Trends Audio T-amp and 12 volt dc car battery, how?

I've been looking into the Trends Audio T-amp of late.

I was curious if anybody is using the Trends Audio T-amp with a 12 volt car battery?

If so, where do you get the cable that goes from the 12 V batteries red and black terminals to the T-amp? Or it is a DIY job?

jaspal.

 

If I were you I would just use a highly regulated mains supply. Batteries are often more noisy.

 

Have you any links to some?

- jaspal

 

There are a fair number about. I did just realise I have a PSU I could easily make in to a 12v over-spec’ed regulated supply though. It would work a treat. I first built it when experimenting with modifications for the DEQ2496.

If you are easy enough to post to then send me a PM and I'll see what I can do. I would want a bit of money for it, but not a lot.

 

It'll be a DIY job.

BTW car batteries are 12v nominal, but13.8v fully charged, 14.5 - 15.2v under charge...which do you want? Tenson's right, a simple regulated mains-powered PSU is the way to go for things not mounted in a car. Most ham radio runs on 13.8v - so there' s a cheap source of regulated, high-power PSUs to investigate...

 

Also those printer switch mode psu 's that got some coverage.....

don't use car batteries .....you can hear the bubbles popping as a back ground hiss.

much better are the smaller sealed [gel type?] that rs do ....but a good simple linear is going to be hard to beat..

 

Try thunderpole.co.uk ,CB radio specialists I got their 3.5A 12V power supply.

 

Ok, thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

However, I still would like to know as per my original question:

"where do you get the cable that goes from the 12 V batteries red and black terminals to the T-amp? Or it is a DIY job?"

Also, so any 12 v car battery is bad? I been given advice that the Optima 12v red top battery (spiral cell) is a good choice. Btw, I know yes it's expensive if bought new.

Infact I would like, for my curiosity, to try the 12v car battery and some of the suggestions that have been made in this thread... it would be interesting.

Keep the suggestions, it opens up my mind to other possibilities

Edit1: Would it be worth asking about batteries, power supplies, in the DIY section of zerogain?

- jaspal.

Edit2: Have any of you lot tried stuff from http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/ ?

 

Cheers!

What do you use if for, CB radio?

 

Stinger make the best batteries, which is what I happen to use. Optima are mid range and ofter their sizes don't fit some applications.

 

OK, I'll add my 2 pen'orth.

The Sonic Impact is known to tolerate a supply of 13.8v. As far as I know the Trends has a very similar Tripath chipset so hopefully is similar in that regard. As the battery discharges, the voltage drops and at some point will become insufficient for the amp to operate. The only advantage of a car battery over a small gel type is the length of time between charges. If long life is important you may actually prefer to use a caravan type leisure battery - the amplifier shouldn't need the massive current that a car requires to spin the starter motor.

Have a read up on Red Wine Audio products. This guy has made a speciality of battery power. His products have the baterries inside and a switching circuit which disconnects the mains supply when listening, and charges up the battery when the amp is off. I have a RWA 'Clari-T' which is equivalent to the Trends in output and the noise floor is non existent - no noise - just black silence.

Before buying the Clari-T (from another member here) I experimented with the SI and used a battery power pack I bought at Lidl. It has a plastic case and a webbing carry strap, but comes with a selection of connectors (bound to be one to fit the Trends I guess) and a charger. If they do them this year it could be any time now. Cost 2 years ago was 15 quid!

I have since bought (used) a Teac A-L700P modded by RWA for 2 channel, battery powered and modded to the gills. Sounds superb, and a Monica DAC also battery powered and housed in a case identical to the Clari-T.

So, you could say I am keen on battery power!

If you want to stick with the big battery, you should be able to get a plug to fit the Trends at Maplins. Choose a length of cable which is small enough to comfortably fit the barrel of the plug and the DIY involved is limited to the soldering of the barrel connector.

Switch mode power supplies for 12 v applications are widely available - search for tripath on ebay) and are also used (I think) for gain clones. They may deliver a reasonable power source to the amp, but the hash they spew can play havoc with your source unless you have fancy filtering, sheilding and so on - the battery is much simpler and can be less expensive.

Let us know how it sounds.

Jim

 

I couldn't find much info via google about them in Europe to be honest. So I may to stick with Optima or Exide.

Do you live in the US?

 

Switch mode can have some high frequency noise but then batteries can produce a fair amount of noise under load as well. Neither are ideal IMO. Thats why I suggested a good mains PSU. The one I have here and offered to Jaspal is a torroidal type with rectifier, filtering and regulation which I think would be the best bet for this application - low noise, high current delivery and no need to charge up.

 

Sonic Impact Super T has a battery cable

It looks like the Sonic Impact Super T amp comes with a ready made cable for battery operation. That's what I'm looking for actually. You can see it in this link:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/ebaypics/si5062a.jpg

I've read that their battery cable has a fuse in it. Can anybody what the fuse would be for?
Btw, I have zero DIY skills, so soldering is not on my horizon.

I'm not about to get that T-amp; I was just pointing out the cable I was after.

Anyway thanks for the replies ... got me thinking although I'm still curious to try battery power first. Btw my long term plans are to get the BYOB amp and dac that run off a battery. That's what got be started about battery power.

 

You might like to read this, starting a little way down the page with alkaline batteries - http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/regulators_noise4_e.html

As it shows, Alkaline non-rechargeable batteries are pretty good, on par with a 2 stage high quality regulator. (The blue trace is a standard 3 pin regulator for comparison)

NiCd is not very good, since it has high low frequency noise.

Lead Acid is good under very low load but gets very noisy under load.

So in summery, use non-rechargeable alkaline batteries or don’t bother at all.

 

Maplin have some regulated 1200mA variable voltage supplies for £7.49 this month. They're large and heavy and look like pre-switch mode laptop 'bricks'. I just bought 4 as spares for work.

They come with different sizes of low voltage plug to fit most socket and have reversible polarity for these.

I might try one on my P75...

 

Maplin portable car starter - fits the bill

From another thread in the Review Section then someone is using a "Maplin portable car starter £19.99". It's a battery and charge all in one and it comes with the right bits to connect directly to the Trends TA 10.1 amp.

I live in Sweden but I remember seeing a similar one here.

Thanks to "ADPully" for the above info.

jaspal.

 

Additional Info on portable unit battery Is called a Nikkai 3-in-1 Jump starter.

The 12v lead to connect directly into the rear of the TA-10 is supplied with the charger

Just searched again - Price is now up to £29.99 sorry (Im glad I bought 2 of them when I saw them)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=jump starter&source=15&SD=Y

Under battery conditions the TA-10 is much warmer and organic

I have seen a QED digit DAC advertised for £45 old new stock - This uses 12v also


Andy