Diego Little Smasher 5w Amp - What's the buzZ?

babysnake

So I bought myself a Little Smasher for some late night low volume cranked Marshall tones.

I had been quite impressed by the demo's I had seen so was eagerly awaiting it's arrival...

So a couple of days later when it arrived I greedily plugged in my Les Paul and connected it up to the celestion blue in my AC15H1TV.

I switched on and turned up the volume expecting much joy!...No joy

The thing was incredibly noisy!....Like playing in a room with lights on dimmers noisy!!

I sent off an email to Diago wondering what could be wrong and to my amazement they replied saying that the Little Smasher needs an earthed power supply and the PS they supply with it (Micropower9) is NOT earthed?!.....can anybody help me out with suggestions for a earthed PS for this thing? It would need to output at least 600mA or more at 9V.....Cheers!

Sporky

Hang on - they say the PSU they supply with it is not suitable?

Bizarre.

Get them to supply an appropriate one!

EricTheWeary

Sporky said:

Hang on - they say the PSU they supply with it is not suitable?

Bizarre.

Get them to supply an appropriate one!

Yeh, this Shirley. 

olafgarten

That's just terrible. Something like this should work.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/regulated-9v-600ma-acdc-power-supply-l67bq

Wait just checked, the Diago needs a Centre Negative supply, this won't work.

babysnake

Bizarre indeed!

They said ....."the PS supplied with it in the US is a 3-pin Earthed device whereas - for various regulatory reasons - the one supplied elsewhere in the world is a 2-pin non-Earthed device" (end of quote)

The email went on to suggest I buy one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Supply-Adapter-Effect-Pedals/dp/B00BPE7GEI

So their solution is buy a cheapo PS which costs a fraction of the supplied Micropower9 that can only output 400mA?! 

The Little Smasher wants to see 600mA minimum (it is actually printed on the unit)

I'm still in email comms with them, but honestly, I don't think I can go on ignoring the massive elephant in the room.....

mart

You could ask them to confirm that the amp does only require the small amount of current supplied by the Amazon PSU they are suggesting, and not the 600mA printed on the amp itself.

And then you could ask them how they will reimburse you for the cost of bringing their product up to merchantable quality.

Sassafras

I'd send it back as not fit for purpose. There must be dozens of other low powered amps that'll fit the bill as well if not better than the Diago. They're not exactly cheap for what they are.

babysnake

Sassafras said:

I'd send it back as not fit for purpose. There must be dozens of other low powered amps that'll fit the bill as well if not better than the Diago. They're not exactly cheap for what they are.

....yes but I bought it used (couple of months old) on eBay for £50 so I'm not in it for the full retail price. 

 At the time I was living on a canal barge so was reliant upon solar power and needed something with very low power draw.....the Little Smasher fitted my needs perfectly. I have just emailed back the response below....

 James, this is all rather perplexing.

When I initially contacted you I was convinced that the unacceptable amount of noise must be due to my LS01 being faulty. 

But what you are saying is that the LS01 requires an Earthed PS to 'keep things quiet’ yet outside of the US it is supplied with a non-Earthed PS?

So it seems that by suggesting I buy an alternative PS you are in fact tasking the end user, “me” with bringing your product up to merchantable quality. Would you agree?

kind regards

Scott

babysnake

Okay so in fairness to Diago here is their response to my email posted above...

Hi Scott,

I do follow your point entirely, but that's not what I'm saying.  Under most circumstances, in Europe, the main AC is quiet enough that the Little Smasher will be quiet enough without any need for an Earthed connection, but this depends on a variety of circumstances.  Adding some kind of connection to Earth simply improves the noise rejection, if that's what your situation requires.

The suggestion of using an alternate power supply is just one possible solution to improve noise rejection in your particular set-up.  On a pedal board and amp system the ideal is to have one path to Earth; two or more paths to Earth can set-up a ground loop with resulting hum, but not always.  Zero paths to Earth can also cause hum, but in the UK our noise is usually pretty clean (it depends what else is in the same building), and a high proportion of pedal boards already have a path to Earth.  We had to make a choice - a floating power supply or and Earthed one.  On balance, we chose what we deemed to be the better option.

In the US, (and a lot of other 110V countries) our testing showed that the AC mains noise was such that the only way to keep it quiet in most circumstances (even considering that some boards would then have two Earths) was to provide an Earthed power supply.

A lot of external power supply based amps (Roland Cube, etc) suffer similar problems - it's quite a difficult technical problem.

If you are dissatisfied to the point where it's not doing what you wanted or expected, and the suggestions are not ones you're happy with, your retailer should offer you a full refund.

I do completely understand what you're saying and I offer my very sincere apologies that the Little Smasher doesn't meet your needs.
 

Kind regards,

 

James.

......so there you have it. I can't be bothered with any more emails as it's been dragging on for weeks now and my feeling from the above is that they would like to draw a line under this and move on.....

but if any of you guys out there in the fretboard world with the knowledge would like to offer any help or advice with this then please chime in and I will thank you now in advance!

mart

Well, well. Respect to them for taking the time to give a long explanation, and one that strikes me as plausible and honest.

If the Amazon PSU isn't too expensive (I haven't followed the link), then personally I'd get that and be prepared to return it to Amazon if it doesn't do the trick.

Cabicular

Yamaha did a free replacement Psu on the THR amps after they discovered the same thing
Personally though I would just buy another power supply and have done with it

babysnake

mart said:

Well, well. Respect to them for taking the time to give a long explanation, and one that strikes me as plausible and honest.

If the Amazon PSU isn't too expensive (I haven't followed the link), then personally I'd get that and be prepared to return it to Amazon if it doesn't do the trick.

Cabicular said:

Yamaha did a free replacement Psu on the THR amps after they discovered the same thing
Personally though I would just buy another power supply and have done with it

...Agreed, cheers guys!

frictionfraction

babysnake said:

Bizarre indeed!

They said ....."the PS supplied with it in the US is a 3-pin Earthed device whereas - for various regulatory reasons - the one supplied elsewhere in the world is a 2-pin non-Earthed device" (end of quote)

The email went on to suggest I buy one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Supply-Adapter-Effect-Pedals/dp/B00BPE7GEI

So their solution is buy a cheapo PS which costs a fraction of the supplied Micropower9 that can only output 400mA?! 

The Little Smasher wants to see 600mA minimum (it is actually printed on the unit)

I'm still in email comms with them, but honestly, I don't think I can go on ignoring the massive elephant in the room.....

Anyone got a link to one of these that will do the same job.   This is now unavailable and I’ve got a little smasher that hums like a bitch - need an earthed one... ta 

ecc83

This is indeed a problem with a good deal of audio equipment nowadays and it will get worse.

Manufacturers are indeed in a dilemma. Earth your own kit and run the risk of creating an earth loop or use a floating supply and risk nothing being earthed and hum being worse to bad.

This matter is not confined to "budget" gear, a good many active studio monitors now use "Class2" insulated power supplies and are earth free because one of THE most common earth loop issues arises when a PC/AI is connected to active monitors. Mind you, most makers of such gear provide a convenient earth terminal and that is an easy, cheap option. Take a wire from the metalwork, jack plug sleeve say, and connect it to earth. Radiator or the earth pin on the mains outlet.

Quite surprised the amp people did not suggest this?

Dave.