Battery powered t amps

[Gazjam]

always worth trying.
Know how much you hate making up leads...

[brian2957]

Correct amigo

[Audio Advent]

Aye we'll see mate . Only problem is there's a bit of work involved in making up leads etc .

Not if you cut existing ones off broken or unused wall warts from old routers etc.. make sure the plug is correct and snip as close to the wallwart as need be (unless you want fancy cabling). Can't imagine cables will effect DC voltage that much.

[walpurgis]

Charity shops and boot sales are a great source for wall warts. I keep them intact unless I need the lead. You never know what you might need one for.

[Firebottle]

Three left.

PM incoming

[dave2010]

Interesting to see the continuing discussion of batteries round here. I very recently tried one thing - which was a failure - but not with an amplifier. Our LIDL recently had some 5200mah power packs on offer - around £10 - so I wondered what could be done with those - and indeed if there's any point in having one of them.

I now have one, and have been testing it out, and it does have potential uses - most of them fairly mundane. It is capable of charging up various devices, such as iPod Touch, iPod Classic, and some recent smartphones - such as Sony and Nokia models. There are some devices which it doesn't seem to like - such as some Bluetooth headphones and a Sony Smartwatch2. It will charge up some MiFi units, and will also power a USB LED light, which is potentially useful for reading some of our utility meters.

Looking at the spec it seems that although it delivers an output of 5V that internally it's got a 3.7V Lithium Ion battery, so it most likely has to use some form of DC/DC inverter - probably with many of the same issues that switch mode PSUs have for mains units - and could cause interference. Out of curiosity I tried driving a FiiO D3 DAC with it, and initially it sounded impressive, but with less than a minute an absolute show stopper of a problem emerges - it drops out about every 15-20 seconds, so is not at all suitable.

I have seen mention in this forum of some Anker units which are apparently capable of driving some Beresford kit - they are more expensive - and I wonder if they are simply batteries, or whether they also have switch mode inverters internally.

I do have one of the Maplin trickle charge PV units - but I've not tried it with any battery for audio purposes.

So to summarise - don't bother with the LIDL power banks for audio purposes, but they can be quite useful for other things. I am still interested in the longer term in trying out battery powered systems.

[wee tee cee]

Dave,
If you can try a lead acid battery-a big car battery is best but a bike battery will suffice. They are tried and tested and are dead easy to maintain and charge. I run my whole system off one DAC/ACTIVE PRE/4 X TEMPLE MONO BLOCKS. You get really noticeable improvements lowering the noise floor.

[wee tee cee]

Thread resuscitation for anyone looking to go off grid with 12v stuff.

I just took my Innous zen mk2 off grid encouraged by Stan....noticeable improvement over the supplied switching supply.

Stans new Dorado will be taking up duties shortly...its not designed for this application but im keen to give it a go.

missed the postie today so will hopefully get it plumbed in tomorrow....fingers crossed it works and works well!!

[Alp]

Like you I run my Temple Audio mono blocks (x4) but using LiFePO4 batteries. I already have Stan's Dorado PSU which is very good and am looking forward to further improvements once I have had the SEG modded for 15V.

From what I understand the Dorado is for low current duties only (i.e. e.g. DACs, pre-amps etc.). It would be great to have something like it for the RPI3 (5V) and the Monoblocks (I run mine at 12V) and Stan has hinted he looking at higher current versions. Let us know how you get on...

[wee tee cee]

will do Alistair......