Yeah, I used a cheap power supply for like a decade or more and only ended up going to dual Strymon power supplies last year because of annoying noise I couldn’t get rid of. For me having some higher-end UAD and Chase Bliss pedals on my board forced me to upgrade my power supply. The dangers of buying guitar expensive pedals.
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You can’t go wrong with the EHX Holy Grail. Classic for a reason, pretty affordable. Never goes out of style. Just has ‘that’ sound.
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Yeah it’s mostly digital pedals being current hogs and noise sensitive that require fancy pants power supplies. Oh, and 21st century era ehx stuff which tends to really want isolated power. High end pedal power supplies barely existed until 20 years ago except for a few outliers and even those seem primitive my today’s standards. My first pedal board was just a bunch of wall warts and a power strip which was fine in the 90s.
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Oh golly. I still have an old black MXR DC Brick from like 15 years ago. I plugged it in a few months ago and could not believe how noisy it was compared to my Voodoo Labs stuff.
The guitar amp I use in the band rehearsal space has no reverb, but instead has a Holy Grail in the effects loop. Sounds fine to me.
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Yeah that’s the one I’m talking about. It really depends what you’re powering with it, some pedals are fine with dirty power, many aren’t. I don’t see voodoo labs stuff as often as i used to but they kinda started the whole high spec pedal psu thing back in the day.
@Affectionate-Bee-781 Unrelated addendum to my previous reverb pedal suggestions. Two people have since mentioned the ehx holy grail and it got me thinking, I’m very particular when it comes to spring reverb and my suggestions were made along those lines. Something like the holy grail is great for most folks needs. I guess it depends on what kind of spring sound you’re after. While oddly fussy about spring sounds I’m really not about things like overdrive for example, everyone has their things.
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What are people powering a lot of pedals with these days? I don’t dig in to guitar gear much anymore besides the basic cheap guitars and big pedal companies.
How much is a lot? Up thread I recommended my unit called Klowra Vires. I kept hearing that it punches above its price point quite a bit, and the artwork is awesome if that matters. 4x 9v 500mA, 2x 12V/9V/18V, 1x 24V 1500mA.
Currently has my HX Stomp, Chroma Console, Onward, and it’s about to have a very irresponsible, BIG addition soon.
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I use an Eventide PowerMax, which is actually a rebranded Cioks. Got it on sale after our band at the time complained about how easy it was to knock my pedals offline by bumping into my Visual Sound 1-spot plug. Singer/guitarist started to freak out over my sound suddenly cutting out because some idiot (me or someone else) accidentally tapped the 1-spot with a foot in passing.
we all noticed hum/noise levels from my setup went down after the upgrade to an isolated power supply. I do get the complaining over how such a power supply costs so much more than a 1-spot and daisy chain but as my gramps used to say, such is life.
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I have two Strymon Ojiai. You are supposed to be able to daisy chain them but in my setup I need to have them both connected to power to eliminate the noise. It’s one of those annoying unsexy purchases, but my setup is so much nicer now with everything running with the proper amount of juice. I have a small pedalboard that I bought used and they fit nice and snuggly underneath so the setup looks neater now as well.
I think Strymon is viewed as pretty bland now as a pedal company, but I appreciate them more and more. Their pedals have always run well for me even off of cheap power supplies. It’s the other builders that have given me grief.
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If I’m powering a lot of pedals at once I’ve been super happy with the truetone 1spot cs12 for years now. As mentioned upthread i have a few psu’s from this series, the 12 being the largest (and i have two of them). It’ll supply 3amps, 9, 12, and 18 vdc plus 9vac, one output has a switchable sag pot (4-9vdc) for starving fuzzes and whatnot. I’ve never bogged it down no matter how many pedals I’ve run off it, including running daisy chains off of multiple outputs. I think i paid around $80 each for them used but that’s a little below standard, I’m patient. Its overkill for my main board at the moment (seven pedals, only one of which takes any substantial power) so I’m using a smaller cs7 for that. Been digging smaller boards lately, i sold 65 pedals in the last four months for a reason.
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Currently I have 15 pedals powered on my board. Haha! It’s ridiculous.
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I have had a Cioks for 10 years + and it has been awesome. Buy once, cry once.
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Cioks is also the one I use nowadays.
I still have somewhere the CAE / MXR collab where it had 2 AC outs as well as the DC outs which was cool at the time as I could hook up my WH-1 Whammy with my DC pedals. It came with a nifty rack ear plate so I had it in my rack once with pedals on a tray.
I remember when the first Voodoo Labs individual isolated Power Supply came out - don’t think there were any others back then unless went custom. I cringe of the thought that I drilled a hole in a mint Rams Head 70s Big Muff to put the battery snap adaptor through the casing!
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IMO the midrange supplies are plenty good enough for 99% of people - offerings from the likes of Harley Benton and Warwick - you really don’t need to spend more than $100 odd unless you’re a professional.
If it’s isolated and has the number of outputs you need it will do the job.
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I was a Mr. Mister fan back in the day. Mr. Farris comes across as a dude you could have a beer with.
He used Boss HM-2 and CE-1 on Broken Wings 
If that. In my limited time in that world it seemed like most pros just had like 3 boss pedals. I usually used a nice power strip and wall warts under a diy plywood board when doing hired gigs. I have way better gear now that I’m just a noodly hobbyist again. But to add to your point, midrange gear in general has gotten really good.
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I use a Pedal Power 3 Plus for my main board, although I probably could’ve gotten the non plus and it may have been fine. I also have a Pedal Power ISO 5 on my desk for running smaller chains just on my desk (or individual pedals from the main board standalone).
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The Strymon Zuma was the best guitar accessory I ever bought. It hurt when I paid for it, but since then I have never had to deal with pedal noise or power problems ever again. It also looks cool.
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The Strymon power supplies are easily my favorite. I use two Ojais chained together and they’re super clean. A huge bonus for every output being 500mAh.
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