Cioks DC7 review- it's awesome

[Gsnorgathon]

Here's what the manual has to say about the cables that should have been included:

• Standard Flex type 1 – black with 5,5/2,1mm centre negative DC plug x7
• Standard Flex type 2 – red with 5,5/2,1mm centre positive DC plug x1
• Standard Flex type 4 – green with 5,5/2,5mm centre positive DC plug x1
• Standard Flex type 5 – black with tip positive 3,5mm Jack plug x1
• Split Flex type 1 – black with two 5,5/2,1mm centre negative DC plugs x1
• 3-way daisy chain Flex type 1 – black with three 5,5/2,1mm centre negative DC plugs x1

 

[sunbeast]

Powered it up, all indicators are red and the CI"O"CKS led is red.

That indicates “normal” operation. When overloading, the lights will dim or turn off.
http://cioks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/CIOKS-DC7-manual_PC_1.1_26.02.2019.pdf

As far as daisy-chaining, I daisy-chain many pedals on my PowerMax. The trick is troubleshooting to find which pedals actually need isolation (or which ones don’t pair well when daisy-chained). With many pedals daisy-chaining is not a problem, while I have a number that really prefer isolated power.

 

[vivaknoxvegas]

New Nano+ worked great tonight. I loved finally running my Li’l Fella at 18V.

 

[Matt Dean]

A DC7 Powers this board; attached with Velcro.

 

[BassAgent]

I used to have a T-Rex Fuel Tank but I had to much buzz (especially with the vintage digital reverb I use) so replaced it with a DC7. It powers this board and I'm super happy with it. Attached it with the Grip which is very easy to use. The switchable voltage is an extra plus, the Cali76 works on both 9 and 18V.

 

[GMC]

A few questions, what's the max current that the DC7 can supply. Is this unit modular, ie can I add more ports. I currently need 10-12 isolated feeds.
Loving the USB out and RCA leads...I can make my own leads to exactly the right length!

 

[GMC]

A few questions, what's the max current that the DC7 can supply. Is this unit modular, ie can I add more ports. I currently need 10-12 isolated feeds.
Loving the USB out and RCA leads...I can make my own leads to exactly the right length!

I'm just answering my own questions!
The transformer can supply 48w to the outlets in total. So that's 48/9= 5.3 Amp...pretty powerful!
It's expandable with the DC4 unit, up to 2 amps. It can only expand once. For me, 11 ports will be fine.
It's just a little bit on the pricy side. I could sell my current Strymon PSU to offset the £350+ UKP.

 

[krfoss]

I'm just answering my own questions!
The transformer can supply 48w to the outlets in total. So that's 48/9= 5.3 Amp...pretty powerful!
It's expandable with the DC4 unit, up to 2 amps. It can only expand once. For me, 11 ports will be fine.
It's just a little bit on the pricy side. I could sell my current Strymon PSU to offset the £305 UKP.

I have the DC4 in addition to the DC7 and they work great together. You can often find a sale for the DC4 (especially with the holidays upon us). I'll add a pic of my expanded pedalboard since it seems that's what we're doing.

 

[Gsnorgathon]

... For me, 11 ports will be fine....

You can daisy-chain multiple pedals off of one outlet, provided the current draw for the chain doesn't exceed 660mA @ 9V, and that none of them is so fussy that it has to have an isolated power supply. That way you might be able to get by with just the DC7.

 

[GMC]

You can daisy-chain multiple pedals off of one outlet, provided the current draw for the chain doesn't exceed 660mA @ 9V, and that none of them is so fussy that it has to have an isolated power supply. That way you might be able to get by with just the DC7.

My board is all digital, I currently have 13 devices that need power and they are all power hungry. 7 feeds won’t cut it on my board!

 

[Gsnorgathon]

Maybe you just need a portable nuke plant...

 

[cosmicevan]

I'm just answering my own questions!
The transformer can supply 48w to the outlets in total. So that's 48/9= 5.3 Amp...pretty powerful!
It's expandable with the DC4 unit, up to 2 amps. It can only expand once. For me, 11 ports will be fine.
It's just a little bit on the pricy side. I could sell my current Strymon PSU to offset the £350+ UKP.

It's also expandable with the Cioks8. My main board I have a DC7 powering a Cioks8 for 15 isolated outs. I love cioks. I have 3 DC7s...need a 4th to be set. It's the best power.

edit: they also just announced a DC7 and cioks8 kit to be released

 

[rhyharmel]

I'm just answering my own questions!
The transformer can supply 48w to the outlets in total. So that's 48/9= 5.3 Amp...pretty powerful!
It's expandable with the DC4 unit, up to 2 amps. It can only expand once. For me, 11 ports will be fine.
It's just a little bit on the pricy side. I could sell my current Strymon PSU to offset the £350+ UKP.

Also consider the Eventide (by Cioks) power supplies if you don't need voltage flexibility across all outputs. Don't know about prices across the pond, but the Eventide power supplies are a tad less expensive here in the US.

 

[Dave Hill]

I need clarification on something. When looking at the Cioks Grip on the Cioks website, it’s says the following:
“You can place it as far away as possible from effects that are likely to cause hum, such as some wah pedals without having to alter your pedal layout (this is not an issues at all with DC7, CIOKS 4 or CIOKS 8).”

My question is, how is hum not an issue at all on those three particular power supplies? I have a DC5, and I’m interested in getting a DC7, but I’m curious how the DC7 has a no-hum advantage over the DC5. My Cali76-CB causes hum when it’s near my DC5, so does this mean it absolutely won’t hum with a DC7?

Did you ever get clarification on this? I have a Cali-76-CB that hums on my DC-5.

 

[joel the bass player]

Toroidal vs Switch mode?

I had Voodoo Labs Iso-5 (two actually) on a board that caused noise issues with certain pedals that were placed too close (mostly right above) to them. When I switched to the DC7 that noise was gone.

 

[WG Plum]

I'm very happy with my Cioks. Very.

 

[cosmicevan]

I've had noise issues with older cioks units (ciokolate) that did not exist with newer cioks units. Clearly there are design updates as the older cioks units aren't nearly as flexible as the newer ones.

 

[sunbeast]

Did you ever get clarification on this? I have a Cali-76-CB that hums on my DC-5.

Curious if you have tried moving the location of the pedal in proximity to the supply? If the hum doesn’t go away when the pedal and supply aren’t in close proximity then I would suspect the issue isn’t from the power supply- however in close enough proximity the transformer in the DC5 could potentially induce hum into susceptible pedals or into cables run next to it (particularly gain-adding pedals like drives or compressors or cables running into gain-stages). Are you daisy-chaining the Cali with other pedals by chance? Have you tried different cables?

Toroidal vs Switch mode?

I had Voodoo Labs Iso-5 (two actually) on a board that caused noise issues with certain pedals that were placed too close (mostly right above) to them. When I switched to the DC7 that noise was gone.

Exactly this-
The newer Cioks supplies don’t need the large power transformer of the older versions because they use the same SMPS power supply tech as most modern amplifiers. The large AC step-down transformer in the older units would likely be the cause of any electro-magnetic “hum” if mounted in close vicinity to cheap patch-cables or particularly sensitive pedals. An SMPS as used in the DC7 requires a much smaller high-frequency transformer that wouldn’t induce hum frequencies. I’ve definitely never had an issue with noise originating from my DC-7, but also never did from my transformer-equipped AC10 even powering a Cali76. I think the smaller transformer-equipped supplies like the DC5 and ADAM probably had the potential to add more transformer noise than my larger AC10 simply because of the potential of mounting them in closer proximity to the pedals on the top of the board (and/or noise-susceptible cables). Possibly they also had less room for shielding than the larger units as well. In any case, transformer hum should fundamentally no longer be an issue with the SMPS power supplies like the DC-7.

 

[Dave Hill]

Curious if you have tried moving the location of the pedal in proximity to the supply? If the hum doesn’t go away when the pedal and supply aren’t in close proximity then I would suspect the issue isn’t from the power supply- however in close enough proximity the transformer in the DC5 could potentially induce hum into susceptible pedals or into cables run next to it (particularly gain-adding pedals like drives or compressors or cables running into gain-stages). Are you daisy-chaining the Cali with other pedals by chance? Have you tried different cables?

Exactly this-
The newer Cioks supplies don’t need the large power transformer of the older versions because they use the same SMPS power supply tech as most modern amplifiers. The large AC step-down transformer in the older units would likely be the cause of any electro-magnetic “hum” if mounted in close vicinity to cheap patch-cables or particularly sensitive pedals. An SMPS as used in the DC7 requires a much smaller high-frequency transformer that wouldn’t induce hum frequencies. I’ve definitely never had an issue with noise originating from my DC-7, but also never did from my transformer-equipped AC10 even powering a Cali76. I think the smaller transformer-equipped supplies like the DC5 and ADAM probably had the potential to add more transformer noise than my larger AC10 simply because of the potential of mounting them in closer proximity to the pedals on the top of the board (and/or noise-susceptible cables). Possibly they also had less room for shielding than the larger units as well. In any case, transformer hum should fundamentally no longer be an issue with the SMPS power supplies like the DC-7.

I’m using a DC5 under a PT Nano+. The (significant) noise is definitely from the cali76 being close to the DC5… There is not enough room to get them far enough apart on the small board to get rid of it. I have a DC7 arriving tomorrow. Hopes are high….will report back.

 

[scubaduba]

I have a DC7 not being used and will be putting it in the classifieds.