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Hi Legis,
The amp/hour capacity of the single 12v battery and the triple 6v batteries (total 18v) was the same: 7 amp/hours. No caps were used, just the batteries direct. So, yes, I was comparing apples and apples (or amp/hours).
I don't suggest a 24v system, that's getting close to the upper limit of the 3116 and it doesn't like that much voltage (degrades sound quality). I run it at 22v sometimes with a 24v SMPS adjusted down to that level (the minimum the 24v supply can deliver), but even at 22v I think there is some degradation. Better to stay below 21v, according to many reports here. Three 6v batteries in series yields over 19v when fully charged and that works well it seems.
Yes, a regulator would drop the voltage but now you have more "stuff" in between the amp and the battery that in my view will only get in the way and limit the instantaneous current the battery can deliver (and one of the nice things about a battery, aside from its absolutely pure DC, and its isolation from the ever-noisier AC power mains - is its ability to deliver massive amounts of instantaneous current better than probably anything else).
The only pain in the neck is having to charge the batteries when not in use. I disconnect the charger when in use and when fully charged. Worry about contamination of the pure DC from the noisy charger.
Hope this info helps. Others may have their own experience that they can provide.
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Oh, I'm using 12 gauge wire to connect the batteries, very short runs of less than 1.5 feet or so total. And for safety I have fused each battery with a 20 amp inline fuse - don't want the power supply turning into an incendiary device or bomb. Just want it to be "the bomb" in sound quality.
I've used two Sure TPA3116 boards in a two way active speakers configuration powered by a Najda DSP.
The sound was really good after doing the OSCON mods.
The boards were powered by a 19V 4.74A 90W Watt AC/DC Power Adapter that they also sell, less noisy than the laptop PSU I've used before. IMHO the 3116 is just enough for the bass section in a three way, so i'm planning to build two Dug-s TPA3116 PTBL board for this section. Speakers are now in a passive configuration before they wil go to their final destination 🙂
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I think you guys are worrying too much about instantaneous current of the battery of power supply. The OSCON's sit right next to the power input pins of the 3116 (which, btw, are three tiny circa 26 gauge(?) leads coming of the chip). The OSCON's have 11 milliohm ESR and it is this cap that provides the current for the transient peaks. I agree 19v is better than 12v for driving woofers or dynamic material. What is ESR of a battery?
Caps don't propably hold enough energy for transients and the remainder has to come from somewhere? I have used 90,000µF filter caps in my current TA2024 setup, and they power one amp board for ~4 seconds if played softly, but at loud SPL the amp shuts down instantly after unplugging the battery. Good AGM car batteries have ESR of 3-4 milliohms.
Can anyone tell me if they are having any problems running two boards off of one power supply? I have a 20amp Astron PS that hums when two TPA3116 boards are connected, even though only one board at a time has power running to it. Disconnect one of the boards and the hum disappears. Previously, I had another hum issue with this PS that disappeared only when I stopped using the earth/common. I fear I may need a new one.
I have used two boards with one laptop SMPS no problem. You may be having a ground loop issue. Isolate your PS ground from your source or preamp ground.
My vote for stock goes to the Sure 3116. The Oscons improve it, but it sounds nice as is. A very listenable all around performer.
I really like the YBDZ...except for its turn on thump, which is the worst I have heard out of all the boards I have tried. I use it in my garage system, but am careful to lower the volume upon start up.
For me, the Audiobah is worst, in the sense that its bass output seems weak--I hear, rather than feel its bass. It is a shame, as the midrange & treble are great. It is also the quietest on turn on and off.
So I performed some modding on Sure 3116 board in hopes of getting rid of the annoying turn off pop.
First I removed the suspicious double diodes (marked TVS1 & TSV2) and some other component connected to inputs (RV1, RV2 and two resistors). Not much happened, turn off pop was still there.
Next was time to remove C7 and C22 from output side as recommended by irribeo. Finally I'm going to turn the board to PBTL-mode, so shorting outputs would have rendered these caps useless anyway. A little SQ improvement might have been perceived on high freqs.
Following same principle as with caps I removed bridge rectifiers. Sound didn't change, at least not to worst.
Finally added Oscons. Turn off pop got just a little smaller. 😕 I guess also dynamics where improved.
After all this torture board still has the turn off pop. There is no turn on pop and never was (lucky me). Any ideas how to get rid off the turn off pop without using a switch on mute or SDZ pins?
When I get the second board, I will do a little comparison between stock and tortured board before turning both to PBTL.
First I removed the suspicious double diodes (marked TVS1 & TSV2) and some other component connected to inputs (RV1, RV2 and two resistors). Not much happened, turn off pop was still there.
Next was time to remove C7 and C22 from output side as recommended by irribeo. Finally I'm going to turn the board to PBTL-mode, so shorting outputs would have rendered these caps useless anyway. A little SQ improvement might have been perceived on high freqs.
Following same principle as with caps I removed bridge rectifiers. Sound didn't change, at least not to worst.
Finally added Oscons. Turn off pop got just a little smaller. 😕 I guess also dynamics where improved.
After all this torture board still has the turn off pop. There is no turn on pop and never was (lucky me). Any ideas how to get rid off the turn off pop without using a switch on mute or SDZ pins?
When I get the second board, I will do a little comparison between stock and tortured board before turning both to PBTL.
Attachments
A turn off pop is expected, turn off crack Sure seems different, filmcaps on input also don't change that, is it just different because decoupling is so much different (decoupling seems inspired by higher (hundreds) Mhz designs) ?
Hi All,
First time working with a DIY amp, and plan to mod it over the christmas period.
However, on initial hook-up, I noticed a few issues where I need guidance in.
My inputs are currently coming straight from PC onboard soundcard.
The amount of modulation on the Potentiometer from low to a reasonable listening level is fairly non-existent (less than 60 degrees travel).
Will there be problems if I swap out the resistors to change the gain to the lowest 20db?
Additionally, I seem to be getting a slight hiss that increases and decreases with volume.
This is more noticeable when nothing is playing from the source.
(And still persists when input plugs are disconnected from the amp)
What could be the cause of this?
Any insight to these two issues would be much appreciated. 🙂
First time working with a DIY amp, and plan to mod it over the christmas period.
However, on initial hook-up, I noticed a few issues where I need guidance in.
My inputs are currently coming straight from PC onboard soundcard.
The amount of modulation on the Potentiometer from low to a reasonable listening level is fairly non-existent (less than 60 degrees travel).
Will there be problems if I swap out the resistors to change the gain to the lowest 20db?
Additionally, I seem to be getting a slight hiss that increases and decreases with volume.
This is more noticeable when nothing is playing from the source.
(And still persists when input plugs are disconnected from the amp)
What could be the cause of this?
Any insight to these two issues would be much appreciated. 🙂
no problems with lowered gain also less hiss, you don't mention ampboard but if 3116 2.0 just remove left, usually 100k resistor, you don't need to change right resistor to 5.6k.
without input/open input poweramp has more noise
without input/open input poweramp has more noise
I see many of you are talking about hissing noise even at 20db gain setting. Are these amps usable with >110dB/w sensitive comp drivers? Does 3110 hiss less than 3116?
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It may be that the higher voltage trumps the lower voltage, rather than the power supply itself.
To me, with only 12v to 14v the 3116 amps sound constricted dynamically and with respect to imaging. They open up around 18v to 19v. However, I prefer the 18v to 19v range to the higher voltages.
My current favorite power supply is an 18v battery (which runs over 19v fully charged - actually three 6v batteries in series).
Lower voltage easily trump higher voltage, more batteries might be better PSU, ampbehavior different speakerloads might require different PSU
Cheers mate. Yep I have the 2.0 board. The revised version of the Breeze 2.0 amp.
Yep it seems to have a 39k and 100k resistor on the board.
I will try lowering gain then to see if the hiss is brought down as well.
The hiss seems to be not dependent on whether input is plugged in or not, or whether there is an audio signal or not. It just increases as I increase volume.