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[Audio Adrenaline]

Im running a system with a computer built from a mini itx powerboard integrated graphics ryzen 5600 and a quality ax series corsair 850w power supply, and it does sound good (im connecting it to a nad dac and a set of Magnepan 2.7s) but ive read that linear power supplies are supposed to improve the sound quite a bit-has anyone experimented with this and have some insight to sound quality before and after changing the power supply. I only want to rip my computer apart again if its worth it as the glass mini tower case its in is painful to rebuild 

[Hendrik]

The only realistic impact it would have would be if you use a DAC inside your PC, as it might be influenced by interference from the power supply. But even then proper shielding in good power supplies and DACs will usually get rid of that.

Since you use an external DAC, presumably even with its own power supply, it should not matter a bit. Digital Audio transmitted to the DAC is not impacted by analog interference, unless you get actual signal loss, but that would be very bad and immediately noticeable.

[eve]

The only realistic impact it would have would be if you use a DAC inside your PC, as it might be influenced by interference from the power supply. But even then proper shielding in good power supplies and DACs will usually get rid of that.

Since you use an external DAC, presumably even with its own power supply, it should not matter a bit. Digital Audio transmitted to the DAC is not impacted by analog interference, unless you get actual signal loss, but that would be very bad and immediately noticeable.

Pretty much. You *really* don't need a linear PSU for a standard PC going to an external DAC. However, depending on the DAC you're using, Galvanic isolation may be of interest. I've used a Topping HS-1 which was fine, but the rolls royce of these is the Intona. I figured these were mostly for 'fixing' problems but in one of my conversations with RME (about higher channel count D/A setups) they told me that for measurements, they use them religiously.
You can also build a small, low power endpoint machine and power it with an affordable linear PSU OR batteries. There's a good chance this won't make a difference for you, but it can be an interesting experiment.

USB isn't an ideal standard for digital audio (no packet retransmission pretty much kills it) but it's really not bad unless something is very wrong or your system is extremely expensive / revealing. Audio over IP such as AES67/AES67Alike systems or AVB is the future.

[Manfred]

I say no. You have always to deal with the Power Design of the MB and I don't see any technical reason why a LPSU should help here. The problem discussed is mostly related to bad engineered USB receiving modules inside the DAC.

The USB port of my rme ADI-2 DAC FS is galvanic isolated and connected to an Asus MB with AMD Ryzen 7 5700G APU, Corsair Platinum SFX 450 (very low ripple noise!). I have played with different USB cables and also with an USB card with external 5V LPSU. No difference to the direct USB connection on the Asus MB using a simple USB cable!

The USB port of my Devialet has no galvanic isolation and can "sound" bad. In this scenario the USB card with external 5V LPSU fixes this to a certain degree. It's not better than the rme HDSPe AIO Pro pcie soundcard I also have, which makes use of ATX PSU connected via AES to my Devialet. AES has also galvanic isolation by design.

If I use the DAC of my rme HDSPe AIO Pro soundcard to get analog headphone output or connecting it to my active desktop speakers (analog XLR input) you here some noise at very low volume. The reason of that is the eGPU in my server which has some interference with the DAC of the rme pcie Card. I tested it also with the iGPU of my AMD based workstation and the interference was gone. A LPSU would also not help in this scenario.

Conclusion for me: No LPSU to replace an ATX PSU inside the PC.