliant for Fuzzes.
So so far I've only acquired the extra Cioks 8 - which takes me up to 54 isolated outlets - which should be more than enough for my needs. After that I'm just building in more flexibility - so I will probably introduce the Nux Zeus duo one at a time into the chain at intervals. It's not a significant priority for me, but it's a nice to have - and will likely be completed in 2024. Perhaps if I leave the second phase upgrade long enough there will be a Cioks 10 finally out there! In the reanimate the Nux Zeus will do very nicely!
Have any of you had to make some unplanned changes to your power supply infrastructure recently? And what are your own favourite power supplies?
Demos / Reference
