Hey folks, I've got three digital Precision Power amps that I'd like to run a temporary home theater speaker setup with.
I know I can just grab a PC power supply to run a small amp, but what should I do about ~1200 watts?
This will be for front & rear speakers along with a pair of 15" vented subwoofer enclosures.
I'm in the USA.
The source will be my HTPC computer with a Sound Blaster "Z" audio card (3.5mm x3 output for 5.1 audio).
I know I can just grab a PC power supply to run a small amp, but what should I do about ~1200 watts?
This will be for front & rear speakers along with a pair of 15" vented subwoofer enclosures.
I'm in the USA.
The source will be my HTPC computer with a Sound Blaster "Z" audio card (3.5mm x3 output for 5.1 audio).
quite simple, get a larger truck battery, hook em up and good to go.
allso grab an automatic charger. before you turn your system on, simply disconnect the charger. and when you are done with your movie, re-connect the charger.
allso grab an automatic charger. before you turn your system on, simply disconnect the charger. and when you are done with your movie, re-connect the charger.
For one: Don't. At least, don't power them at full power with a wanky pc power supply.
If you do want to do it, get yourself some beefy LINEAR Power Supplies that can handle all the amps. Just because switch mode power supplies can and WILL blow up in your face when parallelled. Because, you just don't. If you do have to use switch mode ones, use switch mode psu's from the same make, same batch, same date. Preferrably server psu's that are MEANT to be able to be ran parallel. Barevids did it. Loud junk though.
Your sub won't need 1200watts (probably peak though-) to be home theatre ready, right?
Hope this is a bit of help.
If you do want to do it, get yourself some beefy LINEAR Power Supplies that can handle all the amps. Just because switch mode power supplies can and WILL blow up in your face when parallelled. Because, you just don't. If you do have to use switch mode ones, use switch mode psu's from the same make, same batch, same date. Preferrably server psu's that are MEANT to be able to be ran parallel. Barevids did it. Loud junk though.
Your sub won't need 1200watts (probably peak though-) to be home theatre ready, right?
Hope this is a bit of help.
Math says.. 100 amp supply @ 12 v.d.c. You're gonna need every bit of that during an action scene..
Probably not, as the 1200W will be mostly imaginary - but still, a truck battery (or even a decent car battery) with a charger is likely to be the cheapest option.
I agree. The stated/rated power is usually half. (The big sham) But still, during action scenes, the 3 amplifiers would still require at least ~50 amps, I'm sure, with the subs being the power hogs..
I seriously don't believe a car battery would last a whole movie..
I´ve done just what you are asking.
I connected two equal computer PSUs together in paralell to get a total of 12v 60A. It worked like a dream, but I would rather recommend to get yourself a server PSU. They can often deliver 12v up to 120A+ (1440W) so plenty of power. Many people in the RC community uses these server PSUs to charge their batteries etc. Search around, there´s a lot of good info on them, and a lot of then floating round on ebay. You might even be lucky to scrap one form an old server form the dump 🙂
I connected two equal computer PSUs together in paralell to get a total of 12v 60A. It worked like a dream, but I would rather recommend to get yourself a server PSU. They can often deliver 12v up to 120A+ (1440W) so plenty of power. Many people in the RC community uses these server PSUs to charge their batteries etc. Search around, there´s a lot of good info on them, and a lot of then floating round on ebay. You might even be lucky to scrap one form an old server form the dump 🙂
for 1000s of watts, search on 2rd hand sale sites like evilbay for server power supplys. like DPS-something. look for instructions on how to active them on https://www.rcgroups.com .
I'm back to this project again.
Sent some feelers out for a server PSU that is >1400W.
Prices are pretty cheap on eBay for something like this!
I wish I could go with home theater receiver & home theater amps.
But my budget is negative one million dollars right now. 😀
Have three digital amps plus a MiniDSP 2x8 board and an HTPC with USB-DAC with optical output to MiniDSP will be the source.
Wish I could just install it all in the car, but time & budget aren't aligning.
Sent some feelers out for a server PSU that is >1400W.
Prices are pretty cheap on eBay for something like this!
I wish I could go with home theater receiver & home theater amps.
But my budget is negative one million dollars right now. 😀
Have three digital amps plus a MiniDSP 2x8 board and an HTPC with USB-DAC with optical output to MiniDSP will be the source.
Wish I could just install it all in the car, but time & budget aren't aligning.
For 12V, just build a PSU. I bought one off of eBay that somebody had cobbled together for a ham radio supply a while back, took it apart, rebuilt it for 12V, and currently run my subs on a MTX amp. All it takes is a large transformer, solid-state bridge rectifier, and some plenty-big capacitors (easy to find these days). That will give you a plenty stiff power supply for audio.
Wait, >1400W is likely to be an auto-sensing 120V/240V PSU.
Which means on 120V it'll be a 700W PSU.
hmm.
Which means on 120V it'll be a 700W PSU.
hmm.
In the practical world, there's no such thing as "auto-sensing". Especially at higher power levels, what they WILL have is active PFC (which takes whatever input voltage you feed it, and after rectifying and filtering it, boosts it up to 385V DC or so, which then goes into the SMPS itself).
It's not an automatic "kachunk-kachunk" switch (like the manual ones on active-PFC-less power supplies, which only do a bit of re-wiring to create a voltage doubler for 120V mains powering).
So at 120v, you'll be actually limited by the breaker / mains wiring 😉
That being said, i'd second the idea of one (smaller) power supply for each amplifier. Either way, it would be arguably a bit more efficient to not have all the amplifiers in one place, in order to minimize the length of speaker wiring (ie. have the amps as close to the speakers they're powering, as possible). And that goes double for the PSU-to-amp cabling...
It's not an automatic "kachunk-kachunk" switch (like the manual ones on active-PFC-less power supplies, which only do a bit of re-wiring to create a voltage doubler for 120V mains powering).
So at 120v, you'll be actually limited by the breaker / mains wiring 😉
That being said, i'd second the idea of one (smaller) power supply for each amplifier. Either way, it would be arguably a bit more efficient to not have all the amplifiers in one place, in order to minimize the length of speaker wiring (ie. have the amps as close to the speakers they're powering, as possible). And that goes double for the PSU-to-amp cabling...
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