Modern vs Traditional Brands: Which Triple Output DC Power Supply is Right for Your Lab?

For decades, the triple output DC bench power supply market was dominated by a handful of established Western brands — Agilent (now Keysight), Sorensen, and Kepco. These were premium instruments built for the defense and aerospace industries, with price tags to match. Meanwhile, the broader engineering market was left choosing between expensive legacy options or low-quality imports with no programmability.

That era is over. A new generation of precision linear power supplies — exemplified by the eTM series — has closed the performance gap while dramatically reducing cost. The question is no longer "can we afford a good triple output supply?" but "which modern platform best fits our workflow?"

Head-to-Head: Modern vs Legacy Architecture

Where Traditional Brands Still Excel

• Ultra-premium noise performance: Legacy linear supplies from Keysight and Sorensen can achieve ripple & noise below 0.1 mVrms — surpassing the typical <1 mVrms of modern alternatives. This matters in high-frequency RF circuitry or quantum research.
• GPIB ecosystem: Existing automated test equipment (ATE) racks built around GPIB still work flawlessly with legacy units. No adapter, no configuration — just plug in and run the existing test scripts.
• Certified metrology-grade instruments: Some legacy supplies carry NIST-traceable calibration certificates, which may be required for military or medical device testing workflows.

Where the eTM Modern Series Wins

• Modern connectivity without adapters: USB is standard on every PC and workstation today. The eTM series connects directly via USB and is recognized as a standard instrument — no GPIB-to-USB converter needed, saving hundreds of dollars and eliminating a compatibility layer.
• Internal auto-tracking: Traditional brands require you to manually jumper external binding posts to create series or parallel configurations. The eTM series handles this internally via a front-panel mode switch, drastically reducing wiring errors and setup time.
• Programmable OVP/OCP per channel: Each channel's over-voltage and over-current limit can be set precisely via SCPI command. This is critical for protecting sensitive DUTs during automated testing — a feature rarely available on older analog-only instruments.
• 0.1 mA current resolution: With modern IoT devices consuming microamps to milliamps, the 0.1 mA readback resolution of the eTM series is genuinely useful for power profiling — compared to 1 mA on most legacy instruments.
• Price: For most R&D labs, universities, and production lines, the eTM series delivers 95% of the functionality of a legacy instrument at 20–30% of the price. The budget difference can fund another instrument entirely.

Which Should You Choose?

The Verdict

For the vast majority of electronics R&D labs, university bench setups, mixed-signal engineers, and production test floors, the eTM series offers superior value. It closes the functionality gap with legacy instruments in every area that matters for modern design work — programmability, precision, protection, and connectivity — while costing a fraction of the price.

Traditional brands remain the choice for ultra-high-precision scientific or aerospace applications. But for everyone else, the modern programmable triple output supply has arrived.