View Full Version : SB3 battery power
I've been running my Trends TA10.1 amp on a 12v motorbike battery for a while now, with very positive results. So I've been looking for a way to power my SB3 in a similar fashion. It occurred to me that 4 x Energizer AA cells might just do the trick. The ones I've got put out 1.25v each (5v in total) at a fairly healthy 2500mah so on paper at least they should work fine.
Anyone else tried this? Any potential pitfalls?
funkstar
2007-10-04, 14:27
This has been discussed in the Audiophile forum quite a bit. I dont know the details as those discussiions tend to get a little OTT for me.
Enough said. I'll toddle off quietly and see if it works.
I built a regulator using an LM317 and a 12 volt sealed lead acid battery (TO3 case as it does have to drop 12 volts down to 5 and so dissipates quite a lot of heat at 1 amp load) and found the results quite satisfying. If you want more details you can PM me.
Cheers
I'd suggest something other than lead acid .....I went to demo of the pink triangle dac many years ago ..there party peice was to hook it up to two sets of batteries one lead acid the other nickel hydride ? anyway the other one was used first and was dead silet and when the lead acid one was hooked up there was an audible hiss...which was explained as buble formation and bursting on the plates...
Peejay - PM sent.
Zanash - Interesting point, although I'm running my Trends amp on lead acid power and there's only the merest hint of a hiss from the tweeter at full whack. It's certainly a lot quieter than the Naim amp I was running previously, which I could hear hissing from across the room, not forgetting the transformer hum and occasional pick-up from a local cab firm :)
I think I'll give the energizer's a side by side comparison with lead acid and see what's what.
Maybe other battery type will be even quieter.....I've not builot any battery powered gear so have only the experience stated to go on....
tingtong5
2007-10-06, 07:22
Despite of the battery some regulators in the SB will generate AC again. So I wonder if using a battery will have any benefits... But of course trying won't harm anyone :P
Well I haven't got round to trying the lead acid power yet, but I can confirm that 4xAA Energizers works really well with the SB3. It's an improvement to the stock PSU, but pretty impractical for an evenings listening, unless you can be bothered to have a spare set on standby.
Still, it cost less than £10 including the batteries, and was dead easy to put together. Worth trying IMO.
now if you could build a charging unit into it so that when the sb3 is off the batteries could charge or have two sets one on charge and one running the unit and a simple switching device that would be worth looking at !
... I can confirm that 4xAA Energizers works really well with the SB3. ...
I have been thinking of a way to use my SB3 outdoors with my Shure earbuds. With a battery power supply, at least I could sit in the sun & enjoy the music until they get around to creating a portable Wifi receiver. Or is one available that would do the job. Anyone have any ideas?
I assume the batteries are simply run in series directly to the SB3. Four Ni-Mh batteries would give just about the right voltage, but would this work without damaging anything?
How about powering SB3 with solar power charger that usually output 5V? Is it going to perform as well as 4xAA? Is the 4xAA better than the original charger? Thanks.
singleended40
2007-11-21, 14:15
Hi Zanash,
Do you know or have any schematics at any websites to build the self charger for the SLA battery once you do not use your SB3 with a switch? Any help would be appreciate since I am looking to build one. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Tan
I have been thinking of a way to use my SB3 outdoors with my Shure earbuds. With a battery power supply, at least I could sit in the sun & enjoy the music until they get around to creating a portable Wifi receiver. Or is one available that would do the job. Anyone have any ideas?
I assume the batteries are simply run in series directly to the SB3. Four Ni-Mh batteries would give just about the right voltage, but would this work without damaging anything?
Any WiFi capable series 3 Nokia device _should_ act as a portable WiFi music player.
My Nokia N91 does it admirably. Saves all the messing around with batteries....
Look at http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39363&highlight=nokia
Cheers
Any WiFi capable series 3 Nokia device _should_ act as a portable WiFi music player.
Thanks peejay
Great idea, except that I don't have a cell phone (dinosaur). Rather listen to music than my boss giving me orders. ;-)
sorry no but there must be something on the web ?
Sorry to bring an old thread back to life, but I thought I'd share my findings on using 4 x AA batteries in place of standard PSU on SB3.
Before I start I know this will probably ignite the "if it was that easy Sean would have done it", "AA battreies don't work", or "it doesn't work because of xyz in the SB3 voltage circuit", but please bear with me.
This was very simple, all it took was 4 batteries, some wire, a spare DC connector, some solder, and a soldering iron.
I hate the audiophile terms bounded about and I'm not used to expressing them myself, but here goes.....all I can say is that it improved definition across the full range (bass is firmer, treble better defined, quiet bits seem quieter, all in all more "analogue"). It also added a certain weight to every track, so that when switching back to the standard PSU it sounded like a cheap CD player in comparsion.
How obvious were the improvements? Using blind A-B testing, I got 5 out of 5 right on 7 different tracks (that's 35 out of 35 in total)and gave up after that to enjoy the music.
Problems? The batteries only last a short time (45-60 minutes, so it's OK for a test but not a long term option unless rechargables are used). The other problem is that I'm now aware of the shortcomings, and notice it when listening with the standard PSU and therefore it's going to cost me in upgrades.
I was a bit concerned as some have pointed out previously that the "improvements" may have been due to RF from the PSU getting back into the amplifier via the mains cabling. i.e. it's not the SB3/PSU at fault but badly designed amplifier power supply. I did my best to try and resolve this by leaving the PSU plugged in, so any RF would still find it's way back if it was there in the first place. I'm using a standard Gainclone amp with normal power supply, so very basic and prime candidate to suffer if it was a problem. Result ? When using the batteries there's no obvious difference between having the PSU powered on or disconnected . I need to do closer tests to make sure, but the initial conclusion is that any RF generated doesn't effect my amplifier. It could be that the PSU doesn't generate RF when not under load, but I don't have the time or resources to easily prove one way or the other.
So thank you to both Zanash and Mousey for suggesting and trying the mod. I know some will dismiss this as "snake oil", but all I can say is try it. It's cheap and you haven't lost much if it doesn't improve things. To those on other threads saying AA batteries will not power an SB3, all I can say is it worked fine for me.
Time soon for another thread on PSU options.
Dave
Jitterbug
2008-04-09, 17:54
Very interesting experiment Dave.
Can I ask how you conducted the AB test, and critically was there any way for you to know which power source was being used? Also, I don't know what your setup was but could the volume levels have been different for A than B?
I don't mean to be overly skeptical; it's just that this is significant finding if the the test was truly blind.
Hi Jitterbug
No problem with the questions, one of the first things I thought of was "is it just louder".
The only way I could think to test it was to try turning up the worst sounding option to see if it would match the other option. All it did was go louder ! The increased volume didn't improve the smoothness and clarity I was hearing with the better option. So the batteries could have been louder, I've no real way for testing it, but turning up the volume didn't improve the sound. Hope that makes sense.
With regards how did I A/B it - I had the SB3 on a shelf so I couldn't see it and had both supplies hidden (and powered up) behind the SB3. Then set up a track, and used someone else to swap supplies (or not in some cases) when I'd heard enough. They noted which supply was used each time, as did I, then compared notes afterwards. The only drawback was that there was about a 15-30 second delay between swaps while the SB3 rebooted, but the difference was sufficient for me to detect it even after the pauses. We tried that process for 7 different tracks (all FLAC and NOT chosen because they are my favorites) to test if it was uniform across all types or if all it did was improve a certain aspect of the sound delivery -
Norah Jones - Don't Know
Everything but the Girl - Sugar Finney
George Michael - Jesus to a Child
Paul Weller - The Changing Man
Black Eyed Peas - Pump It
Air - La Femme d'Argent
Kate Bush - Experiment IV
As I mentioned before I wouldn't suggest anyone goes out and spends money on a new PSU based on my findings, I only suggest you try the cheap option of testing it yourselves.
Dave
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