Xotic Voltage Doubler - what a splendid widget

noisepolluter

Switchable between 15v and 18v - the 15v setting works with a lot of Xotic's own pedals including BB, AC, RC and variants. 

With my BBMB, besides making it louder and reducing the gain slightly, it's also given it more clarity and tightened up the response - you can really hear the clean under the drive. With a boost pedal in front of it there's noticeably more definition and headroom where previously it would just saturate and compress rather than get noticeably louder, so now it definitely cuts through better.

The effect on my Liquid Sunshine at 18v is even more pronounced - all of the above applies but it really emphasises the tweedy growl, and you really can leave the pedal on and work the dynamics and volume control.

Obviously the voltage doubler will be irrelevant for folks who already have isolated power supplies with switchable outputs, but for those of us on daisychains it's a reasonably affordable way of expanding the options of some OD pedals.

darcym

I got the limited edition Exotic EP booster that came with the doubler, makes this amazing pedal even better, which I didn't know could be possible

pmg

darcym said:

I got the limited edition Exotic EP booster that came with the doubler, makes this amazing pedal even better, which I didn't know could be possible

I second this 

shaunm

@darcym & @pmg dibs on the EP

darcym

shaunm said:

@darcym & @pmg dibs on the EP

I have 3 and will continue to own 3 - they are excellent. Sorry.

Winny_Pooh

I wonder how much of this is psycological. You can't switch the doubler to 9v and unless you do an AB it's hard to tell. More headroom reduces the effects of stacking also.

noisepolluter

Winny_Pooh said:

I wonder how much of this is psycological. You can't switch the doubler to 9v and unless you do an AB it's hard to tell. More headroom reduces the effects of stacking also.

If you've got a battery in the pedal you can pull the power lead out to drop back down to 9v - not an instant A/B but pretty quick. I must admit I've not recorded/blind tested but I think the difference especially with the Liquid Sunshine is not subtle

darcym

Winny_Pooh said:

I wonder how much of this is psycological. You can't switch the doubler to 9v and unless you do an AB it's hard to tell. More headroom reduces the effects of stacking also.

I have more than one and can and have A / B - I wouldn't say it's better, it gives you two options, the doubler for me works really well on the SRV type sounds where it's a pushed "loud" clean based sound, without the doubler I find works better to fatten and enrich your existing sound

crunchman

Some pedals work better at a higher voltage.  Others don't.  It's Fulltone rather than Xotic, but the OCD is really good at 18V.  Other Fulltone pedals I've had sound better at 9V though.

Diago also make a voltage doubler cable that you can use on a daisy chain.  Not sure how it compares in price though.

english_bob

crunchman said:

Some pedals work better at a higher voltage.  Others don't.  

Some pedals will blow up if you feed them much more than 9V.

It's well worth being absolutely sure that your pedal can handle 18V safely.

Danny1969

english_bob said:

crunchman said:

Some pedals work better at a higher voltage.  Others don't.  

Some pedals will blow up if you feed them much more than 9V.

It's well worth being absolutely sure that your pedal can handle 18V safely.

Yep that's good advice and even if you don't blow something up you might weaken the caps which will lead them to leak as they may only be 16V Electrolytic or (worse) Tantalum caps ... these never seem to need much of an excuse to fail at the best of time. 

crunchman

Danny1969 said:

english_bob said:

crunchman said:

Some pedals work better at a higher voltage.  Others don't.  

Some pedals will blow up if you feed them much more than 9V.

It's well worth being absolutely sure that your pedal can handle 18V safely.

Yep that's good advice and even if you don't blow something up you might weaken the caps which will lead them to leak as they may only be 16V Electrolytic or (worse) Tantalum caps ... these never seem to need much of an excuse to fail at the best of time. 

That should go without saying.  A lot of Xotic ones can.  This page lists the ones that can.

https://xotic.us/effects/voltage-doubler


Most Fulltone drive pedals can run at 18V as well.  I think that is normally shown on the pedal though:

english_bob

crunchman said:

That should go without saying.  A lot of Xotic ones can.  This page lists the ones that can.

https://xotic.us/effects/voltage-doubler

It probably should be said though. It's fairly common to see threads like this one where people talk about how great their pedals sound when they run them with 12V or 18V instead of 9V, so anyone in a moment of brain-fartery might assume that any 9VDC powered pedal can be improved by upping the voltage. Next thing you know, you've gone and let the black mojo smoke escape. 

I find it really odd that Xotic sell a voltage doubler when not all their pedals can tolerate 18V up them. People who've spent quite a lot of money on their gear are also just one brain fart away from a potentially expensive repair.