Hi there,
Sorry to post something that has already been discussed a ton, but I have read about 40+ pages on one thread and a few other shorter ones and saved about every wiring diagram I've come across and it's just way over my head. I think I had a better idea of what to do before I started poking around getting myself confused... I'm a total newbie to this stuff, so I'm hoping I can get some simplified answers.
I am waiting on two TA2024 amps that I ordered from Sure Electronics. My plan is to use two amps to power two pairs of 8 Ohm speakers. While I'd eventually like to learn how to mod them and do all sorts of cool stuff like you guys do, my current concerns are more basic just to get things up and running.
1) I want to add volume control pots to this setup. Would I be better off using one pot to control both amps, or using one pot for each amp? Does one method cause significant signal loss or distortion compared to the other? In either case, what type of pot(s) should I use and what is the ideal way to wire it? I've seen a couple illustrations and I still don't get it 100%. Do I have to remove C3 and C24 in order to wire in pots? I couldn't tell if this was just always mentioned at the same time or if it is required for the volume control installation.
2) I would like to run status LEDs to the outside of my box. I've seen a couple different suggestions of how to do this, but can't tell what the best way is. Is there any significant disadvantage to having the LED at all?
3) To wire in an on/off switch, do I just do so in line on the power supply, or is there somewhere on the board to do so? Can I just use the "Sleep" function as an on/off switch, or does it not work that way? If so, do I just wire in a switch between the Sleep post and the ground?
4) On the note of power supplies, I see two places on the board marked for DC-In. (Three if you count the one for using the charger tip thing) Do I have to run in power for each channel, or are the connectors next to the sleep/mute pins used for something else?
5) I've looked pretty hard, but I can't seem to find how much power these things actually consume. I'm building this to be fully battery powered and I'd like to know what my power consumption is going at to be at full power so I can put together the proper battery setup. Also, it seems pretty acceptable to push the voltage up a bit, so I was thinking of using 13.2V or 14.4V packs. Are any modifications required for higher voltages?
Thanks alot for checking this out and offering your help. I'm assuming that these are all probably pretty silly questions, but I'm trying to learn.
Sorry to post something that has already been discussed a ton, but I have read about 40+ pages on one thread and a few other shorter ones and saved about every wiring diagram I've come across and it's just way over my head. I think I had a better idea of what to do before I started poking around getting myself confused... I'm a total newbie to this stuff, so I'm hoping I can get some simplified answers.
I am waiting on two TA2024 amps that I ordered from Sure Electronics. My plan is to use two amps to power two pairs of 8 Ohm speakers. While I'd eventually like to learn how to mod them and do all sorts of cool stuff like you guys do, my current concerns are more basic just to get things up and running.
1) I want to add volume control pots to this setup. Would I be better off using one pot to control both amps, or using one pot for each amp? Does one method cause significant signal loss or distortion compared to the other? In either case, what type of pot(s) should I use and what is the ideal way to wire it? I've seen a couple illustrations and I still don't get it 100%. Do I have to remove C3 and C24 in order to wire in pots? I couldn't tell if this was just always mentioned at the same time or if it is required for the volume control installation.
2) I would like to run status LEDs to the outside of my box. I've seen a couple different suggestions of how to do this, but can't tell what the best way is. Is there any significant disadvantage to having the LED at all?
3) To wire in an on/off switch, do I just do so in line on the power supply, or is there somewhere on the board to do so? Can I just use the "Sleep" function as an on/off switch, or does it not work that way? If so, do I just wire in a switch between the Sleep post and the ground?
4) On the note of power supplies, I see two places on the board marked for DC-In. (Three if you count the one for using the charger tip thing) Do I have to run in power for each channel, or are the connectors next to the sleep/mute pins used for something else?
5) I've looked pretty hard, but I can't seem to find how much power these things actually consume. I'm building this to be fully battery powered and I'd like to know what my power consumption is going at to be at full power so I can put together the proper battery setup. Also, it seems pretty acceptable to push the voltage up a bit, so I was thinking of using 13.2V or 14.4V packs. Are any modifications required for higher voltages?
Thanks alot for checking this out and offering your help. I'm assuming that these are all probably pretty silly questions, but I'm trying to learn.
OK, I'm going to deal with these in reverse order:
5. The power output is a maximum of 15W. If you take the power in as 14V then if the amp was 100% efficient then the current would be just over 1 amp. The amplifier is not 100% efficient, if we say 80% then the current is unlikely to exceed 1.25A. Don't attempt to run @ > 14V, it may tolerate it, but you won't hear much (any) difference between 13 and 14 volts, so stick to 13.2 and you're not taking any risks. No there are no mods required.
4 All the power inlets are connected in parallel, they are functionally identical, you only need to connect to 1 of them.
3 Put the power switch in the power lead, then you are not going to run any quiescent current, and the question about sleep mode becomes irrelevant.
2 There's no significant disadvantage to running a power LED, other than the power it consumes, which is miniscule. Wire it between the positive on the amplifier side of the power switch and ground, use a 1k4 series resistor, this will give you ~10mA of current, which is about a half of what a typical LED will tolerate.
1 If I was wiring this I'd use 2 dual-gang pots, say 10k, log or audio taper. In parallel, this will not load the source too much. This will give you independent control of the 2 amps. You can't get a 4-gang pot anyway. Wire each pot across the 2 wires from the signal source, 1 from each dual-gang across the Left and 1 across the Right. Check if one of both the outputs is wired to ground, you can do this with a DMM set to continuity, if you can find continuity between 2 of the outputs, these will be connected to ground. You are going to wire the wiper (centre) connection on the pots to the amplifier inputs, so wire the ground connections to the pins which are closest to the end of the travel of the wiper when the pot is correctly oriented and the wiper turned fully anticlockwise. You can tell which this is as the wiper to connector resistance should be very low or zero. You must make the other connection from the earthy side of the signal on the pots to the amp input marked GND. You could get away with a single dual-gang pot, in this case you wire the e.g. the Left wiper to both the connections marked CH1 on each amp and the Right wiper to those marked CH2 (i.e. in parallel)
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5. The power output is a maximum of 15W. If you take the power in as 14V then if the amp was 100% efficient then the current would be just over 1 amp. The amplifier is not 100% efficient, if we say 80% then the current is unlikely to exceed 1.25A. Don't attempt to run @ > 14V, it may tolerate it, but you won't hear much (any) difference between 13 and 14 volts, so stick to 13.2 and you're not taking any risks. No there are no mods required.
4 All the power inlets are connected in parallel, they are functionally identical, you only need to connect to 1 of them.
3 Put the power switch in the power lead, then you are not going to run any quiescent current, and the question about sleep mode becomes irrelevant.
2 There's no significant disadvantage to running a power LED, other than the power it consumes, which is miniscule. Wire it between the positive on the amplifier side of the power switch and ground, use a 1k4 series resistor, this will give you ~10mA of current, which is about a half of what a typical LED will tolerate.
1 If I was wiring this I'd use 2 dual-gang pots, say 10k, log or audio taper. In parallel, this will not load the source too much. This will give you independent control of the 2 amps. You can't get a 4-gang pot anyway. Wire each pot across the 2 wires from the signal source, 1 from each dual-gang across the Left and 1 across the Right. Check if one of both the outputs is wired to ground, you can do this with a DMM set to continuity, if you can find continuity between 2 of the outputs, these will be connected to ground. You are going to wire the wiper (centre) connection on the pots to the amplifier inputs, so wire the ground connections to the pins which are closest to the end of the travel of the wiper when the pot is correctly oriented and the wiper turned fully anticlockwise. You can tell which this is as the wiper to connector resistance should be very low or zero. You must make the other connection from the earthy side of the signal on the pots to the amp input marked GND. You could get away with a single dual-gang pot, in this case you wire the e.g. the Left wiper to both the connections marked CH1 on each amp and the Right wiper to those marked CH2 (i.e. in parallel)
w
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