Voodoo Labs Iso 5 - Total Garbage

GuitarStv

GuitarStv

Sock Market Trader
I've been using a couple 1-spot adapters and a daisy chain to power a medium sized pedalboard.

Currently running eight pedals - Empress Tremolo, SD Deja Vu Delay, Boss BD-2, SP Compressor, a Fuzz I built, a Mooer E-Lady flanger, and a Korg Pitchblack tuner. I've also got a newer Deja Vibe but was using the 18v adapter it came with.

Figured I'd like to simplify things on the board, so I bought a couple Voodoo Labs Pedal Power Iso 5s. They've got modular cables, multiple 9V 100mA isolated outputs, and would let me run the SP compressor and the Deja Vibe at 18 volts each. Finally got around to tearing apart the whole board, fixed the power supplies to the bottom and plugged everything in last night. It was noisy as fuck.

So, first I thought that maybe there was something wrong with my guitar. Swapped guitars, no problem. Then I thought I maybe had a bad cable. Pulled and tested every cable on the board - no problem. Finally I unplugged the power from my trem pedal while it was in bypass - big reduction in noise. Huh. Weird. So I kept unplugging things - Deja Vu dropped the noise a bunch, Tuner did too, as did the flanger, and the compressor. I tried swapping connections from one of the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power bricks to the other - they are both garbage. Finally, I re-connected the 1-spot daisy chain that I had been using. Beautiful and silent once more.
 
It must be a bad run, I'd send Voodoo serial numbers and date codes and get them swapped.

I tested about 6 brands, the Strymons ended up being the best performance (noise), features, size, and flexibility (daisy and 18/12/9 volt switchable banks)

But I don't play music at a mega church -so don't turn me in to Strymon plz
 
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I tried plugging the pedals in one at a time. It doesn't matter which one I plug in, there's always added noise when using the Iso 5. Nothing with the 1-spot. The noisiest four with the power supply are the trem, delay, tuner, and flanger. Plugged all four into a daisy chain and into the 1-spot - zero noise again. Like magic.
 
Voodoo usually makes good stuff and seems to care about their quality, I would definitely shoot them an e-mail.

I keep thinking about replacing my One Spot with a nice isolated supply, but, I'm not having any issues so what would I gain other than a standard IEC plug vs the wall wart(?), not sure that is worth the investment.
 
I had a similar experience when switching from the daisy chained 1-Spot to a "proper" isolated power supply. Mine was the Walrus Audio Phoenix. WA ended up replacing it with another one and the replacement did the same thing.

Ended up returning it and I bought a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3+. That thing is quieter than the 1-Spot and it was flexible enough for me. I have almost all analog pedals and nothing with high current draw or voltage requirements other than 9v.

I'm sorry you are having that experience though! I was pissed about spending the money on the Phoenix and having it be put to shame by a 1-Spot.
 
I would also contact Voodoo Lab. They have always been a solid company for customer service.

Maybe they would exchange the ISO-5s for models with a different topology. Never hurts to ask.
 
GuitarStv said:
I've contacted Voodoo Labs and we'll see what they say.
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Voodoo performed pretty well in my tests about 4 years ago -not sure which one I tested. MXR's ISO versions are good too.

I bet Voodoo takes care of you -it's literally their core competency -they want to keep the story positive in the market.
 
Sucks. I currently have a small Voodoo x4 in my bass board and so far so good. I feel like iso 5s we’re really popular a few years ago. Hopefully they can fix it for you.
 
I've been playing around some more with the ISO5s and the pedals I want to run.

The Good - Running the three gain pedals through the iso5 outputs actually seems to be slightly less noisy than running daisy chained and plugged into a 1-spot.
EP compressor - no problems with any of the 9V, 12V, or 18V outputs.
BD-2 - no problems with any of the 9V outputs
Fuzz - no problems with any of the 9V outputs

The Bad - Some stuff is just super noisy using the Iso 5
Deja Vibe - Noisy when bypassed with either of the 18 V outputs, but the noise seems to depend on the speed that the vibe is set - higher speed is more noticeable, lower speed. No noise with the power supply that came with the vibe.
Deja Vu - Loud tone appears when bypassed as soon as this is plugged into any of the 9V outputs from the iso 5.
Tremolo - Loud noise bypassed that is in time with the tap tempo when plugged into the 9 or 12 volt outputs from the iso 5.

The Weird -
Tuner - Slight noise that appears only if one of the three bad pedals above is also plugged in to the same iso 5 brick. If I take the brick off my pedalboard and physically move it about a foot away from the tuner, this seems to reduce the noise. This pedal has some slight noise that you can hear when daisy chaining through the 1-spot. No noise at all if I just run it with the 1-spot right in.
Mooer e-Lady - Same as the tuner, but silent when daisy chained through the 1-spot.




We'll see what they say, but I kinda feel like it would have made more sense to go with a power bar and a bunch of 1-spots - half the price and no noise problems.
 
You should contact them. I have the Decibel 11 which is made by guys from VooDoo Labs, basically the same tech. I have not had a problem in 10 years using it.
 
curious what they say. ive had a pp2+ for a long time and it works great and is dead quiet
 
Bogner said:
Me neither and Strymon rocks. So does the Eventide/Cioks stuff. I wasn't aware that Strymon was only for church people.
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It's not -it's just a joke, not really as much right now but 5-10 years ago my buddies who play at the mega churches were in a full on Strymon acquisition cold war arms race.

It was a must then for that U2 meets Sunny Day Real Estate Rock Church vibe.

I don't think that is as much the case now. -lots of other cool gear to vibe on.
 
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NegativeEase said:
It's not -it's just a joke, not really as much right now but 5-10 years ago my buddies who play at the mega churches were in a full on Strymon acquisition cold war arms race.

It was a must then for that U2 meets Sunny Day Real Estate Rock Church vibe.

I don't think that is as much the case now. -lots of other cool gear to vibe on.
Click to expand...

I thought it was for lawyers and dads.
 
Haha!

I really mean no disrespect and Strymon makes incredible gear. I have to laugh though because one of my friends has two pedal boards full of Strymon stuff. He is a dad, a lawyer and he also plays in a Mega Church.

FWIW, he is able to get all kinds of great tones from those pedals.
 
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