Cioks AC10

I had been looking for a pedalboard and a power supply for a while. My initial choice narrowed down to a Pedaltrain board (PT-3 w/ soft case), and Cioks AC10 for the PSU. I had never before used Cioks, but comparisons and reviews concluded that the product in question is of high quality, and it has enough juice for a great amount of pedals. I also had an AC pedal (older Blackstar HT-series) and the AC10 seemed like a fitting choise.

When I opened the packaging and took a first look into it, the AC10 was heavier yet smaller than I had expected. The build quality is top notch, and the sturdy construction gives me an impression that this was made for serious use.

I mounted it underneath my Pedaltrain board with blind rivets, with the help of instructions Cioks provides in their website. The procedure was fairly easy, and can be done even with low mechanical skills. The power supply functions flawlessly both with the few DC pedals I have and the AC pedal, and I don't see a reason to replace it anytime soon. I've been using this for just a couple of months now, so I cannot comment on long-term reliability or such.

It isn't cheap, for sure. But if you want a quality power supply, Cioks sure can make one.

I'm a pedal freak - but the downside of this is that pedals need power - volts and milliAmps! I got Moogerfoogers, Eventide Space, Frostwave Resonator (16vAC), EHX, Boss, Chase Bliss Audio, MXR to name but a few... They all need various voltages and milliamps - 16vAC was my biggest hurdle - but thanks to the Cioks AC10, these bad boys all get to come on stage with me with plenty of juice in their systems. It does take time to find the correct combination when powering so many diverse pedals, but "all good things"... It's a solid, reliable device and it comes with every kind of cable adaptor/plug you can ask for. I even got personal powering advice form Paul Cioks himself. Go Cioks!

This power brick is quite OK,... but it took several email sent
before I finally received a response from Cioks that they do
not want to offer me help.

Namely, I own several pedals, most of them are covered with
volrages produced by the AC 10 box itself, but I have this one
piece of equipment, peterson strobo flip tuner, that requires 5V
AC power on the input, which Copks AC10 does not produce
on the output. Aftere several emails they only suggested that
I should be using an electronic componene like 78L05 voltage
regulator in order to produce power step down cable,... anyway,
I went to a local electronics shop and they made it for me,... I
would only expect from Cioks guys that if someone spends cca
300 Eur on their product, they would show at least a bit more
enthusiasm and diligence in answering questions from clients.

But other than that, the device works fine and is stable,... it
does not introduce any hum into the signal chain,... so I would
still recommend this products (esp. if you have only pedals that
can be powered with 'native' voltages produced by AC 10.

I've owned several Cioks power supplies and they've always been great. 100% reliable, excellent specs for the money. It's really just a matter of finding the model that suits your needs and you can't go wrong.

Their manuals are rather confusing though. There must be a better way of describing the different settings/outputs and how the dip switches affect these. I get the feeling that my brain is squirming inside my head every time I pick up a Cioks manual.

Cioks have the best power supplies in the business but also the worst manuals (apart from certain Japanese synth manufacturers...).