Ah what a can of worms....A regulated supply can be switch mode or linear. Regulated means that if set to say 24V it will maintain exactly that voltage as the load current varies, IE it is a constant voltage supply, meaning it has very low internal resistance.
A current limited supply gives constant voltage, and hence behaves like lets say a lorry battery, but ONLY up to the current limit. At that point they either become a constant current supply or use what is known as foldback current limiting... which gives a similar effect in practice. Current limiting is mainly used in lab type supplies for when one is experimenting with circuitry and you don't want to see "the big bang theory" in action should you make a mistake!

Generally, a linear regulator will give much lower noise and have much faster response to a step load change than a switch mode one.
The advantages of switch mode supplies (SMPSU) are in low cost and high efficiency (hence low heat generation).

Many modern lab type supplies are switch mode but then use a linear regulator after the SMPSU, which with good design can give good results.... So:


"So, why shouldn't I use a regulated power supply for my HiFi?" = No reason why not but as it is possible to set a lab supply to maybe 30 - 60V or more depending on the model you must make sure it is set to the correct voltage and that no one touches the "voltage volume control" !!

"What is so special about a linear power supply made for HiFi?" It costs loads more and loads of bollox will be talked about it! To be fair if a supply is made by a very small company in very small numbers then they will have to charge lots for it to cover overheads and make a profit. Also it can cost more to give it WAF! That's about it.... Generally the only time a really specialised supply is called for is in powering a MC phono stages input amplification. This needs super low noise or the hiss from the regulator will add to that from the phono stage very noticeably as we are talking about an input signal from the MC cart of only 0.00005V or less!!

If getting a lab supply an old one (20+ years or so old) from really good makes like Farnell, TTI, HP, Weir, Lambda etc would be probably best as it would almost certainly be linear and a quality one like those would have been £300 - 800 20 years ago! Only downside is possible noisy controls and/or need to recap it..

nice article on PSU for amplifiers

www.sanderssoundsystems.com/technical-white-papers/161-the-magtech-regulated-power-supply-wp

The Absolute Sound Sanders Magtech receives Editor's Choice in TAS 2015 Buyer's Guide
2015, 2014 ,2013 , 2012 & 2011

5th year running TAS buyers guide 

I use a bench power supply regulated and linear to feed the maxon dc motor on my modified pink triangle. It works like a dream. Much better than the origin live and others I tried.

The only problem is when baby DQ fiddles with the voltage knob.

Apart from the risk of burnout, I think that too much voltage might increase motor cogging which would hurt sound quality.

I could knock up linear regulators for anyone interested. PM me.

Thanks.
Unfortunately I ordered one yesterday.