Re: Pedal Board Power Supply
"Isolated" is the big difference here.
Aside from those cheapo Radio Shack power supplies, pretty much all of them are filtered and regulated - even the good ol' Boss wall wart.
To understand what those terms mean, I'd have to go into a big long lecture about DC power. If you're curious about the electronics of a power supply, here's a good link:
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/powersup.htm . In brief, filtered (aka. smooth) regulated DC power is very clean and "flat" with no spikes or drop-offs. It refers to a steady, constant source of DC power.
The difference between most power supplies and something like the Pedal Power 2 (other than the questionably high price) is that each output on the PP2 is an isolated circuit. Most multi-out power supplies have one circuit that pumps out the DC power which is then daisy-chained to multiple outlets. Honestly, and no matter what anyone tells you, this is perfectly fine UNLESS you have pedals with problematic or unusual grounding circuits. This happens more often with certain brands of pedal than others (Line 6 and Electro Harmonix are the two biggest culprits I know of), and it is a fault in the design of the pedal, not the power supply. The result is that you get lots of noise because you have created a ground loop by putting these pedals on the same circuit as the rest.
I recommend starting with a non-isolated power supply, and of those the 1 Spot is clearly the best. If you need more than 9 volts for some of your effects, the DC Brick would be the one for you, though it doesn't put out as much current as the 1 Spot unfortunately.
If you find that you're getting a lot of noise when certain pedals are on the 1 Spot, you will probably need another power supply for those to break the ground loop. In that case, it would still be WAY cheaper to just buy two 1 Spots than to buy a PP2.
If you happen to be in the very unlikely scenario where you need four or five isolated power supplies because you have a wacky-ass bunch of pedals, and you need 12 or 18 volts for some of them,
and you are OK with running a VERY NOISY AC line from the wall to your pedal board, thus adding noise back to your rig that you are trying to get rid of in the first place, then by all means start saving up some money to buy the PP2.
If you go out and buy a PP2 without trying the far cheaper alternatives first, hey, it's your money.
The website says they are out of stock until further notice. Makes me wonder why
