MyVolts - The Alchemist (portable and stationary power via USB-C)

[Lizard-of-Oz]

Might be interesting to some people: Myvolts has a kickstarter two devices they call “The Alchemist” and “The Silent Alchemist”.

The Alchemist is a device that provides USB-C-Power to multiple devices from a variety of stationary (wall outlet) or mobile (power bank, solar panel, car battery etc.) sources, and apparently you can daisy chain several Alchemists to one power supply.

It has 4 outputs with 3A each, so one could power 4 Elektron devices (even a Syntakt that draws 1.5A).

In the Kickstarter, they offer packages that also contain a number of their Step Up USB-to-DC-connectors.

The claim you can even daisy chain one output to multiple devices:

They also have a bigger version called “The Silent Alchemist” that has 8 isolated USB-C outputs, which is designed to help with hum and noise in the setup.

There’s also a webtool (PowerMyGear) for planning setups.

The Kickstarter is running until June 20 and the rewards are supposed to be shipping in October.

Looks like two interesting products that - if they actually manage to deliver what is promised - might solve a lot of problems people currently have around powering their setup. That being said, it’s rather expensive, the reward bundles start at $200, so definitely on the pricier side of things.

Edit: I find these things do come with disadvantages that are worth considering: it appears wasteful to me that you require expensive USB-C cables and external converters (at $20 each) for running power to a barrel plug, and also it appears that you can use the USB-C ports on your devices only for powering the device, so everything that would rely on data via USB is lost for USB-powered devices.

Edit 2: If you create and save a setup on PowerMyGear, they currently give you a code for 15% off for ordering stuff on their website (not on Kickstarter, though). So if you planned to get some things anyway, here’s your chance to get it cheaper.

Edit 3: The PowerMyGear app is nice in theory but needs more work, it sometimes won’t connect the devices you added, a lot of gear is missing, and there is no button to report obvious errors like this one:

[slicetwo]

How is this different than just a PD multi-port power jam like this? I use a similar one and it works great and doesn’t cost $200.

[Lizard-of-Oz]

I see several differences:

• power source: the one you linked plugs into an AC outlet, while the Alchemists can also draw power from other sources (like your car, or a solar panel, or a power bank)
• the Silent Alchimist offers 8 isolated outputs which might help some people with some devices with some noise
• you can daisy-chain power sources
• for $200, you also get a power bank, plus some USB cables and 3 Step Up converters. You would need to add $20 for each Step Up to the price of your PSU to compare those, but you might also need to add a USB-C PSU to the price of the Alchimist if you don’t want to use a power bank all the time

But the PSU you linked is a great solution for many people, I also use something similar to power some of my devices (with a couple of Ripcords).

[klaustrophil]

If you chose “the alchemist” without the “silent” you’re right. I don’t see the point of this product at all. It’s just like most consumer stuff. Their converters as add-ons are cool tho. BUT: The Silent Alchemist is a big deal. In my experience (I tried out a lot of stuff for my portable live set), many if not most synths and peripheral gear (except for guitar effects) is built to be powered by a very specific PSU. Sharing the PSU will lead to all kinda weird noise issues and ground loops. The isolation of the ports solves this.

@Lizard-of-Oz

for $200, you also get a power bank, plus some USB cables

The exact same power bank (same picture) is available on Amazon for an even lower price. I suppose it’s the same with the cables.

[highstandards]

The kit with the silent alchemist is $390, not $200.
I find the concept cool and some of the advantages such as the isolated ports useful, but the prices are crazy.
Cables and adapters can be found for $3 each on Aliexpress vs $19 on MyVolts and you must really need what the silent hub has to offer to spend $300 on something like this.

[highstandards]

This Anker hub is $80 and has a max output of 200W vs the silent alchemist’s 120W.

Amazon.com: Anker Prime Charger, 200W 6-Port GaN Charging Station, USB-C PD Fast...

Yes, it’s missing:

• the power extender
• 2 USB-C ports
• support for a battery pack

but it’s $80…

[klaustrophil]

Unfortunately the cheapest option for the Silent Alchemist is hidden away. They added a “DIY” (Korg NTS-1 complexity, no soldering) option for 199 Euros but it’s only available as an add-on. You can buy the t-shirt and then chose the DIY add-on. Since most people consider this products pricey, I think hiding the cheapest option like this was a bad idea

Regarding the pricing:

• If you have a look at guitar effect PSUs you’ll pay around 200-300 for a good one as well. But they deliver way less power, aren’t that flexible in voltages and are produced in bigger batches.
• Speaking of batches, this one is tiny compared to consumer products. Hundreds against millions.
• And as said before, consumer hubs aren’t isolated (and therefore less complex and cheaper to produce) and will cause a lot problems unless you only power things which are supposed to be powered by USB (or not even then, I look at you 1010music…) or multi PSUs.

[jemmons]

If you have a bunch of synths that are all USB power, having a USB power brick with isolated outputs is a real good thing.

But if you plan to use it with standard barrel power via “step up” connectors and stuff, just get any of the innumerable isolated power supplies offered for pedal boards? Most from the usual suspects like ciocks, truetone, eventide, mxc have models with a number of 9v–24v outs, enough amps to do daisy chaining, and one or two USB outs as well. All in the $200–$300 range. Even Fender’s offering is really solid.

Using USB as the core building block for power distribution just seems unnecessarily complicated and expensive. But maybe I’m missing a trick?

[Scyphozoa]

Way out of my budget, but it seems like something that could have helped me recently with the issues I’ve had using a TC Helicon Blender.

Then again, I think it is only providing power, and does not work with data?

@slicetwo

How is this different than just a PD multi-port power jam like this ? I use a similar one and it works great and doesn’t cost $200.

It provides isolated, clean power.

The Silent Alchemist is an isolated USB Power hub, this Before and After looks at noise removal.

[klaustrophil]

@jemmons

But if you plan to use it with standard barrel power via “step up” connectors and stuff, just get any of the innumerable isolated power supplies offered for pedal boards?

Have a look at how much current they deliver. The most potent ones you can get ( Eventide PowerMAX V2) deliver ~660mA at 9V or ~500 at 12v. That’s not much. An Elektron Digi machine needs ~1000mA (according to the official specs in the manual). Most of our beloved gear will need more. Even the Eventide H90 effect is not guaranteed to work flawlessly on their own multi PSU

@jemmons

and one or two USB outs as well

None of the ones I saw had isolation for the USB ports.

@jemmons

Using USB as the core building block for power distribution just seems unnecessarily complicated and expensive. But maybe I’m missing a trick?

USB Power Delivery is a standard which coincidentally fits well for this purpose. It can be used to supply 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V and 20V. With the MyVolts converters there’s also 3V, 6V, 7,5V, 18V and 19V possible. All with way more power than effect multi PSUs can provide.

[slicetwo]

Nice info from everyone. I’ve only ever had usb power issues and noise with my Micromonsta2 if it’s sharing usb power with other gear. Otherwise, I’ve never seemingly needed isolated outputs.

[highstandards]

@klaustrophil

Unfortunately the cheapest option for the Silent Alchemist is hidden away. They added a “DIY” (Korg NTS-1 complexity, no soldering) option for 199 Euros but it’s only available as an add-on

It’s a slimmed-down version with only 3 ports and 100W of output. The real deal is 300€.

You have a point though regarding the power supplies for pedals. for 200€ you may have the number of ports, a sturdy case and all the cable that you need, but not much power. OK for pedals, but usually not good enough for synths.

Good tip about buying a t-shirt to get access to the device itself. It’s a bit weird to have to proceed this way, but then when you combine it with a CIOKS 8 (via the expansion port) and purchase all the necessary cables separately, you end up with a compact and powerful setup. The price may be worth it if gigging all the time or wanting less mess on the table :).

I’m still not sure that isolated USB ports are that rare in quality USB hubs, but I’ve not done enough sampling

[jemmons]

There’s nothing magic about USB over copper when it comes to amps and volts. I’m just looking at their video, and they’re powering two pedals, a volca, a bastl, and an NTS. Any pedal board power could handle that.

When I go to their website and ask how to power my Elektrons, this is what I get:

So I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like one of these is going to magically power a rig any other non-usb isolated power block doesn’t? There’s probably some range of big devices the Alchemist can handle that pedal power won’t. But most seem beyond the capabilities of either. So the premium price of doing it via USB with USB cables and USB connectors and USB -> barrel converters on the end of everything might not be worth it.

[klaustrophil]

@highstandards

It’s a slimmed-down version with only 3 ports and 100W of output. The real deal is 300€.

Sorry, I forgot info about the amount of isolated ports in the post above… but that’s not 100% correct. There are only 3 isolated from the other 5. This means you can have 4 ports in isolation. In total there are still 8 ports.

@highstandards

It’s a bit weird to have to proceed this way

I know right?

@highstandards

I’m still not sure that isolated USB ports are that rare in quality USB hubs, but I’ve not done enough sampling

From my experience it’s almost non-existent. There are a few “industrial” options but they deliver only little current and have no PD. I’d love to be proven wrong tho!

[Scyphozoa]

Looks like they have the amperage wrong by a factor of ten.
Elektron boxes are around 7-15W at most.

EDIT:

• Syntakt: Unit power consumption: 12 W typical
• Analog Rytm MKII: Unit power consumption: 14 W typical, 20 W
  maximum.
• Analog Four MKII: Unit power consumption: 15 W typical, 20 W
  maximum.

Digital boxes draw less.

• Digitakt II: Unit power consumption: 7 W typical

[Lizard-of-Oz]

@jemmons

If you have a bunch of synths that are all USB power, having a USB power brick with isolated outputs is a real good thing.

Unless you plan to actually use USB with your synths, of course.

@Scyphozoa

Then again, I think it is only providing power, and does not work with data?

Yes, that is my impression, too.

@klaustrophil

An Elektron Digi machine needs 2000mA.

Not really, you can power a DT1 or DN up reliably with under 1000mA, the Syntakt takes more

@highstandards

I’m still not sure that isolated USB ports are that rare in quality USB hubs, but I’ve not done enough sampling

I haven’t had any problems with my USB hubs and multi-port PSUs that I use to power and connect all my devices, everything that has an USB-port is connected in my setup. However, should I eventually find a device that causes problems, I would first try one of these USB-to-USB isolators that start at $13. There’s nothing magic about that technology either.

@klaustrophil

Sorry, I forgot info about the amount of isolated ports in the post above… but that’s not 100% correct. There are only 3 isolated from the other 4. This means you can have 4 ports in isolation. In total there are still 7 ports.

But for $300 I easily get two PSUs with a total of 12 ports plus 4 USB-to-USB isolators. But I get that the main point of this is that it is neat and tidy, and you can power a mobile rig from your car, solar panel or battery pack. If you don’t need that, it’s probably too expensive for most people.

I get that there are lots of neat options for connecting and daisy chaining devices·, but they cost extra and are all available independently anyway, so you can still use with all other PSUs or hubs.

@jemmons

When I go to their website and ask how to power my Elektrons, this is what I get:

Yes, I also mentioned that in my post above (right at the bottom). I already notified them about that, almost more than half of the Elektron boxes they have are wrong. If you want to send them a note, simply click the link for unlisted devices, you can enter loads of text into the text field, even though it just has one line

[klaustrophil]

@Lizard-of-Oz

Not really, you can power a DT1 or DN up reliably with under 1000mA, the Syntakt takes more

Sorry I had the wrong specs in my mind. Gonna correct that.

@Lizard-of-Oz

everything that has an USB-port is connected in my setup

But in many cases I suppose that USB is just for data which is less error prone than power supply.

@Lizard-of-Oz

However, should I eventually find a device that causes problems, I would first try one of these USB-to-USB isolators that start at $13. There’s nothing magic about that technology either.

Well… of course not but have a look at how much current these isolators let through. Spoiler: <500mA, some even just 100mA. The main use-case for this kinda isolators is to get rid of noise in the data connection between two devices with dedicated PSU.

[Lizard-of-Oz]

For fun I created a setup with all Elektron boxes they have, 8 of 20 are broken, you can see the red triangles that indicate those. OT 1 might be different because that is 6V, they might not have the 6V ripcord in the app.

I was curious, so I also tested their Behringer, Novation, Roland, Korg and Arturia stuff, there’s not a single device among those 50 or so that is broken in the same way. But there are some more errors, e.g. sometimes it doesn’t save, and some characters in the setup name appear to break saving or loading.

BTW, the code for getting 15% off until 30/6/24 is PMG24

@klaustrophil

But in many cases I suppose that USB is just for data which is less error prone than power supply.

Ah, I suppose that would make a difference. FWIW, I have 21 devices connected to USB, and 9 of those are USB-powered. But not all of those have audio, of course, some are just controllers.

@klaustrophil

Well… of course not but have a look at how much power these isolators let through. Spoiler: <500mA, some even just 100mA. The main use-case for this kinda isolators is to get rid of noise in the data connection between two devices with dedicated PSU.

Ah, good point. The ones with 500mA are quite expensive, $40+, and if you want 800mA it’s $70+. So for those who do need isolation, the Silent Alchemist is not that expensive, and way less messy on the table.

[Lizard-of-Oz]

One thing I just noticed when creating setups in the app: when you select the option to power the setup via Silent Alchemist(s) + DC, the recommend this simple 120W PSU

But as an addon in the Kickstarter, it costs $39.

They have 24V PSUs that look like that one in their web shop for $28.- - and there is no way to tell if this is the same one. $28 seems like a reasonable (but not exceptionally good) price for this, $40 doesn’t.

I must say really hate the myVolts website, because it’s so hard to see what PSUs they actually have available, the don’t tell you the size and polarity of the plugs, and how much power they can deliver.

Their business model appears to include cashing in on the inability of customers to figure out what they need, which is very much not my cup of tea.

[klaustrophil]

@Lizard-of-Oz

But as an addon in the Kickstarter, it costs $39.

They have 24V PSUs that look like that one in their web shop for $28.- - and there is no way to tell if this is the same one. $28 seems like a reasonable (but not exceptionally good) price for this, $40 doesn’t.

Even the MyVolts add-ons like Step Up and Ripcord are slightly more expensive on Kickstarter than on their website. My guess is that they somehow try to compensate the Kickstarter fee. But that’s only ~10% not 40% like with the 24v PSU.

@Lizard-of-Oz

Their business model appears to include cashing in on the inability of customers to figure out what they need, which is very much not my cup of tea.

For me it looks like that they try to compensate the actual costs of the Silent Alchemist with their other add-ons. In the end I decided to go with the smallest pledge possible and skip all the add-ons except for the Step Up.

I really wish that this campaign succeeds but the product management looks like a mess.