Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior

I have used this for 5-7 years. Never had any problems, never buzzing, never hissing. The size is quite nice.

The build-quality is really good. The power-chord does not feel cheap. The metal-casing makes it really durable and strong. Nice rubber-feet at the bottom. Enough wires included: 5 x 60 cm / 5x 30 cm / 1 x Y / 1x daisy chain. Really sturdy and a quality product.

If you want this product with the same quality, reliability and features, but a different brand: it is not possible under 80-90 euro. (Don't buy Mooer or palmer... )

The only downside is the Power input cable that is not detachable. If for some reason the cable breaks, then its not replaceable during a gig. Also, the cable lenght is fixed.. The same applies for the Powerplants that have the 12v wall adapters.

If you want 100% reliablity, buy the AC versions of the Powerplant, those have the "C14" detachable cables.

- it's a compact, rugged unit for compact setups
- works well & reliably
- good bang for the buck.
- not noisy (but see below)

I wanted to add my experience regarding noise issues that others have commented on. A few weeks ago I noticed a 50 or 100Hz hum coming out of my board. I isolated it to one pedal - a digital delay. So I disconnected the supply and powered the pedal from an external 9v monoblock battery.

Did the noise go away? heck no! The pedal went crazy booting on and off and giving out truly awful and loud digital sounds. So one might assume that the pedal was broken (some reviews of the pedal that I read afterwards indicated similar problems). The battery was putting out 9.03 volts unloaded. Not sure what it was when the pedal loaded it (assumed pedal consumption is 200 mA). However I changed the battery for a fresh one (9.3 volts?), and hey presto - all working fine again; no noises and no hum. So the pedal's not broken but it does seem to be very sensitive to supply voltage.

So I repower the pedal from the Power Plant Junior - there's that hum again. Now I change the output port that I'm using on the supply. There's one port where there's no hum, for 10 seconds. Repeatedly. So not all the outputs are created equal? And then I find one where there is no hum at all. Ever. Bingo - the pedal's not broken and nor is the supply. By the way all other pedals that I'm powering from the supply exhibit NO noise problems at all, hum or otherwise.

- So what are the take aways from all this?
I think that before accusing the Power Plant Junior of being noisy do some checks with port swapping. It may just be the combination of one output port and a voltage sensitive pedal (that also draws a fair bit of current) that is the problem. It may be that I have suffered from some degradation of the supply, or my delay pedal, with time but it also may not be.

So there we have it. Still a fine supply. If I need more ports in the future I'll go with the Gator 8. But until then count me happy.

Difficult to be picky for something that cheap but here are some important points (at least for me)
The product is sold in a nice pro-like packaging and feels sturdy. You may not think of it as important but at least it doesn't look nor feel cheap. You will not be ashamed to offer it and you will not be look at like a cheap-ass when installing it on your pedal board.
It does the job but has limitations. I run a multi instrumental pedal board (guitar/bass) including two Zoom multi-effects. Well don't try to use the parallel cable to jack them into a single power slot cos you won't get enough juice to power them both. So basic line, 1 pedal per slot? I guess some should work but better assume that you got no more than 5 slots available.

This little power supply features five 9v outputs for effect pedals, which is about enough for home practice if you, like me, get your tone mostly from the amplifier. This leaves enough room for something like a tuner, a boost or tubescreamer and 3 modulation pedals. The outputs are isolated so there's very little (if any) electrical interference.
The unit is very compact but satisfyingly heavy for its size and seems very well built. It also doesn't get too hot, even after a couple hours of use.
I would definitely recommend this power supply for rehearsing and playing at home, or even performing live if you use no more than 5 pedals (like many metal guitarists do!). I think this is possibly the *only* reliable, isolated power supply at this price range.

Edit: Just wanted to add this unit is more versatile than one might think. Using the daisychain connector it can power up to 5 pedals from a single output if together they don't exceed 120 mA, which happens to be just enough for a tuner, wah, tubescreamer, big muff and analog delay. Digital pedals use more power and are on separate outputs. I'm powering 7 pedals and still have a couple outputs available. Again, great little isolated PSU for a small home/practice setup.

While this is a perfectly good power supply, you're definitely going to be better off buying the non-junior version. It just has more possibilities than this one.
If, however, you're fine with, say, 3 pedals and one that requires a bit more juice, this is a very good price/quality deal.

PROS:
- Excellent power stability
- Sturdy power cable
- Lots of included cables
- Solid build quality
CONS:
- Power cable's a bit short
- Only five ports, and all of them at 120 mA

All in all though, if you don't plan on having a huge pedalboard this supply will do the job just fine.