Battery for Power?

[Viola_Player]

We all go to various lengths to provide clean AC power to our equipment in order to improve the quality of the DC power which is actually used. Years ago I helped design a power system for an electron beam write tool which requires VERY high quality power. We used motor generator sets to create 400 Hz AC power which is much easier to filter to get very pure DC. However, the backup power was simply a building full of 12 volt car batteries. Given the "real" power consumption of solid state equipment (I don't know enough about tube equipment) eight car batteries (plus / minus 48 volts) should be adequate. It would easily source one hundred amps for the duration we need it for. If you were really concerned you could put a capacitor to cover the transients. Throw in some charging circuitry set up so the equipment never sees it and it would seem to me to be a simple, if physically large, solution. Comments?

 

Thanks

 

Ray

 

[PorkChop]

Maybe DC as a home power source will be more practical with future advances in fuel cells for power generation and nanotechnology to enhance power storage.

 

... though I suppose people with solar panels already have a bulky system for DC power storage. As it becomes more common you would think a demand would emerge for amplifiers that could accept high voltage DC directly.

 

[winst]

Great idea,

but the chemical activity within the cells create quite a bit of noise which will still need good caps to clean up

Winst

 

[ferenc]

I am using some of Charles Altmann's products, (Attraction DAC, BYOB amp, Creation ADC and the new phono amp) in one my systems almost five years ago. If you have the right speaker it is one of the very best, most relaxed but very dynamic at the same time system you can buy for the price and completely off the grid, do not have to deal with power cables. It was developed to be driven from car battery, not something which is originally developed for AC power, than converted to battery driven.

 

You can buy a spiral cell car battery and you can run a complete system for a week or so without charging. This kind of system has a freedom and musicality which is really rare in high-end audio. The Altmann Attraction DAC is a very clever product anyway, using FPGA for SPDIF duties and has a very clever jitter reduction mechanism, called Jisco. We even built a similar concept battery driven CD transport for the system, my boss is using it in the office system :-)

 

 

[bordin]

A shunt regulator should also be a very clean power supply source, particularly without the issues of voltage drop and impedance-related noise.

 

TNT-Audio have done some comparisons.

 

Link > Two-transistor Shunt Regulator v.s. Batteries

 

Lead battery noise

 

 

 

..However, increasing load current to 35 mA yields the light blue trace for the battery: at least 20dB worse than the regulator!..

 

 

[ferenc]

Spiral cell car batteries are the quietest and most powerful of all car batteries and the only power supply which comes close and comparable are from Paul Hynes, I tried lots of them. They are very good and cost few times more than a spiral cell battery.

 

After living with Altmann DACs and BYOB amp for roughly 5 year I just could not find any way to power them, which is better than the spiral cell batteries. Only the Paul Hynes PS comes close, but they are way more expensive than the spiral cell car batteries. So to be honest I really do not mind what TNT's measurement shows, I know what I like

 

The Charles Altmann solution shows a freedom and music flow which is just about impossible to reach for the same price using on the grid supply. We even built a similar transport for getting a complete, car battery driven system .