Strymon Power Supplies - Zuma

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Bxlxaxkxe

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Anyone ever had issues? Been using various strymon power supplies for years with no issues. Had a Zuma die on me in the middle of rehearsal yesterday. Wondering if I should try something else as a replacement or just grab another?

Super frustrating as my pedalboard was unuseable …..but also kind of liberating just running a single battery powered Koko boost for the majority of practice. Had to create some manual delay sounds for certain parts
 
I've got a Zuma + 2 Ojai's with no issues for like ~4+ years, but I'm a bedroom player.

Don't remember the details but Dave Friedman has alluded to some wonkiness with the Strymon power supplies on the Tone Talk podcast, might be able to email him for more details (or a reco for a new one).
 
I’ve had my Zuma for ~6 years. Never had any technical issues, but barely have used it the last few years lol. The reason being I found it made my tone a lot more sterile sounding than my run of the mill other power supplies. I find all the Strymon pedals I’ve played have an inherent sterile quality to their sound. Really didn’t like them
 
braintheory said:
I’ve had my Zuma for ~6 years. Never had any technical issues, but barely have used it the last few years lol. The reason being I found it made my tone a lot more sterile sounding than my run of the mill other power supplies. I find all the Strymon pedals I’ve played have an inherent sterile quality to their sound. Really didn’t like them
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I agree 100%. Love the functionality of most of their pedals, but they just kill the rawness of the tone. Sterile is the perfect word
 
EyesOfTheSouth! said:
I agree 100%. Love the functionality of most of their pedals, but they just kill the rawness of the tone. Sterile is the perfect word
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Yep very clinical/sterile sound. I had a similar problem with Empress pedals. Honestly I find most recent made pedals to hurt my core tone to various degrees, but this particular effect of the Strymons and Empress pedals was more pronounced to me
 
I have a Strymon Ojai. It can be finicky at times keeping a consistent electrical connection on some of its outlets. Like something inside has a poor connection. Super annoying at times. It's never been gigged or roughed up either. If I was gigging again, I would not use it.
 
braintheory said:
I’ve had my Zuma for ~6 years. Never had any technical issues, but barely have used it the last few years lol. The reason being I found it made my tone a lot more sterile sounding than my run of the mill other power supplies. I find all the Strymon pedals I’ve played have an inherent sterile quality to their sound. Really didn’t like them
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Funny you say that. When I first got my Ojai, I was hearing something similar. I ended up getting a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2, and the Ojai did make drive pedals sound more harsh in comparison. It sent me down a rabbit hole of researching online hahaha, but apparently I wasn't the only person who experienced that. I've heard the difference is a "digital switching transformer (Ojai) vs toroidal transformer (Voodoo)" thing. I really want a Cioks DC7 because of the features and form factor, but it's digital switching too which has me hesitant. Maybe the "quality" of the digital switching plays a factor too? Total first world problems haha, but my run of the mill Voodoo does sound better than the digital switching Ojai.
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
Pretty certain that’s what it is. Was able to jiggle the iec cable just right and it turned on for a bit before turning off forever
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Thing is mine will only cut out on certain of its outlets and not on others, so the whole thing never completely loses power. I have no idea how that thing is wired inside, so maybe it still is that connector somehow. I just know I have to wiggle the connector where it plugins into the Ojai and then it's good again.
 
fearhk213 said:
Funny you say that. When I first got my Ojai, I was hearing something similar. I ended up getting a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2, and the Ojai did make drive pedals sound more harsh in comparison. It sent me down a rabbit hole of researching online hahaha, but apparently I wasn't the only person who experienced that. I've heard the difference is a "digital switching transformer (Ojai) vs toroidal transformer (Voodoo)" thing. I really want a Cioks DC7 because of the features and form factor, but it's digital switching too which has me hesitant. Maybe the "quality" of the digital switching plays a factor too? Total first world problems haha, but my run of the mill Voodoo does sound better than the digital switching Ojai.
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I could have sworn I detected better sound quality on my pedals with the Cioks SOL compared to the now sold off Strymon Zuma. I only sold the Zuma because I got rid of most of my pedals so the better tone was a bonus. I should probably quantify "better" in this case as being more vibrant and "unmasked", as if the Zuma introduced very subtle HP and LP filters (oh no, not that word again lol) to the tone.
 
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fearhk213 said:
Funny you say that. When I first got my Ojai, I was hearing something similar. I ended up getting a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2, and the Ojai did make drive pedals sound more harsh in comparison. It sent me down a rabbit hole of researching online hahaha, but apparently I wasn't the only person who experienced that. I've heard the difference is a "digital switching transformer (Ojai) vs toroidal transformer (Voodoo)" thing. I really want a Cioks DC7 because of the features and form factor, but it's digital switching too which has me hesitant. Maybe the "quality" of the digital switching plays a factor too? Total first world problems haha, but my run of the mill Voodoo does sound better than the digital switching Ojai.
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I think that’s it. There is a digital sound and didn’t know it lol
 
I had an Ojai for 90 days and the power cable-power supply receptacle didn't want to stay connected rendering it unusable. I had barely ever moved it because it was just for a home pedal steel arrangement I had set up for fun during covid nonsense. Surprise surprise the unit itself is USA made but the little black power supply is gutbucket m.i/.c junk. Also, the barrel connectors are a future fail point. They are plastic junk IMO. Wouldn't buy a Strymon power supply ever again.
 
My Zuma and Ojai have been tanking through, but I haven't been gigging out with it, just moving it around a lot inside, including dragging it across the floor for long periods. Honestly, the quietest my rig has ever been, and I have used a couple other isolated supplies including the True Tone CS-7.

If I ever have issues I will report back in detail and will also switch to another brand because...why not? Zero brand loyalty here, people just seem to have good experiences with them overall so I grabbed a Zuma and then the Ojai to check out and have been satisfied so far (1.5 year on Zuma and 1+yr Ojai)
 
The Cioks appear to be the best of the best. I’m using 1Spot Pro supplies (a 12 and a 7) and they’ve been great. I tend to leave my stuff on, sometimes a week or more at a time.
 
I've had a Strymon Zuma for a while and it's never given me any issues, but it doesn't move. It sits in one spot in my studio and powers a bunch of pedals. Never been on a pedal board I've taken anywhere.

If I was getting another, I'd probably get a Cioks just because their reputation is so good.
 
I’ve had Strymon power supplies for years and never had an issue, although I don’t really move my pedalboard around much.

I thought I read years ago when I was shopping for new PS’s that the Zuma’s are just rebranded Cioks or maybe made by Cioks? Something like that
 
Just get CIOKS.


Problem solved ^_^



This or a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3
 
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