XPS with DC?

[bbhulsey]

Hello, I have an old Variax 700 acoustic with the XPS A/B box. I know that some Line6 gear such as the M9 (which comes with the same AC power supply as the XPS) can be used with AC or DC power sources. Can the XPS also be powered with DC? Thanks!

-Bruce

[codamedia]

That's a great question... I've been wanting to ask this myself, as I don't want to be the one to sacrifice a XPS and/or Variax in a test run :) 

[jerseyboy]

Being EV and battery tech junkie I’ve gone to powering majority of my DC pedalboards using large custom lithium battery packs.  No more 60/50Hz ground loops or bothering with extension cords.  

 

Very helpful for “festival” gigs when setup time is limited between acts - drop the pedalboard, run to amp and/or sound system, start picking.  Gotta enough battery capacity to run large pedalboard for days on end if desired.  

 

Unfortunately, XPS, POD XT Live and probably other products from that era use 9VAC transformer isolation.  My guess is somewhere inside they need to see 50/60 HZ for some sort of timing reference?  Could be wrong about that....

 

So, I tend to avoid the Line6 stuff because of this VAC power requirement.  I’ve gotta few other tube based pedals which need AC too.  Maybe I’ll look into and add a quality DC-AC inverter someday?  But for now I’m happy with the usual DC box pedals and Zoom products for modulation and other digital effects.  

 

All powered by bottomless battery pack….

 

[soundog]

I played around with using various power supplies at one time (including DC) while trying to cut back on the number of wall warts in my live rig. The Variax 700 power supplies (A/B or Mini) were very picky, so I ended up going with the stock AC supply with lotsa ma's.