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I’ve got a nice power supply hanging around... looking for an amp!

lattiboy

Well-Known Member
Hey there everybody,

I got a ZeroZone O1-A for free recently in a trade. I don’t currently have any chip amps around, so I was looking for the most powerful stereo, decent sounding chip amp this 30VA bad boy could drive. I would prefer a power amp, but I don’t see too many of those in the chip amp form factor.


Thanks!
 
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According to the factory rep the Volt+D can be powered by a supply of 31v or less. This was news to me as I thought 24v was it's limit.
 
There are quite a few different chip-type amps, boards anyway. Most of the assembled units seem to have level controls - although I suspect they could be easily bypassed.

What I'd do is find a few likely candidates then find the chip manufacturer's datasheet. Those data sheets normally have graphs in them showing output power vs. supply voltage.

Personally, I'd think there wouldn't be much difference between them in terms of power at a given load impedance for a given supply voltage. You might see a meaningful difference if you look at PBTL vs BTL configurations but you only get the higher potential power of PBTL if your speakers are low impedance. The graphs in the datasheets will show you that.

The power supply you mention shows 12V as the output so that's what you need to go by when looking at the datasheets. Then, once you find the power point you have to then consider if the 2A current rating of the power supply can actually support that power level.

For one example, the TPA3116 (using the 1% THD figures) -

With 12V power supply you can get roughly 8wpc @ 8 ohms or roughly 15wpc @ 4 ohms.

Your power supply current rating of 2A could support the 8 ohm rating as that would require ~2A current for rated output. However, while the chip is capable of 15wpc @ 4 ohms using 12V supply, the 12V supply you have would struggle with that rated output because it needs ~4 amps from the power supply.
 
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There are quite a few different chip-type amps, boards anyway. Most of the assembled units seem to have level controls - although I suspect they could be easily bypassed.

What I'd do is find a few likely candidates then find the chip manufacturer's datasheet. Those data sheets normally have graphs in them showing output power vs. supply voltage.

Personally, I'd think there wouldn't be much difference between them in terms of power at a given load impedance for a given supply voltage. You might see a meaningful difference if you look at PBTL vs BTL configurations but you only get the higher potential power of PBTL if your speakers are low impedance. The graphs in the datasheets will show you that.

The power supply you mention shows 12V as the output so that's what you need to go by when looking at the datasheets. Then, once you find the power point you have to then consider if the 2A current rating of the power supply can actually support that power level.

For one example, the TPA3116 (using the 1% THD figures) -

With 12V power supply you can get roughly 8wpc @ 8 ohms or roughly 15wpc @ 4 ohms.

Your power supply current rating of 2A could support the 8 ohm rating as that would require ~2A current for rated output. However, while the chip is capable of 15wpc @ 4 ohms using 12V supply, the 12V supply you have would struggle with that rated output because it needs ~4 amps from the power supply.

Ok, so I gather this isn’t really a terribly powerful psu. What would be the best application for it in your estimation? A DAC or pre? Im completely uninformed about psu ratings and qualities.
 
2A current I'd think would be plenty for a DAC or preamp, but you'd need to see the voltage compatibility.

Got a Topping D30(?) a while back, that came with a 15V, 1A PSU.

That power supply might serve your needs for a chip amp. All depends what you want/need for power. 8 watts can make a lot of noise even if the speakers aren't super sensitive. Just depends on your goals/target.
 
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