anatech said:
Sez who?
You can get surplus/used solar arrays for a few hundred bucks each and have multiple kW at your disposal. The problem is still power storage, but even that's getting better. This being an audio-related board, I don't fret much about it here, though I have mentioned it at least once or twice. For that matter, I've mentioned a number of times that my listening room is in my basement, but not everyone reads every post by every other member. I find myself having to post that I have a quad-amped system at least once or twice a year so that things like the GR-25 (at a mere 25Wrms) come into focus for people who can't figure out what such a small amp is good for. In my case, it's for the tweeters, 6dB/oct HP @ 5kHz. DING! Suddenly it makes sense. But it gets repetitive from my point of view. It's just the nature of a site like this.
It also helps that I don't listen as loud as I used to. And if all else fails, there's always the small amp/efficient speaker option. Possibilities abound. It's just a matter of balancing what you want against available technology versus available funds. If someone feels that class AB will get them where they want to go, more power to them, but if I'm doing solid state I have to use class A to get anything remotely like the sound quality tubes can do while operating class AB. I have yet to hear a solid state piece of any sort that can keep pace with a class A tube amp, but I'm trending away from tube gear, given reliability and availability problems in current tubes. Bummer.
Flooding isn't a concern. My house is about 1/3 the way down a 75-100 foot (vertical measure, not slope) hillside. Water runs past my house, not into it. If water gets deep enough to flood my basement, we're well into a disaster scenario that makes flood insurance a moot point. It would fall into the "acts of god" clause and they wouldn't pay anyway.
And last, but not least...if anyone has 'bought' my designs on this site, the check must have been lost in the mail. It certainly never reached me. That's not to say that I wouldn't gratefully accept contributions if anyone feels so disposed...
Grey
Hi Grey,
Seriously though, it sounds like a good topic.
Yes. I confess. I'm an evil, power wasting energy hog some times.
-Chris
Why not go through this in the power supply forum. I think it's fair game and we have members here who may have experience here. Besides, there are people who are convinced that your power source in the wall has a sound.
Seriously though, it sounds like a good topic.
The power rating makes perfect sense, more so in a multi-amped system. Running a tweeter like you are would magnify any problems with distortion in the amplifier. My 'puter audio system is "only" 25 watts per channel, but it's a real 25 watts.
I'll agree with that statement, on average though. I'm lucky enough to have tube power amps I use also, and two solid state amplifiers that sound as good.
Yes. I confess. I'm an evil, power wasting energy hog some times.
I wasn't aware that you didn't market any products. Let's hope you do some time in the future. To set the record straight, I don't sell any either. I'm not sure I want to, but time will tell.
-Chris
MJL21193 said:
I won't bore you guys with the details, but the University of South Carolina, where I work, is getting creamed. I'm not sure where we stand at the moment, but our budget has been cut four times in seven months--well over twenty percent and more cuts coming. Our department is, in turn, taking a disproportionate percentage of the cuts (approaching half our budget), the rationale being that we are able to make up some of the shortfall by charging 'technology fees.' It gets complicated, so I'll stop there--it's just background.
So...the higher-ups staged this big assembly last fall to tell us how seriously they were taking the budget cuts, blah, blah, blah...anyone with suggestions should feel free to e-mail same to their departmental critter, etc. You can predict at least part of the yackety-blather. Okay, so in an attempt to contribute I knocked out three or four e-mails, each containing four or five suggestions. One of my top suggestions was to turn off the lights in this big room where no one works, even during the day, much less at night. According to some scratch calculations I did, the lights in that room alone cost a little over $9/day to run. For what? For nothing. They're on because they're always been on. No better reason.
You guessed it. No permission came back from these people who were claiming they were so concerned. I just took it on myself to turn the lights off. It shouldn't be a big deal, but the last guy who turned those lights off got his butt chewed out, big time.
I'm waiting for the same thing to happen to me. We shall see.
Grey
Hi Grey,
I hear you. I got fired from one job for letting them know how to save money. I had worked their for three years, then bang! Fired (laid off) just like that.
Often survival in the political world is to keep your mouth shut. That's a hostile environment for me.
Since I'm way OT here, I'm going to shut up now. Sorry John.
-Chris
I hear you. I got fired from one job for letting them know how to save money. I had worked their for three years, then bang! Fired (laid off) just like that.
Often survival in the political world is to keep your mouth shut. That's a hostile environment for me.
Since I'm way OT here, I'm going to shut up now. Sorry John.
-Chris
In principle, there is NOTHING WRONG with low power consumption power amps. However, when I am trying to make the very best power amp that I can, then power consumption is secondary. It should be obvious. For example, IF you wanted an exciting sports car, would you demand that it also gets 60mi/gal, or 25km/l? It would be pointless. However, quite a challenge IF you are so inclined.
G.Kleinschmidt said:
That's right. But if you don't mind I like to do it my way.
This means that before I launch any idea, no matter how simple, complex, far reaching or whatsoever, I always check the viability by means of simulation. In the case of your amp that will take a lot of time, which I don't have at this moment. Any objections?
Come on, stop play acting.
Have a nice day!
Cheers,
Edmond.
If somebody seriously want to tackle that the whole power consumption including production and recycling has to be considered.
I don't have much idea how much energy is needed to produce semiconductors, but probably much less than is needed to produce an aluminum enclosure.
Depending on usage it may be possible that simply using a wood or steel enclosure would reduce total energy consumption more than the energy efficiency of the amp can provide. Or use more output devices in parallel and mount them onto a steel heatsink.
By the way that's similar to a prominent car here; it features an alu body to reduce weight and fuel consumption. However due to the high energy consumption in the production a net benefit is maintainable only with high mileage, so that a lot of the usual customers are not going to benefit.
Of course I don't question that. A lot of the simplest ClassA amps fall into this category; I was more thinking along popular commercial amps that are cloned regularly
Thanks for pointing out that one
Have fun, Hannes
Can anybody tell me what I have done wrong?
syn08 said:
I know but won't tell
Speaking of things done wrong, when simulating your YAP OPS in the development phase, did you ever do a bode plot of your (uncompensated) Miller loop or investigate just how much distortion is actually being contributed by its input stage (each transistor of which sees the full output swing on its collector)?
Edmond Stuart said:
TMC works great in certain circumstances (and now I'm dead serious). This is not a good enough reason to use it, compensation has to match the base amp, not the other way around. Besides, I still have to see (measured, listened) an amp with TMC before investing in that concept. I can't afford to invest based on simulations only.
Just curious Glen, the simulations were telling you that your Kleinschmidt 25A is going to be stable with those output devices in parallel?
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1756221#post1756221
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