Type of battery for chip amp

[percy]

Does one type of battery (Lead-Acid, NiCd, NiMH, Alkaline, Dry,...) has better(lower) impedance than others ?

Which type of battery would be most suitable for using with a chip-amp, in terms of the same reasons why people prefer to use a battery versus a traditional power supply.

[Leolabs]

Lead-acid.

[Narcisse91]

I second that... Lead acid

[sivan_and]

Maintanance free LA..other types costly(v/s AH)

[percy]

Why ?

I am not interested in the practical reasons like cost, ah, voltage, size, maintenance, etc.. or mass mentality(just because everybody's using it). I want to know if there has really been any findings if one type of battery is better suited than others.

[peranders]

Originally posted by percy
Does one type of battery (Lead-Acid, NiCd, NiMH, Alkaline, Dry,...) has better(lower) impedance than others ?

Which type of battery would be most suitable for using with a chip-amp, in terms of the same reasons why people prefer to use a battery versus a traditional power supply.

Remember that batteries generates some noise and you have also to decouple them. Personally I think batteries only adds work in charging and they last 8-10 years or 1000 recharges (3 years is you charge them every day) if you treat them OK. I think noone can answer you which types they think are the best but big NiMH is expensive Maintancefree Lead-Acid would I choose.

[Narcisse91]

Originally posted by percy
Why ?

I am not interested in the practical reasons like cost, ah, voltage, size, maintenance, etc.. or mass mentality(just because everybody's using it). I want to know if there has really been any findings if one type of battery is better suited than others.

Well, ignoring cost, there are a few good reasons. NiMH are not good at delivering large current spikes. They'll supply their rated power just fine, but if you have something that occasionally requires large amounts of current on demand, they won't perform as well as other options (fixable with a bank of caps, I guess) . They also overheat easily, so don't plan to drain them and recharge them constantly without consequences.

NiCds can deliver large current spikes better, but typically overall capacity is lower. Cost being no object, I guess you could probably fix that, but they are also more picky about how you charge them. They perform best when fully discharged and then recharged. A work around is to just leave the amp on when you're not using it, so it completely discharges, and then recharges and is ready to go. Seems like a pain to me.

Lead Acid batteries are easy to find for low cost, high capacity, high instantaneous discharge and easily implemented off-the-shelf chargers.

I've never really used any other chemistries (except lithium, but they don't really have the ratings for this type of stuff), so I can't comment on them, but lead acid batteries are the best for all the practicality reasons you're ignoring, and ultimately, will give you the best performance with the smallest amount of additional work.

If you want to spend the money and put the work into it, I think you could eventually get the same results with any battery.

[carlosfm]

Originally posted by Narcisse91
Well, ignoring cost, there are a few good reasons. NiMH are not good at delivering large current spikes.

That problem is much more typical of the alkaline batteries.
I wouldn't say that's typical of NiMH batteries.
Just ask someone with photography experience how many seconds a dedicated flash takes to recharge with a brand new set of alkalines, or with NiCD or NiMH.
On my Canon flash it takes 3~4 seconds with alkalines, much less than a second with NiCd or NiMH.
It's fun to shoot 4 pics in one second, always with flash. People stare at you.
Courtesy Canon T90.

[peranders]

Originally posted by Narcisse91
Well, ignoring cost, there are a few good reasons. NiMH are not good at delivering large current spikes.

Can't see it to be a problem. How much current is possible for a Gainclone and a normal loudspeaker? I'll guess the battery will have 10-20 Ah at least so 5-10 A peak will be "jordnötter".

[Narcisse91]

carlosfm,

Alkalines may be worse, but NiMHs are worse than NiCds. That was my point. I wasn't trying to say they were the worst option in that regard out of everything. Honestly, I've never played with Alkaline rechargables...


peranders,

Generally speaking, the Ah rating has nothing to do with how much current a battery can deliver quickly, in a current spike condition. The higher Ah ratings can be indicative of what the peak current available for a short period of time may be, but there are other characteristics of the battery that will have a huge impact on how quickly current can be pulled out of the battery.