And what did we buy today?

I bought one of these at our local "Value Village" on 30% off Tuesday, it was marked $13.99

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220 only, but what intrigued me was the 12V input on the back. It ran on 110, but was louder at the same settings using the 12V input - even with a weak, not quite 12V battery. I opened it up and removed the 220 / 18-0-18 torroidal power transformer to save weight. Figuring it would be some class D job with all surface mount, I was surprised to find 4 discrete output transistors each with a big leaded emitter resistor. I also believe it actually has a switching converter to convert 12 to +/- 18. They even bothered to protect it with a diode, should someone mix up red and black.

No statement of power output in the manual, but in the ad I photocropped above, it says 1200W / ch. ;') Another one of these "Magic" devices like George's floodlight, it outputs 2400W with only a 5A rating on the 12V input.

As much work as the fellas in China put into this (they provided a discrete cement filled plastic foundation for the power tranny, I assume to reduce hum) I wish they'd spec things better. There's a whole table of 'em, but nothing useful like the actual power output - and, the voltage range on that 12V input. I'd like to know if it could tolerate 4 18650 batteries at full charge, ~17V. I suppose I could open it up again and see if any electrolytic cap across the 12V is 16V...
 
It is common here, FM module with SD Card / USB inputs, and the most common chip used is the 4440, about 15W/channel from Chinese chips, and a 0-12 supply, 7805 to drive the module.
A connection to the rectifier for outside 12V, the only thing that would worry me is the 17V may be too much for the 7805, so the $1.50 module would be damaged.
It is used by many vehicles, like trucks and buses, even tractors (!) for music...
And a new use is to stream the sound from cell phone, and watch the show on phone, people do that with kids on long trips...use phone as internet device for music as well.

A series of these are available, progressing with 2030 chips, then STK 4141, 5200/1943, 'Mosfet' (80N80) and upwards, most amps have the module now, you can also use Bluetooth...
Starts about US$10 here for the lowest powered one, and my car has a 12V only version, $5.00...and it has a big diode in series to prevent wrong polarity inside.
 
I just received delivery of my Alctron Phantom Power Supply to use with my
recently purchased Behringer ECM8000 measurement microphone.
Gearing-up for the building & measuring of my first DML speaker project.
(still waiting on other 'back ordered' items > how frustrating)
 
I bought my son a guitar for Xmas; a Epiphone by Gibson AJ18SLH. He plays left, which means I can find and buy these more easily, as there's less competition from the all the right hand players - like me.

Just got it yesterday, still in the box. I hope he likes it.

His birthday is in January, so I got him another "Epiphone by Gibson" but a PR350SLH. So I'm all set for him for this time of year.

I get things like a bar of soap...strings...a clip-on tuner. Oh well!
 
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I bought a Art rackmount tube vactrol stereo compressor, as I only had the single pedal sized one. $50 off the 'bay, arrived today in nice shape and working correctly. I made cables for it, so I could get it in between the preamps and the rest of my mixer on a couple channels.
 
A used Vollrath 10qt mixer for $800. Hard to find a review I could trust beforehand, some references to it as an established brand, and some references to it as crap Chinese current production. Hopefully can get some Christmas goodies baked by my MIL whichever is true.