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Sennheiser EW300 G3 wall-wart Question

Geri O

Geri O

Supporting Member
Sep 6, 2013
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Florence, MS
#1
Question for electronic component-level bench guys...Sennheiser EW300 G3 wireless In-ear monitor unit with the usual external power supply (wall-wart) powering the transmitter (the unit that goes in the rack). For a few weeks now, the transmitter unit was slow to power up. At first, it would take a few minutes to power up, then it progressively took longer until finally this last weekend, 45 minutes on Friday and 4 hours on Saturday (didn't have it for the first set. Great, time to send it in. I checked the wall-wart, it was showing 12VDC. For proper trouble-shooting purposes, I dug out a generic wall-wart with the proper specs (I have a drawer with over 200 wall-warts from long-gone devices. Need one? Hit me up) and the Sennheiser unit powers up immediately every time. So it's the wall-wart instead of the $275 flat-fee that Sennheiser wants for repair (Hey, I'd get new guts for the unit, but...). The question revolves around the wall-warts. The Sennheiser wall-wart is labeled as a "switching PSU". My generic out-of-drawer wall-wart is powering up the unit just fine and sounds as it's supposed to. Why the need for Sennheiser's switching PSU? Some kind of filtering over the generic unit I"m using now? I'm a big believer in using gear at the specs it was intended, so I intend to buy the Sennheiser replacement wall-wart. Just an inquiring mind at work. Thanx.
 
#2
12VDC is the same regardless of the topology of the power supply. As long as the "new" supply has the proper connector (and polarity) and equal or greater currrent capability you should be fine.
If you are really concerned, you could look at the output on a scope to see if there is any noise or ripple. For comparison, I could take a look at the output of the OEM supply, I think I've got a few here.
 
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#3
Out of curiosity, I fished through my large tub of accumulated wall warts and pulled a few out to see how clean the output was. To my surprise, almost all were very clean, tracing a straight line on the scope. However, the operative word here is "almost".
I did encounter a few that had serious wave form issues, and they were all (by virtue of weight) not switching power supplies. The Sennheiser NT 2-3 was perfectly clean.
If you don't have access to a scope, you could get a crude idea by briefly touching the output to a (surplus) speaker to see how clean it is. It should click, rather than hum. I did take some pictures with my phone, I'll see if I can upload them.
 
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#4
popgadget said:
Out of curiosity, I fished through my large tub of accumulated wall warts and pulled a few out to see how clean the output was. To my surprise, almost all were very clean, tracing a straight line on the scope. However, the operative word here is "almost".
I did encounter a few that had serious wave form issues, and they were all (by virtue of weight) not switching power supplies. The Sennheiser NT 2-3 was perfectly clean.
If you don't have access to a scope, you could get a crude idea by briefly touching the output to a (surplus) speaker to see how clean it is. It should click, rather than hum. I did take some pictures with my phone, I'll see if I can upload them.
Click to expand...

Man, thanx for the effort and work into checking out the various wall warts you had there.

I found a comparable wall wart (I had to graft the NT 2-3 connector onto the substitute wart) that powers up the unit and, at least with my informal practice set-up and my IEMS, sounds as quiet as it ever did. So it will get me through a couple of weekends until I get the replacement NT 2-3 PSU.

By the way, about that...check yer messages...;)

And thanx again.
 
#5
Here's an example of one that's not so clean. And the Sennheiser supply that is clean.

IMG_3859.JPG
IMG_3867.JPG
 
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#6
popgadget said:
Here's an example of one that's not so clean. And the Sennheiser supply that is clean.

View attachment 1017623 View attachment 1017624
Click to expand...

EEEKK!

That's awful! I do have a generic wall-wart running the unit now and it doesn't seem noisier, but the tracking shows that my new NT 2-3 will arrive tomorrow.

And of course, not 30 minutes after I ordered the new NT, 2 sound guy buddies tell me they have several used ones I can have. Of course...:D

Again, Pop, thanx for your interest and efforts. I definitely learned some things.
 
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